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II

WITCHCRAFT

513

deities preside over rivers, tanks, wells and springs, and it is believed that when offended they cause people who bathe in the water to be attacked by leprosy and skin diseases. Even the low swampy rice-fields are haunted by separate spirits. Deswāli is the god of the village, and he lives with his wife in the Sarna or sacred grove, a patch of the primeval forest left intact to afford a refuge for the forest gods. Every village has its own Deswali, who is held responsible for the crops, and receives an offering of a buffalo at the agricultural festival. The Jubbulpore Kols have entirely abandoned their tribal gods and now worship Hindu deities. Devi is their favourite goddess, and they carry her iron tridents about with them wherever they go. Twice in the year, when the baskets of wheat or Gardens of Adonis are sown in the name of Devi, she descends on some of her worshippers, and they become possessed and pierce their cheeks with the trident, sometimes leaving it in the face for hours, with one or two men standing beside to support it. When the trident is taken out a quid of betel is given to the wounded man, and the part is believed to heal up at These Kols also employ Brahmans for their cereBefore sowing their fields they say—

once.

monies.

Thuiya, Bhuiya, Dharti Mata, Thakur Deo, Bhainsa
Sur; khub paida kariye Mahārāj ;

that is, they invoke Mother Earth, Thakur Deo, the corn-
god, and Bhainsāsur, the buffalo demon, to give them good
crops; and as they say this they throw a handful of grain
in the air in the name of each god.

craft.

"Among the Hos," Colonel Dalton states, "all disease 13. Witchin men or animals is attributed to one of two causes- -the wrath of some evil spirit who has to be appeased, or the spell of some witch or sorcerer who should be destroyed or driven out of the land. In the latter case a sokha or witchfinder is employed to ascertain who has cast the spell, and various methods of divination are resorted to. In former times the person denounced and all his family were put to death in the belief that witches breed witches and sorcerers. The taint is in the blood. When, during the Mutiny, 1 Thuiya, Bhuiya is a mere jingle.

VOL. III

2 L

14. Funeral rites.

Singhbhum District was left for a short time without officers, a terrible raid was made against all who had been suspected for years of dealing with the evil one, and the most atrocious murders were committed. Young men were told off for the duty by the elders; neither age nor sex were spared. When order was restored, these crimes were brought to light, and the actual perpetrators punished; and since then we have not only had no recurrence of witch murders, but the superstition itself is dying out in the Kolhān." Mr. H. C. Streatfeild states that among the Mundas witches used to be hung head downwards from a pīpal tree over a slow fire, the whole village dancing as they were gradually roasted, but whether this ceremony was purely vindictive or had any other significance there is nothing to show.1

The Hos of Chota Nagpur were accustomed to place large slabs of stone as tombstones over their graves, and a collection of these massive gravestones indelibly marks the site of every Ho or Mundāri village, being still found in parts of the country where there have been no Kols for ages. In addition to this slab, a megalithic monument is set up to the deceased in some conspicuous spot outside the village; the pillars vary in height from five or six to fifteen feet, and apparently fragments of rock of the most fantastic shape are most favoured. All the clothes, ornaments and agricultural implements of the dead man were buried with the body. The funeral rites were of a somewhat touching character:2 "When all is ready, a funeral party collects in front of the deceased's house, three or four men with very deep-toned drums, and a group of about eight young girls. The chief mourner comes forth, carrying the bones exposed on a decorated tray, and behind him the girls form two rows, carrying empty or broken pitchers or battered brass vessels, while the men with drums bring up the rear. The procession advances with a ghostly dancing movement, slow and solemn as a minuet, in time to the beat of the deep-toned drums, not straight forward, but mysteriously gliding—now right, now left, now marking time, all in the same mournful cadence. In this manner the remains are taken to the house of every friend and relative 1 J.A.S.B., No. 1 of 1903, p. 31. 2 Dalton, ibidem.

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INHERITANCE

515

of the deceased within a circle of a few miles, and to every house in the village. As the procession approaches each house in the manner described, the inmates all come out, and the tray having been placed on the ground at their door, they kneel over it and mourn. The bones are also thus conveyed to all his favourite haunts, the fields he cultivated, the grove he planted, the tank he excavated, the threshing-floor where he worked with his people, the Akhāra or dancing-arena where he made merry with them, and each spot which is hallowed with reminiscences of the deceased draws forth fresh tears." In Sambalpur1 the dead body of a Munda is washed in wine before interment, and a mark of vermilion is made on the forehead. The mourners drink wine sitting by the grave. They then bathe, and catch a small fish and roast it on a fire, smearing their hands with oil and warming them at the fire. It would appear that this last rite is a purification of the hands after contact with the dead body, but whether the fish is meant to represent the deceased and the roasting of it is a substitute for the rite of cremation is not clear. During the eight days of mourning the relatives abstain from flesh-meat, but they eat fish. The Kols of Jubbulpore now bury or burn the dead, and observe mourning exactly like ordinary Hindus.

