362 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



tainly the wildest of all these races, they have no abori- 

 ginal language of their own, speaking a rude dialect of which 

 almost every word can be traced to the Hindi. They can 

 also communicate with the Gonds in their language, though 

 they do not use it among themselves. A similar case is that 

 of the Bheels, in the western continuation of these hills, who, 

 though also extremely wild, have no peculiar language of 

 their own, and never have had, so far as history informs 

 us. There are many points of resemblance between the 

 Bygas and the Bheels, and there seems to be no evidence 

 to connect either with the Kolarian or the Dravidian families 

 of aborigines. Further inquiry may show them to be rem- 

 nants of a race anterior in point of time to both, and from 

 which the Hindi may have borrowed its numerous non- 

 Sanscrit vocables. We know that, at an early period in 

 Hindu history, Bheels held the country up to the river 

 Jamnd, which they do not now approach within many hun- 

 dred miles. 



There is every reason to believe that these Bygds are, if 

 not autochthonous, at least the predecessors of the Gonds- in 

 this part of the hills. They consider themselves, and are 

 allowed to be, superior to the Gonds, who may not eat with 

 them, and who take their priests of the mysteries, or medicine- 

 men, from among them. Theirs it is to hold converse with 

 the world of spirits, who are everywhere present to aboriginal 

 superstition ; theirs it is to cast omens, to compel the rain, 

 to charm away the tiger or disease. The Byga medicine-man 

 fully looks his character. He is tall, thin, and cadaverous, 

 abstraction and mystery residing in his hollow eyes. When 

 wanted, he has to be sent for to some distant haunt of 

 gnomes and spirits, and comes with charms and simples slung 

 in the hollow of a bottle-gourd. A great necklace, fashioned 



