376 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDLV. 



show them to be remnants of a race anterior in point 

 of time to both, and from which the Hindi may have 

 borrowed its numerous non- Sanscrit vocables. We 

 know that, at an early period in Hindii history, Bheels 

 held the country up to the river Jamna, which they do 

 not now approach within many hundred miles. 



There is every reason to believe that these Bygds 

 arc, if not autochthonous, at least the predecessors of 

 the Gonds in this part of the hills. They consider them- 

 selves, and are allowed to be, superior to the G6nds, 

 who may not eat with them, and who take their priests 

 of the mysteries, or medicine- men, from among them. 

 Theirs it is to hold converse Avitli the world of spirits, 

 who are everywhere present to aboriginal superstition ; 

 theirs it is to cast omens, to compel the rain, to charm 

 away the tiger or disease. The Byga medicine-man fully 

 looks his character. He is tall, thin, and cadaverous, 

 abstraction and mystery residing in his hollow eyes. 

 When wanted, he has to be sent for to some distant 

 haunt of gnomes and spirits, and comes with charms and 

 simples slung in the hollow of a bottle-gourd. A great 

 necklace, fashioned with much carving from the kernels 

 of forest fruits, marks his holy calling. 



The Byga charmer's most dangerous duty is that of 

 laying the spirit of a man who has been killed by a 

 tiger. j\lan-eatcrs have always been numerous in 

 Mandla, the presence during a part of every year of 

 large herds of cattle fostering the breed, while their 

 withdrawal at other times to regions where the tigers 

 cannot follow causes temporary scarcity of food, too 

 easily relieved in the abundant tall grass cover by 

 recourse to the killing of man ; the desultory habits of 

 the wild people, and the numbers of travellers who take 

 this short route between the Narbada valley and the 



