124 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



buried, while adult males are burnt. Also during tlie rainy 

 season, when burning is inconvenient, burial is often adopted 

 for all alike. Most of the tribes erect some sort of a memorial 

 to the dead; the Gonds generally in the shape of little 

 mounds, covered by slabs of stone ; while the Korkiis carve 

 elaborate piUars of teak-wood, with emblems of the sun 

 and the crescent moon, and of the deceased party mounted 

 on a horse, which they erect under a tree appropriated to 

 the purpose near each of their villages. A very populous 

 cemetery of this sort may be seen close to the village of 

 Puchmurree. 



I have already described the personal appearance of 

 the men of the Gond and Korku tribes. Their women, 

 I think, difier among themselves more than do the men 

 of these races. Those of the Gonds are generally somewhat 

 lighter in colour and less fleshy than the Korkiis. But the 

 Gond women of different parts of the country vary greatly 

 in appearance, many of them in the opener parts near the 

 plains being great robust creatures — ^finer animals by far 

 than the men ; and here Hindii blood may be fairly suspected. 

 In the interior, again, bevies of Gond women may be seen 

 who are liker monkeys than human beings. The features of 

 all are generally strongly marked and coarse. The young 

 girls occasionaUy possess such comeliness as attaches to 

 general plumpness and a good-humoured expression of face ; 

 but when their short youth is over, aU pass at once into 

 a hideous age. Their hard hves, shariag as they do all 

 the labours of the men except that of hunting, suffice to 

 account for this. They dress decently enough, in a short 

 petticoat, often dyed blue, tucked in between the legs so as 

 to leave them naked to the thigh, and a mantle of white 

 cotton covering the upper part of the body, with a fold 

 thrown over the head. The most eastern section of the 

 Korkus (hence called Pothrias) add a bodice, as do some of 

 the Hinduised Gonds. The Gond women have the legs as 

 far as they are suffered to be seen tattooed ia a variety of 

 fantastic patterns, done in indigo or gunpowder blue. The 

 Pardhans are the great artists in this hne, and the figures 

 they design are almost the only ornamental art attempted 

 by these tribes. It is done when the girl becomes marriage- 



