378 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



the waste, and to Mother Earth, who is their tribal god. 

 One of their tribal names is Bhumid, meaning " people 

 of the soil," and it is curious that among every abo- 

 riginal tribe of these hills, including the Bheels, the 

 priests or medicine-men are called by the same name. 

 The rite of charming the souls of deceased persons into 

 some material object, before described, and which seems 

 peculiar to these hills, is practised also by these Bygiis. 



A male Byga is easily distinguished from a Gond ; 

 but their women are scarcely in any respect different — 

 perhaps a little blacker, but dressing in a similar manner, 

 wearing the same ornaments (including a chignon of 

 goat's hair), and, like them, also tattooed as to the legs. 

 Though the Bygas are, like the Bheels, less given to 

 congregate together in large villages than some other 

 tribes, often indeed living in entirely detached dwellings, 

 there are a good many villages of a considerable number 

 of houses. These are arranged with much neatness in 

 the form of a square, and the whole place is kept very 

 clean. 



The Byga is the most terrible enemy to the forests 

 we have anywhere in these hills. Thousands of square 

 miles of sal forest have been clean destroyed by them in 

 the progress of their dhya cultivation, the ground being 

 afterwards occupied by a dense scrub of low sal bushes 

 springing from the stumps. In addition to this, the 

 largest trees have everywhere been girdled by them to 

 allow the gum resin of the sdl (the clammer of commerce) 

 to exude. 



The dammer resin, called here dliok, is extensively 

 used as a pitch in dockyards, and for coating commercial 

 packages. It is extracted by cutting a ring of bark out 

 of the tree three or four feet from the ground, when the 

 gum exudes in large bubbles. Several half-circles are, 



