150 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



forcible abduction of the bride is often a part of the ceremony 

 the usual relic of olden times of the strong hand. Sacrifice to 

 the gods, and unlimited gorging and spirit-drinking, are usually 

 the "wind-up of the affair. Widows are not precluded from 

 re-marriage ; and among the Gonds it is even the duty of a 

 younger brother to take to wife the widow of an elder. The 

 converse is not, however, permitted. A widow's re-marriage 

 is accompanied by little ceremony. 



There is little in any of these customs, it will be seen, to 

 distinguish these tribes from other races of savages ; and it 

 would be unprofitable to devote further space to a record of 

 their details. They may nearly all be found repeated among 

 large masses of the so-called Hindu population of the plains ; 

 and, in fact, so far as religious and other customs are con- 

 cerned, I believe that, were the Gonds not associated with 

 hills and forests into which the Hindus have not penetrated 

 very far, they would long since have come to be looked on 

 merely as another caste in the vast social fabric of Hinduism. 

 The Korkus are more peculiar, and, I think, a far superior 

 race in most respects ; and the Bygas or Bhumias of the 

 eastern hills are still more worthy of observation by the 

 ethnologist. Something will be said of them in future 

 chapters. 



It is more important, as regards the Gonds and Korkus of 

 the central and western hills, to inquire into their present 

 economical position and their probable future. Their me- 

 thods of subsistence in the interior of the hills have already 

 been described ; and their life has been shown to be one of 

 great hardship and toil. Although so far inured to malaria 

 as to be able to exist, and in some measure continue the race, 

 in the heart of jungles which are at some seasons deadly to 

 other constitutions, the effect of the climate and a poor diet 



