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each household made offerings to the dead. he Gonds say 
that one of their chiefs was, in early life, devoured by a tiger, 
and that he afterwards appeared to his friends, telling them 
that, if worship were paid to him, he would protect them from 
that animal. They acted upon the suggestion, and he was 
duly installed among their gods. The Bhuiyas, of Keonjhur, 
after the funeral rites are concluded, place a vessel, filled with 
rice and flour, upon the grave. ‘This has the effect to recall 
the ghost, for, after a time, the print of a fowl’s foot will be 
plainly visible at the bottom of the vessel. 
It would be interesting to know how the speculations of 
these rude tribes regarding the origin of the universe and of 
the human race compare with those of more civilised peoples ; 
but we have little information on this point. It does not 
seem to be a subject upon which they have spent much 
thought. It is enough for them to know that they and the 
world are, without taking the trouble to inquire how they 
came to be. A few exceptions are worth noting. The legend 
of the Singphos, to which we have already alluded, is that 
“they were originally created and established on a plateau 
called ‘ Majai-Singra-Bhum,’ situated at the distance of two 
months’ journey from Sadiya, washed by a river flowing in a 
southerly direction to the Irrawaddy. During their sojourn 
there they were immortal, and held celestial intercourse with 
the planets and all heavenly intelligences, following the pure 
worship of the Supreme Being.” ‘They, however, fell by 
bathing in forbidden water, and, descending to the earth, 
became mortal, and adopted the debased worship of their 
neighbours. The Abors get back as far as the first mother 
of the race, who had two sons, the elder of whom was 
- skilled in hunting and the younger in handicraft. Like 
Rebecca, she loved the younger son better than the elder, 
and migrated with him to the west, taking along all the 
products of his skill. Before forsaking her elder son, she 
gave him a stock of blue and white beads, and taught him 
how to make the dao, a sort of hill-knife, and musical instru- 
ments from the gourd. The Abors are the descendants of 
the elder brother, while the younger brother became the 
progenitor of the English and other western nations. ‘The 
Garos, who do not seem lacking in imagination, explain the 
origin of the world as follows :—The germ of creation was a 
self-begotten egg. From this sprang the goddess Nushtoo, 
who sat, for a time, on a water-lily ; but, finding her quarters 
- too restricted, she sent to Hiraman, the god of the lower 
world, for some earth, upon which she successively fixed the 
different objects of nature. First, rivers proceeded from, her, 
