800 The Hodesum (improperly called Kolehan). [No. 104, 



another. They were from the first, as man and wife, but have no 

 known progeny. 



Marang Bonga presides over sickness, and is worshipped according 

 to the extent of the sickness and means of the patient. He lives in a 

 grove (small one) where they erect a post, after sacrificing a buffalo, 

 and sticking its horns on the top. 



To Pangoora they sacrifice, on account of sickness and fever, fowls, 

 goats, or sheep ; she lives under a tree, or two or three trees near an 

 ant hill ; no post is erected for her ; she is the wife of Marang Bonga. 



Chanala Desum Bongo is worshipped for diseases by married peo- 

 ple alone, as he comes along with the bride from her village ; Pan- 

 goora, his wife, is the same. 



Horaten Ko are the spirits of the forefathers of a newly-married 

 woman. They are worshipped on the road, and to them are sacrificed 

 fowls, goats, or an old bullock ; they are invoked for sickness. 



Mahlee Bonga is invoked by cripples or blind people ; he lives any 

 , where indiscriminately. They offer him pigs and fowls. Chandoo 

 Omol is propitiated by a pig and a black fowl, for sickness : she lives 

 wherever she was first worshipped. 



None of these spirits have an 3^ reputed figure or description, and con- 

 sequently are never represented by idols. The Hos frankly confess 

 that as their gods, to their knowledge, have never been seen, they 

 cannot be described ; they also know nothing of the origin of them. 

 They have, moreover, no notion of a devil or any evil spirit, their 

 opinion being that he only who created, is able to destroy or torment 

 either here or hereafter. 



They have but four Purubs in the year, and these are not fixed 

 to any particular date, some villages being two or three months per- 

 forming their poojas, before or after others. Mag Purub takes place 

 about February and March, sometimes in January; Bah Purub fol- 

 lows a month after ; Batta Oolee is in Assar ; and there is also sacri- 

 ficing and pooja gone through before eating the newly cut crops of 

 the year, called the " Namagom." 



These festivals consist in little more than singing, dancing, and 

 immoderate drinking, besides offering up a goat or two, or a few fowls 

 in each village. The people seldom adorn themselves, or make them- 

 selves cleaner than at other times, and the villages do not unite in 



