THE ABORrOlNAL TIMDKS. 153 



of lialf-Hindiiised races — tliat tlion Si'va was also im- 

 ported from tlic West, and allied with the sterner objects 

 of worship of the wilder races, to draw them into tlie 

 great net of the priests, as the incarnations of Vishnu in 

 their popular heroes and totems were employed to draw 

 the more civilised classes of the people ? Were these 

 deities really indigenous amongst the Conds we should 

 certainly see their worship a matter of more widespread 

 and heartfelt devotion than it is. It is in truth still 

 almost confined to the chiefs and their half-Hindu 

 dependants, and to a few of the most advanced, and 

 probably half-blooded, sections of the tribes. In the 

 great periodical acts of public propitiation of the gods 

 they arc cither not admitted, or if so, frequently have 

 to sit under one of the fetishes or nature-gods of the 

 primitive faith. 



The chief of these ceremonies occur at the marked 

 periods of their agricultural season — when the crops are 

 sown or reaped, and at the flowering of the valuable 

 Mhoiua tree — also when severe pestilence threatens the 

 community. On such occasions a row of small stones, 

 taken from the nearest hill-side, are set up in a row and 

 daubed with vermilion, to represent the presence of all 

 the gods that are to be included in the propitiation. 

 Sometimes small pieces of iron hung up in a pot are 

 used instead. A bit^jTrer stone or bit of iron represents 

 the " liara P(*n," or Great God of the occasion, who is 

 usually the one supposed to want most attention at the 

 time. Cocks and goats, and libations of mhowa spirit, 

 are then offered with much ceremony, dancing, and 

 music ; and the affair, like most of their great occasions, 

 usually winds up by the whole of them getting abomin- 

 ably drunk. Such is still the real religion of these peoples, 



