364 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



himself into a trance, during which the afflatus of the Deity is 

 supposed to be vouchsafed him, communicating the secrets of 

 the future. I never saw the performance myself, but persons 

 who have affirm that it is too severe in its physical symptoms 

 to be mere acting ; and there is sufficient evidence from other 

 quarters, to prove that some persons can educate themselves 

 into the power of passing into such fits at will, to lead us to 

 credit the Byga at least with nothing worse than self-deception 

 in the matter. In religion the Bygas have admitted a few of 

 the Hindu, deities of the destructive type ; but their chief 

 reverence is paid to the spirits of the waste, and to Mother 

 Earth, who is their tribal god. One of their tribal names is 

 Bhumid,, meaning " people of the soil," and it is curious that 

 among every aboriginal tribe of these hills, including the 

 Bheels, the priests or medicine-men are called by the same 

 name. The rite of charming the souls of deceased persons 

 into some material object, before described, and which seems 

 peculiar to these hills, is practised also by these Bygas. 



A male Byga" is easily distinguished from a Gond ; but 

 their women are scarcely in any respect different, perhaps a 

 little blacker, but dressing in a similar manner, wearing the 

 same ornaments (including a chignon of goat's hair), and like 

 them also tattooed as to the legs. Though the Bygd,s are, like 

 the Bheels, less given to congregate together in large villages 

 than some other tribes, often indeed living in entirely detached 

 dwellings, there are a good many villages of a considerable 

 number of houses. These are arranged with much neatness 

 in the form of a square, and the whole place is kept very 

 clean. 



The Byga is the most terrible enemy to the forests we have 

 anywhere in these hills. Thousands of square miles of sal 

 forest have been clean destroyed by them in the progress of 



