CHAPTER V. 



THE LAY OF SAINT LINGO. 



1. The Creation and Exile of the Gonds. 



2. The Coming of Lingo. 



3. The Deliverance of the Gonds. 



4. Subdivision into Tribes, and Worship of the Gond Deities. 



The Pardhans, or bards, of the G6nd tribes are in posses- 

 sion of many rudely rhythmical pieces, which it is their func- 

 tion to recite on festive occasions to their assembled con- 

 stituents, to the accompaniment of the two-stringed lyre. 

 The best and most complete of these, extending to nearly a 

 thousand bars or lines, was laboriously taken down in writing 

 from the lips of one of these Pardhans by the late Rev. 

 Stephen Hislop, of the Free Church of Scotland mission at 

 Nagpur. But the lamented death of that indefatigable 

 investigator into the history and manners of the Central Indian 

 peoples prevented his furnishing it in a complete form. In a 

 collection of his papers afterwards published under the editor- 

 ship of Sir R. Temple, this legend appeared at length, with a 

 translation of each word as it stood, only so far modified as 

 to conform to the first requirements of English grammar. 

 In this guise, although well suited to the purposes of the 

 student, the piece is almost unintelligible to ordinary readers ; 

 and, if it be considered that the Gonds have never had 

 any written language, and that these pieces have only been 

 preserved by tradition from one of these troubadours to 

 another, it will not be surprising that a good deal of recension 

 is requisite before it can be made suitable to the general 



H 2 



