THE ABOKIGINAL TEIBES. 145 



Thus tliey have gradually separated themselves from 

 the mass of their aboriginal subjects, and formed a 

 separate caste of their own, either inter-marrying amono- 

 families similarly situated, or if possible seeking brides, 

 as I have said, in houses superior to themselves. Some 

 of them have thus succeeded in almost eradicatino- the 

 aboriginal taint ; and by continued reversion to the 

 purer stocks have attained to an equality of physical 

 type with the higher races. Their social status has 

 come to be acknowledged as that of the Rdjpiit rather 

 than the aborigine ; and many have assumed the sacred 

 thread, the wearing of which denotes membership of 

 one of the twice-born castes. Most of them, however, 

 whether from motives of policy or of superstition, still 

 concede something to their semi-aboriginal descent ; 

 worshipping perhaps in secret the tribal deities, and, 

 in cases, placing at certain festivals the flesh of cows, 

 abhorred of Hinduism, to their lips, wrapped in a thin 

 covering of cloth. Many of them also require to be 

 installed on their succession to the chiefship by a 

 ceremon}^ which includes the touching of their fore- 

 heads with a drop of blood drawn from the body of 

 a pure aborigine of the tribe they belong to. 



Such an example on the part of their influential 

 chiefs was certain to be followed by large sections of 

 their subjects ; and in particular by such of them as 

 were themselves in some degree of mixed descent. 

 Accordingly we find the tribes much subdivided into 

 clans, or castes, distinguished from each other by a 

 more or less close adoption of Hindii customs and relio-ious 

 forms. A theory has arisen that the Gonds are divided 

 into twelve and a half formal castes accordino- to the 

 number of the gods they worship, after the pattern of the 



