20 Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. [No. 1, 



combination of priestly functions and operations Avith the easy shaving 

 line, is singular ; but it arises from the fact that the great ceremonial 

 law of the Kaurs is all comprised in the act of shaving. At births, 

 deaths and marriages, the parties immediately interested, and all con- 

 nected with them, are clean shaven all round. In regard to the 

 disposal of the dead by this tribe, they tell me that they bury those 

 that die unmarried, while the bodies of married folk are burnt in 

 orthodox Hindu fashion ! I wonder if matrimonial interests are ad- 

 vanced by this invidious custom. The tonsure of the males is pecu- 

 liar ; the hair is allowed to grow long on the crown of the head and 

 collected in a knot, but the forehead is shaven to the knot, and there 

 is a shaven ring round it as if to facilitate the operation of scalping ; 

 the back of the head is also shaven, but over the ears and temples the 

 hair is worn long. 



They worship Shiva under the denomination of Mahadeva, and 

 Parvati as Gouree, and they have a festival in the year for each, at 

 which they dance and sing, men and women. In some villages there 

 is a Baiga who offers sacrifices at these festivals ; but this Baiga is 

 not a Kaur. He belongs to one of the aboriginal tribes, and it is a 

 remarkable feature in the religious ceremonies of the people of the 

 Tributary Mehals, that the aborigines should have a monopoly of such 

 offices. The new settlers dread the malignancy of the local spirits, 

 and to appease them, naturally rely on the aborigines, who have longest 

 known them. The zemindar of Korbah in Chutteesgurh is a Kaur, 

 and as far as I can learn is the most influential person of their caste 

 existing : there was a Kaur zemindar in Sirgoojah formerly, called 

 Kumol Singh, but he rebelled and came to grief. 



Most of the " Khalsa" villages in Oodeypore are held in farm by 

 ' Kaurs' and two-thirds of the population of these villages are Kaurs. 

 With one exception all the permanent service tenures of Oodeypore 

 are in the hands of Gours, and the people in those estates are for the 

 most part Gours. We find therefore, that the Gours have, in Oodey- 

 pore, a position similar to that held by the Bhooyas in Bamra, Gang- 

 pore and Bonai, and the right to the office of Dewan and to instal a 

 new Rajah, claimed in those districts by certain Bhooyas, is in Oodey- 

 pore claimed by one of the Gour zemindars, Bhowany Singh of 

 Kourajah. Thus we find the Gours or Gonds, who in Bonai were 



