HILLS NEAR RAJAMAHALL. IOl 



supposed to be abundantly pleased by the votaries 

 feasting as large congregations of men as they can 

 afford to maintain ; for, in proportion to the ex- 

 .pence in meat and spirituous drink, the piety of the 

 votary is measured. The part which the Demawio, 

 their oracle, " dreamer o( dreams," bears in their 

 ceremonies and forms of worship, has already been 

 described. Before a man vows to sacrifice at any 

 shrine, he consults the Cherreen and Satane-: when 

 these agree, he repairs to the Demauno> without in- 

 forming him of the result oi those two processes, 

 but explains to him the cause of waiting on him : 

 the Demauno is allowed one, two, and even three 

 nights to confer with the Deity in a vision, to pre- 

 scribe what the suppliant ought to do ; and, as it is 

 believed he has familiar intercourse with God in his 

 dreams, his decrees are obeyed, though, when they 

 differ from what was discovered by the Cherreen and 

 Sataue, these are held over again- to reconcile them. 

 The women neither offer sacrifices, nor approach the 

 shrines of their Gods \ even husbands are forbidden 

 to partake of festivals during the separation of their 

 wives. These prohibitory laws regarding women 

 are of an old date, and their origin perhaps not well 

 known. 



Colonel Brown, in his account of these hills, for- 

 warded to government in 1779, observes that it was 

 about fifteen years since the hill -people had any 

 government among themselves of a general nature \ 

 during which period they had become dangerous and 

 troublesome to the low country -> that their ravages 



H 3 had 



