INDIAN HILL TRIBES.
la the "Tour de Monde" Mile. Menant, the well-known authority on Parte* Ufe and customs, ban a charming account of a visit paid to Mahablesh war. She apears to know all about this toTely plateau, and describes the hill tribes, the Kolis, Kumdis, Dhangurs and Dharvars, with kindly enthusiasm. While recognising their delects, she docs not ■hare the old Hindu prejudice against the wild folk of the hills. Describing the marriage customs of the Dhangurs, she says:— "When they want to ascertain the favorable moment for the performance of the rites (in case the Brahmin is not able to consult the sacred books), the young couple are made to sit before the door of the hut from which a cow and then its calf are then driven forth. If the calf runs to its mother on the right of the seated pair, the ceremony can proceed. If. on the contrary, it passes them on the left, the proceedings must be suspended, and the trial must be began «ver again. Some grains of rice thrown over the young people, a ring passed over the bride's finger, and there are indissolubly united!" Mile Menant recognises the peculiar hardships to which these people of the hill and the forest are exposed. "Life la hard for these poor creatures," she says. 'Theirs is an incessant truggle against .poverty and elements Their food, composed of the simple products of the forest, is rarely sufficient. During the long months of the monsoon, when the skies close down on the mountains, and when the wind shakes the trees of the forest, what is their lot? You have only to visit the miserable hnts into which they crowd with their cattle to understand the decrepitude of the aged, withered and wrnkled, men and women alike, with lean shanks and deformed limbs. Between the baby aboriginal, lively and joyous in his innocent nudity, and the hoary, hairy old grandfather, bent and impotent, it is easy to guess the long years of labor that intervene, and the ravages and incemency of the seasons.
"The notions of good and evil, as we understand them, are floating and vague in their minds. Tn their hearts and on their lips is the eternal excuse of primitive man—human weakness, the sole cause of sin. Perhaps that is the' best excuse of all. They wilfully avoid the civilising influences of the mission and the school. You meet the younger ones, laughter in their eyes, "their ready tongoes prattling some picturesque jargon, some dialect of Mahrathi or Hindustani. Bat do not press them too closely with questions, do not even look at them too long. For they are imbued with quaint, old-world superstitions; they are haunted by fear of the evil eye, especially for their children, cunning and Kght of foot as little satyrs, ready to disappear with a sudden bound into the forest thickets.
"Often in our walks our only guides were their womenfolk, and we followed them without hesitation, sure of being led aright. They muched jungle berries, thye laughed and jested, and east defy« ing glances at one another as they leapt from rock to rock. But a single incautious word would have put the gay, gentle thing to flight, and what a pity theat would have been!"
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 29 July 1907, Page 4
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548INDIAN HILL TRIBES. Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 29 July 1907, Page 4
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