THE ABOEIGINAL TRIBES. 145 



either not admitted, or if so, frequently have to sit under 

 one of the fetishes or nature-gods of the primitive faith. 



The chief of these ceremonies occur at the marked periods 

 of their agricultural season when the crops are sown or 

 reaped, and at the flowering of the valuable Mliowa tree 

 also when severe pestilence threatens the community. On 

 such occasions a row of small stones, taken from the nearest 

 hill side, are set up in a row and daubed with vermilion, to 

 represent the presence of all the gods that are to be included 

 in the propitiation. Sometimes small pieces of iron hung up 

 in a pot are used instead. A bigger stone or bit of iron 

 represents the " Bard Pen," or Great God of the occasion, who 

 is usually the one supposed to want most attention at the 

 time. Cocks and goats, and libations of mhowa spirit, are 

 then offered with much ceremony, dancing, and music ; and 

 the affair, like most of their great occasions, usually winds up 

 by the whole of them getting abominably drunk. Such is 

 still the real religion of these peoples, notwithstanding the 

 lacquer of Hinduism many of them have received ; and such 

 I may add is not very different from that of the vast mass 

 of the so-called Hindus of the plains, who look on Vishnu 

 and Siva as little nearer to them than do these savages, 

 and pay their real devotion to the village gods, to the gods 

 of the threshing-floor, and to their lares and penates 

 all unrecognized by the orthodox priest. In both cases 

 their religious belief is wholly unconnected with any idea 

 of morality. A moral deity, demanding morality from his 

 creatures, is a religious conception far beyond the present 

 capacity either of the aborigine or the ordinary Hindu. 



The idea of a Great Spirit, above and beyond all personal 

 gods, and whom they call Bhagwan, is, however, accepted by 

 all Hindus, and has been borrowed from them by the Gonds. 



