THE ABOEIGINAL TRIBES 123 



creatures, is a religious conception far beyond tte present 

 capacity either of the aborigine or the ordinary HindTi. 



The idea of a Great Spirit, above and beyond all personal 

 gods, and whom they call Bhagwan, is, however, accepted 

 by all Hindus, and has been borrowed from them by the 

 Gonds. He is the great First Cause of all things, but himself 

 endowed with neither form nor moral quahties. He is \m- 

 represented, and receives no adoration. A Hindii wiU 

 accurately describe all the gods of his pantheon; but of 

 Bhagwan he has no idea, except that he is the great Creator. 

 He is, in fact, that "Unknown God " whom humanity has 

 never yet learned to approach save through the medium of 

 some human or anthromorphous substitute. 



I have not yet touched on the rehgion of the Korkus. 

 It is, I think, purer than that of the Gonds. The powers 

 of nature are equally adored, such as the Tiger God, the 

 Bison God, the Hill God, the Deities of Small-pox and 

 Cholera. But these are all secondary to the Sun and the 

 Moon, which, among this branch of the Kolarian stock as 

 among the Kols in the far East, are the principal objects of 

 adoration. I have seen nothing resembhng Fetishism among 

 them ; and if, as some consider, that is the earhest form in 

 which the religion of savages develops itself, the Korkus 

 wovdd seem in this respect to have advanced a stage beyond 

 the Gonds. The svm and the figure of a horse (a Scythian 

 emblem of the sun) are carved on wooden posts, and receive 

 sacrifices. They also sacrifice to the manes of their dead, 

 but only for a certain period, to "lay" them. Belief in 

 sorcery and witchcraft is not so prevalent among them as 

 with the Gonds and Bygas. Their semi-Hindii chiefs have 

 accepted Siva and his companions ; but the common Korkiis 

 seem to care httle about them, excepting in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of his great shrine in the Mahadeo hills. A 

 few glorified heroes receive attention, but not to nearly so 

 great an extent as among the Gonds. 



In disposing of the dead, the aboriginal tribes aU appear 

 to have formerly practised burial; but those who have 

 been much HindTiised resort by preference to cremation. 

 The process being an expensive one, however, it is not 

 lavished on all ahke, women and children being stiU mostly 



