The “ Kols’’ of Chota-Nagpore. 189 
The Moondahs, without applying to an ojha or medicine-man, 
consult auguries in choosing the site of a house, with prayer to 
Singbonga. A small quantity of rice is placed in holes made at the 
four corners of the selected site, where it is left all night ; and if found 
undisturbed in the morning, the site is good. The same process is 
gone through in selecting a new site for a village. Prayer is offered 
to Singbonga twice, first, that the test applied may truly indicate 
if the site be good or bad ; secondly, for a blessing on the chosen site. 
It is the fashion to call:the religion of the Kols ‘ devil worship,’ but 
this is not strictly correct ; for although the minor deities may be mostly 
of a malevolent nature and therefore devils who have to be propitiated, 
still Singbonga is worshipped asa beneficent god. This worship 
of the sun as the supreme deity is the foundation of the religion 
of the Oraons as well as the Moondahs. By the former he is invoked 
as Dhurmi, the holy one. He is the creator and the preserver, and 
with reference to his purity, white animals are offered to him by his 
yotaries. He is not regarded as the author of sickness or calamity ; 
but he may be appealed to to avert it, and this appeal is often made, 
when the sacrifices to the minor deities have been unproductive. 
But besides these occasional sacrifices, all Moondahs who hold to 
the faith of their ancestors, are especially bound to make a certain 
number of offerings to Singbonga during their tenure of the posi- 
tion of head of the family. He may take his own time about them, 
but he will not be happy in his mind till he completes his comple- 
ment and clears the account. I obtained this information from the 
Kheriahs, and on speaking about it to some ancient Pahans and 
Moondah elders, was told that it undoubtedly is the orthodox practice, 
but it has been neglected. The sacrifices are five in number: 
Ist, fowls; 2nd, a pig; 3rd, a white goat ; 4th, a ram ; 5th, a buffalo ; 
and they must be offered in the open plain in front of an ant 
hill, or with an ant hill as an altar. Sacrifices to other gods are 
generally offered in the “ Saerna,’’* the sacred grove of Sal trees, the 
remnant of the primeval forest left for the spirits when the settlement 
was first made. 
The names and attributes of the inferior deities are nearly the same 
amongst the Hos in Singbhoom, the Moondahs and Oraons in Chota- 
* Or ‘Saran,’ ‘ Charan,’ 
