CHAPTER XIV. 



THE KHOND HIGHLANDS. 



HAD not the attention of the Govern- 

 ment of India been drawn to the Khond 

 highlands by the custom prevalent 

 among the race of offering human vic- 

 tims to an imaginary being, known in 

 their superstition as the Earth Goddess, 

 the Khonds would probably have re- 

 mained unnoticed and unvisited to this 

 day. In seasons of drought it is their 

 custom to propitiate the Earth Goddess 

 by a sacrifice, and to restore fertility to 

 the fields by burying here and there 

 morsels of the flesh of the victim. A 



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