THE LAY OF SAINT LINGO 151 



best to omit nearly the whole of the latter part, which 

 consists of tiresome details of marriage and other cere- 

 monial, which do not even possess the value of being an 

 accurate account of the practice of the present day. 



Thus the present version is greatly reduced in bulk, 

 and is rather a paraphrase than a translation, though in 

 many parts it will be found to adhere almost hterally to 

 the original, and little will be detected which has not 

 some foundation therein. I should, perhaps, ^apologise 

 for the adoption of the Hiawathian metre and style, 

 and in a few cases even of the words of the American 

 poet, in a piece which may appear almost like a burlesque 

 of his Red Indian legend. It is probable that the originals 

 of the two legends may not have differed greatly in char- 

 acter; and the close and curious paralleUsm between 

 them could only be brought out by the adoption of the 

 method introduced by the author of Hiawatha, and now 

 familiar to the public. But the " noble savage " of 

 North America is a very difierent character from the poor 

 squalid Gond of Central India; and not even the genius 

 of a Longfellow or a Fenimore Cooper could throw a 

 halo of sentiment over the latter and his surroundings. 

 I have therefore thought it best to give full play to the 

 grotesque element in the tale, for which, it must be con- 

 fessed, the Hiawathian style is provokingly well adapted. 

 I should add that the serious student of Gond institutions 

 had better, perhaps, prefer the original to the version 

 now offered. 



I.— THE CEEATION AND TEIBULATIONS OF THE G6NDS. 



In the Glens of Seven Moun- 

 tains,'^ 

 Of tte Twelve Hills in the Valleys, 

 Is the mountain Lingdwangad, 

 Is the flowering tree Pahindi; 

 In that desert far out-spreading 

 Twelve coss round arose no dwell- 

 ing : 

 " Caw " saying, there no crow was ; 



" Ghee " saying, there no bird was ; 

 " Raghum " saying, there no tiger 



was. 

 And the Gods were greatly 



troubled. 

 In their heavenly courts and 



councils 

 Sat no Gods of Gonds among 



them. 



^ The Sdtpiira mountains are probably here referred to. 



