A CURIOUS INDIAN HILL TRIBE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2546, 3 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CURIOUS INDIAN HILL TRIBE.

The most interesting paper in the recent number of the journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay is Mr Fawcett's account of the Saoros or Sowrahs of the Ganjam Hill Tracts. A good deal of Mr Fawcett's paper is devoted to the investigation of the religious ideas, sacrifices, and funeral rites of the Saoros, and his account furnishes an interesting illustration of several well-known phenomena of early forms of religious belief. The objects of worship fall into two classes, malevolent dieties, such as Jalia Kanni, and Lankan, the sun, and ancestral spirits. Every human being posseses a " kulba " or soul, which departs from the body at death, but which still retains the ordinary tastes of tho Saoro— e. ff., for tobacco and liquor—and which must be satisfied or it will haunt the living. In the more primitive parts of the country everything a man possesses —weapons, cloths, his reaping-hook, and some money—are burnt with him ; but this is falling out of use. A hut is built for the " kulba " to dwell in, and food is placed there ; but the more important ceremony is the " guar," which occurs later, the great feature of which is the erection of a stone to the memory of the deceased. Near each villiage clusters of such stones, standing upright in the ground, may be seen. The "guar "gives the " kulba" considerable satisfaction ; but it is not quite satisfied till the " karja " is celebrated : this being a great biennial feast to the dead, when, after the sacrifice of many buffaloes and the consumption of much liquor, every house in which there has been a death is burnt ; the " kulba " is finally driven away to the jungle or the hill side. Sacrifices are made to appease deities or " knlbas " who have done harm, and in every paddy-field, when the paddy is sprouting as well as at harvest, an offering of a goat must be made. It does not appear, however, that human sacrifice, once so common among the Khonds was ever practised by the Saoros. Like all other savages, the Saoros have their priests, or diviners, called " kudangs," whose occcupation seems to be partly hereditary. The " kudatig," like the modern medium, is able to interview the spirit of deceased and to ascertain his wishes. The method of divination usually practised is that of dropping from a leaf-cup grains of rice, uttering the name of a deity as each falls, and so ascertaining which divinity is the cause of the disease or other calamity. A similar practice has long been known to be in force among the Khonds, though Mr Fawcett does not mention the fact. An account is given of an exorcism witnessed by tho author, in the case of a boy who had suffered much from fever, which was supposed to be caused by the sun. The "kudang " told Mr Fawcett afterwards that he had given the deity a good talking to and turned him out. "No fear of that deity returning to the boy after what he had said to him "! The " kudangs," however, it must he added, generally work like ordinary mortals, anil even when they are called in to officiate as priests they do not seem, from the account given of their fasting and exertions, to get their rewards for notiling-