CHAPTEE V 



THE LAY OF SAINT LINGO 



The Pardhans, or bards, of the Gond tribes are in 

 possession of many rudely rh.ytlimical pieces, which, it 

 is their function to recite on festive occasions to their 

 assembled constituents, to the accompaniment of the 

 two-stringed lyre. The best and most complete of 

 these, extending to nearly a thousand bars or lines, 

 was laboriously taken down in writing from the lips of 

 one of these Pardhans by the late Rev. Stephen Hislop, 

 of the Free Church of Scotland mission at Nagpiir. But 

 the lamented death of that indefatigable investigator 

 into the history and manners of the Central Indian peoples 

 prevented his furrdshitig it in a complete form. In a 

 collection of his papers afterwards published under the 

 editorship of Sir R. Temple, this legend appeared at length, 

 with a translation of each word as it stood, only so far 

 modified as to conform to the first requirements of English 

 grammar. In this guise, although well suited to the pur- 

 poses of the student, the piece is almost unintelligible to 

 ordinary readers ; and, if it be considered that the Gonds 

 have never had any written language, and that these 

 pieces have only been preserved by tradition from one 

 of these troubadours to another, it will not be surprising 

 that a good deal of recension is requisite before it can be 

 made suitable to the general reader. Whether or not 

 the piece has any original foundation in purely Gond 

 tradition may be matter of doubt ; but it is certain that 

 it has become greatly overlaid with the spirit and phraseo- 

 logy of Hindiiism. It professes to recount the creation 

 of the original G6nds at the hands of Hindii (Sivaic) 

 deities ; what may be called their subsequent fall through 

 the eating of meats forbidden by Hindii law; their exile 



149 



