354 T. H. Hendley — An Account of the Mahodr Bh'ils. [No. 4, 



Biver in the Banswara District, or to the stream which runs through Banesh- 

 war in the Dungarpur District, and thrown in to help the deceased on his 

 way to Paradise, or to prevent the manes troubling the living. Any kind 

 of wood that will burn is used in the pile. The whole ceremony is Hindu, 

 excepting the non-performance of the true hriya harm, the breaking of the 

 skull and its attendant ceremonies. Other castes or tribes reject this rite, 

 but they are I believe all lower ones, and the fact may be with them also a 

 link with a life in which their ancestors were not Aryans. On the eleventh 

 day the friends shave, on the twelfth feast jogis, and again at the end of the 

 year. No tombs or cenotaphs are constructed, but a few days after death, a 

 relative of the deceased is said to be informed in a dream that the spirit has 

 taken up its abode on a neighbouring hill, whereupon friends and connex- 

 ions proceed to the place, and erect a platform of stones, and leave there 

 a quantity of food and liquor. There is no tradition of general burial, but 

 the corpse of the first person who dies in a village of small-pox is interred 

 in the earth for a time ; if no one else dies of the disease, the body is soon 

 taken up and burnt : Mata objects to fire, hence the custom. Sir John 

 Malcolm says, that the Vindhya Bhils bury their dead ; but in this 

 and many other respects they seem to differ from the race as it exists in 

 Maiwar. 



The Bhil man generally wears a dirty rag round his head, the hair 

 being either plaited into a tail or two, or wound up and fastened with a 

 comb of wood, and a waistcloth of limited length. He rarely wears any- 

 thing more, even at festivals ; as a rule he has nothing upon his feet. His 

 arms are the bow and arrow. The bow, with the exception of two links of 

 gut, is entirely made of bamboo, even to the string which is fastened in a 

 very simple but ingenious fashion. A seasoned weapon requires the exer- 

 tion of some strength in its use. The arrow is a reed tipped with an iron 

 spike, either flat and sharp, or like a nail, or blunt for sport (vide plate). The 

 Bhil although very patient is not a good marksman, yet his weapon is a formi- 

 dable one. His quiver is a piece of strong bamboo matting, and he generally 

 carries in it with his arrows one of hardened wood with a soft piece of tinder- 

 like wood, with which he can produce fire by friction. The weapons are 

 very like those described as in use amongst the Lepchas of Sikkim. They 

 are mentioned in Herodotus as the national weapon of certain Indians ; 

 and Sirohi, whence the Bhil arrows come, derives its ancient name ' Sarui' 

 (Sirohi) from sir or ndr, a reed, a proof of the very great antiquity of these 

 weapons. The men (of position) wear earrings ; the whole lobe is bored 

 along the edge, and loaded with little rings usually of gold. The favourite 

 ornament is one which passes behind the whole ear from top to bottom, like 

 the nath, or large nose-ring of married women ; the same ring there called 

 " pugul" is worn by the men of the Coromandel coast. The richer men are 



