THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES 119 



by spiritual powers, the most prominent and powerful of 

 whicli are personified and propitiated by simple offerings. 

 Every prominent mountain top is the residence of the Spirit 

 of the HiU, who must be satisfied by an offering before a 

 dhya can be cut on its slopes. The forest is people by wood- 

 land sprites, for whom a grove of typical trees is commonly 

 left standing as a refuge in clearing away the jungle. When 

 the field is sown, the god of rice-fields (Khodo Pen) has to 

 be satisfied, and again when the crop is reaped. , The maUg- 

 nant powers receive regular propitiation. The Tiger God 

 has a hut built for him in the wilderness that he may not 

 come near their dwellings. The goddess of smaU-pox and 

 of cholera receives offerings chiefly when her ravages are 

 threatened. Among such elementary powers must be 

 reckoned the ghosts of the deceased, which have to be laid 

 by certain ceremonies. These consist in conjuring the ghost 

 into something tangible, in one case into the body of a fish 

 caught in the nearest water, in another, into a fowl chosen 

 by omen. The object, whatever it is, is then brought to 

 the house of the deceased, and propitiated for a certain time, 

 after which it is formally consigned to rest by burial, or in 

 one case by pouring it (in solution) over the representation 

 of the village god. The spirits of persons killed by wild 

 animals are beheved to be especially mahgnant, and are 

 " laid " with much care and ceremony. To this practice 

 has been superadded by some the rite of periodical pro- 

 pitiation of deceased ancestors by sacrifice, implying their 

 continued existence in another world, an entirely different 

 thing it may be observed from the rite already described, 

 which imphes only a restless and spiteful existence in this 

 world of a ghost which may be made an end of by a cere- 

 mony. I beheve the superior behef to be entirely derived 

 from the Hindiis, with whom it is a prime article of faith. 



None of these powers of nature are represented by idols, 

 nor have they any particular forms or ceremonies of worship. 

 They are merely locaHsed by some vague symbol; the 

 mountain god by a daub of vermilion on some prominent 

 rock; the tree god by a pile of stones thrown round the 

 stem of a tree — and so on. At these the simple savage pays 

 his devotion, almost furtively, as he passes in the gray of 



