156 THE lirGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



I think, differ among themselves more than do the men 

 of these races. Those of the Gonds are generally some- 

 what lighter in colour and less fleshy than the Korkus. 

 Eut the Gcmd women of different parts of the country 

 vary greatly in appearance, many of them in the opener 

 parts near the plains being great robust creatures — finer 

 animals by far than the men ; and here Hindii blood 

 may be fairly suspected. In the interior, again, bevies 

 of Gond women may be seen who are liker monkeys 

 than human beings. The features of all are generally 

 strongly marked and coarse. The young girls occasion- 

 ally possess such comeliness as attaches to general 

 plumpness and a good-humoured expression of face ; 

 but when their short youth is over, all pass at once into 

 a hideous age. Their hard lives, sharing as they do all 

 the labours of the men except that of hunting, suffice to 

 ■account for this. They dress decently enough, in a 

 short petticoat, often dyed blue, tucked in between the 

 legs so as to leave them naked to the thigh, and a 

 mantle of white cotton covering the upper part of the 

 body, with a fold thrown over the head. The most 

 eastern section of the Korkiis (hence called Pothrias) 

 add a bodice, as do some of the Hindiiised Gonds. 

 The Gond women have the legs as far as they are 

 suffered to be seen tattooed in a variety of fantastic 

 patterns, done in indigo or gunpowder blue. The 

 Pardhans are the great artists in this line, and the 

 figures they design are almost the only ornamental art 

 attempted by these tribes. It is done when the girl 

 becomes marriageable ; and the traveller will sometimes 

 hear dreadful screeches issuing from their villages, which 

 will be attributed to some young G('>ndin being operated 

 upon with the tattooing-needlc. Like all barbarians, 



