THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 143 



hero of much later date ; Dulha Deo, the apotheosis of a bride- 

 groom, and many others. 



Lastly come the recognized divinities of the Hindu, pan- 

 theon. Amongst a race whose blessings are few and hardships 

 many it is not surprising that the malevolent members of the 

 Hindu pantheon should have found more acceptance than the 

 benevolent deities. Vishnu is scarcely recognized by them, 

 except in his one terrible development of Narsingha or the 

 Man-Tiger; while Siva the Destroyer, with his formidable 

 consort Kali, and son Bhairava, are the favourite objects of 

 reverence among the more advanced of the tribes. These are 

 represented by rude idols, Siva, himself in his usual Phallic 

 form ; and a Brahman in many cases officiates at their shrines. 

 Here for the first time we find mythology the science of 

 priests at work. In their earlier stages the tribes had no 

 priests, no hierarchy of gods, and consequently no mythology. 

 Now legends are invented to connect the tribes, and their 

 earlier gods, with the great web of Hindu fiction, and bring 

 them within the dominion of caste and priestdom. In the 

 succeeding chapter will be found a version of one of these 

 fragments. Their art is of the rudest character, often out- 

 raging the requirements of Hindu orthodoxy suited, in fact, 

 to the mental calibre of a people scarcely yet emerging from 

 mere fetishism. 



Many have conjectured that the worship of Siva and his 

 mythic companions, which forms so incongruous an intrusion 

 into the milder faith of the Aryan Hindus, has been in fact 

 derived from the aboriginal races of India. As regards Siva 

 himself in his Phallic form there seems to be little founda- 

 tion for such an hypothesis. The emblem has nowhere, I 

 believe, been found as an object of adoration among the in- 

 digenous races where Brahmanism has not penetrated, whereas 



