VERNACULAR NAMES. 



Tradition say \ tnat the original home of the Oraons was in 

 the Carnatic, whence they went up the Narbndda and settled 

 in Behar on the banks of the Sone. Driven from Shahabad, 

 the tribe split ap into two divisions. One followed the 

 Ganges and settled in the Rajmehal Hills, where their 

 descendants are now known as Ma-le ; while the others 

 ascended the bone into Palaman and turning eastwards aloug 

 the Koel, took possession of the north-west portion of the 

 Ohota Nagpur plateau. 1 Some Oraon have a resemblance 

 to the Koi names, possibly through long association, thus 

 madgi in Oraon is the madkum of the Kols. Bara (Ficus 

 bengalensis) and Bhelua (Semecarpus) are evidently the 

 Hindi, but the former is also Bari in Munda so that the 

 real origin of this word is doubtful. Other names such as 

 Kirs Khochol= Pig's bones (quoted by Father Dehon) are 

 among that class of descriptive nameB, which often appears 

 to be applied by races to trees that they meet with in a new 

 country, or when asked for the name of a tree which they do 

 not know. It would be interesting were some residents 

 among the Oraons to collect their names of the trees before 

 they are finally lost. The Singbhum Oraons are usually, 

 singularly ignorant of them. The Oraons, often tattoo them- 

 selves, and this is done with charcoal dust, mixed with 

 Mohwa juice, and applied with the thorns of Flacourtia 

 Ramontchi 8 (called Kandeh in Malto, perhaps the Khochol 

 of the Oraons). Like other aboriginal tribes, they have a 

 number of more picturesque and poetical customs, some of 

 them in common with the Kols, such as the feast of Sarhul, 

 or of the Flowering of the Sal Tree. 



Hazariba<rh, — In Hazaribagh the Hindus and semi" 

 Hinduized tribes are predominant, and the names of the trees 



1 Bev. P. Dehon, S, J., in Memoirs of the Asiatic Societv of Bengal, 

 Vol. I, 9. 



2 B. B. Bainbridge in Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

 Vol. II, 4. 



' Bialey in Tribes and Castes of Bengal. 

 39 



