188 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



another, it will not be surprising that a good deal of 

 recension is requisite before it can be made suitable to 

 the general reader. Whether or not the piece has any- 

 original foundation in purely Gond tradition may be 

 matter of doubt ; but it is certain that it has become 

 greatly overlaid with the spirit and phraseology of 

 Hinduism. It professes to recount the creation of the 

 original Gonds at the hands of Hindu (Sivaic) deities ; 

 what may be called their subsequent fall through the 

 mating of meats forbidden by Hindu law ; their exile 

 and imprisonment by the ofiended Hindii deity ; the 

 appearance by miraculous birth and life among them 

 -of a Hindu saint named Lingo,* whom they ungrate- 

 fully put to death, but who rises again, and, after much 

 penance and sujftering, delivers them from bondage, 

 introduces Hindii observances, the arts of agriculture, 

 and the worship of tribal gods, and eventually dis- 

 appears and goes to the gods. The programme thus 

 bears a singular resemblance in many respects to the 

 legend of Hiawatha, the prophet of the Red Indians ; 

 and to some an even more startling parallelism may 

 suggest itself. 



My own opinion is that its origin is comparatively 

 recent, subsequent to the propagation among the Gonds 

 of Hindii ideas and rules. It seems to possess little 

 value as bearing on their orio^in, assifrningf to them a 

 northern descent, which is contradicted by the strong 

 southern affinities of their lan";uao[e, and which is 

 obviously only introduced as part of the Hindu 

 machinery which pervades the piece. As a com- 



* This name is probably typical of the Lingaet sect, who are 

 known to have actively propagated the worship of the Phallic Siva 

 in the Deccan. 



