TJie " Koh" of Chota-Nagpore. 183 



The Nagpore Kols, wliether of the Moondah or Oraon tribe, and all 

 the cognates of the Moondahs that I know of, are passionately fond of 

 dancing, and with them dancing is as much an accomplishment as it is 

 with the civilized nations of Europe. They have a great variety 

 of dances, and in each different steps and figures are used, of great 

 intricacy, hut they are performed with a neatness and precision that 

 can only be acquired by great practice. Little children are hardly 

 on their legs, before they begin to learn their dancing steps ; and 

 the result of this early training is that, however difficult the 

 step, the limbs of the performers move as if they belonged to one 

 body. ' They have musical voices and a great variety of simple me- 

 lodies. It is a fact that, when we raised a corps of Kols, their early 

 practice in keeping step and time greatly facilitated the operations 

 of drill ; and the Missionaries have availed themselves of the musical 

 talents and taste of the Kol converts to produce congregational singing 

 that would be a credit to an English country church. 



The dances are seen to the greatest advantage at the great periodi- 

 cal festivals called " Jatras." They are at appointed places and 

 seasons, and when the day comes, all take a holiday and proceed to the 

 spot in their best array. The girls, on these occasions, put on their 

 best dress, generally a white " saree" with a broad red border. They 

 tastefully arrange flowers in their hair and plumes of the long breast 

 feathers of the paddy-bird. The young men wear Turkey red turbans, 

 and add a snow white cloth to their usually scanty garb, and also 

 adorn themselves with flowers and peacock's feathers. As parties from 

 the different villages come near the trysting place, they may be 

 observed finishing their toilettes in the open fields ; when all is ready, 

 the groups form, and their approach from different sides, with their 

 banners and yak's tails waving, horns and symbols sounding, mar- 

 shalled into alternate ranks of lads and lasses all keeping perfect 

 step and dress, with the gay head-dresses of the girls and the numer- 

 ous brass ornaments of the boys glittering in the sun, forms a very 

 lively and pleasing picture. They enter the grove where the meeting 

 is held in jaunty dashing style, wheeling and countermarching and 

 forming lines, circles and columns with grace and precision. The 

 dance with these movements is called " khurriah," and they are held 

 in all months of the year, a series of them following each other at 