Succession among the Mundas passes to sons only. 15. InheritFailing these, the property goes to the father or brothers if ance. any. At partition the eldest son as a rule gets a slightly larger share than the other sons, a piece of land, and in well-to-do families a yoke of plough cattle, or only a bullock or a goat, and sometimes a bundle of paddy weighing from IO to 16 maunds.2 Partition cannot usually be made till the youngest son is of age. Daughters get no share in the inheritance, and are allotted among the sons just like livestock. Thus if a man dies leaving three sons and three daughters and thirty head of cattle, on a division each son would get ten head of cattle and one sister; but should there be only one sister, they wait till she marries and divide the bride-price. A father may, however, in his lifetime make presents of cash or movables to a daughter, 1 Mr. B. C. Mazumdār's Monograph. 2 Roy, ibidem, p. 428.

16. Physi

ance.

though not of land.. It is doubtful whether these rules still obtain among the Hinduised Kols.

"The Mundas," Colonel Dalton states, "are one of the cal appear finest of the aboriginal tribes. The men average something like 5 feet 6 inches, and many of them are remarkably well developed and muscular. Their skin is of the darkest brown, almost black in many cases, and their features coarse, with broad flat noses, low foreheads and thick lips, presenting as a rule a by no means prepossessing appearance. The women

17. Dances.

The head-dress is the
The long black hair is

are often more pleasing, the coarseness of the features being
less accentuated or less noticeable on account of the extreme
good-nature and happy carelessness that seldom fail to mark
their countenance. They are fond of ornament, and a group
of men and girls fully decked out for a festival makes a fine
show. Every ornament in the shape of bead necklace, silver
collar, bracelet, armlet and anklet would seem to have been
brought out for the occasion.
crowning point of the turn-out.
gathered up in a big coil, most often artificially enlarged,
the whole being fastened at the right-hand side of the
back of the head just on a level with and touching the
right ear. In this knot are fastened all sorts of ornaments
of brass and silver, and surmounting it, stuck in every
available space, are gay plumes of feathers that nod and
wave bravely with the movements of the dance. The ears
are distorted almost beyond recognition by huge earrings
that pierce the lobe and smaller ones that ornament them
all round." In Mandla women are tattooed with the figure
of a man or a man on horseback, and on the legs behind
also with the figure of a man. They are not tattooed on
the face. Men are never tattooed.

"Dancing is the inevitable accompaniment of every gathering, and they have a great variety suitable to the special times and seasons. The motion is slow and graceful, a monotonous sing-song being kept up all through. The steps are in perfect time and the action wonderfully even and regular. This is particularly noticeable in some of the variations of the dances representing the different seasons and the necessary acts of cultivation that each brings with it. In one the dancers bending down make a motion with their

II

SOCIAL RULES AND OFFENCES

517

hands as though they were sowing the grain, keeping step with their feet all the time. Then come the reaping of the crop and the binding of the sheaves, all done in perfect time and rhythm, and making with the continuous droning of the voices a quaint and picturesque performance." In the Central Provinces the Kols now dance the Karma dance of the Gonds, but they dance it in more lively fashion. The step consists simply in advancing or withdrawing one foot and bringing the other up or back beside it. The men and women stand opposite each other in two lines, holding hands, and the musicians alternately face each line and advance and retreat with them. Then the lines move round in a circle with the musicians in the centre.

offences.

Munda boys are allowed to eat food cooked by other 18. Social castes, except the very lowest, until they are married, and rules and girls until they let their hair grow long, which is usually at the age of six or seven. After this they do not take food as a tribe from any other caste, even a Brahman, though some subtribes accept it from certain castes as the Telis (oil-pressers) and Sundis or liquor-vendors. In Jubbulpore the Kols take food from Kurmis, Dhīmars and Ahirs. The Mundas will eat almost all kinds of flesh, including tigers and pigs, while in Raigarh they consider monkey as a delicacy, hunting these animals with dogs. In the Central Provinces they have generally abjured beef, in deference to Hindu prejudice, and sometimes refuse field-mice, to which the Khonds and Gonds are very partial. Neither Kols nor Mundas are, however, considered impure and the barber and washerman will work for them. In Sambalpur a woman is finally expelled from caste for a liaison with one of the impure Gāndas, Ghasias or Doms, and a man is expelled for taking food from a woman of these castes, but adultery with her may be expiated by a big feast. Other offences are much the same as among the Hindus. A woman who gets her ear torn through where it is pierced is put out of caste for six months or a year and has to give two feasts on readmission.

In Mandla the head of the panchayat is known as 19. The Gaontia, a name for a village headman, and he is always caste of the Bargaiya sept, the office being usually hereditary. When a serious offence is committed the Gaontia fixes a

panchayat.

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