188 The " Kols" of Chota-Nagpore. 



I have already observed that the Pahan or village priest is in all 

 probability an Oraon institution. The Rajmahali have a similar 

 functionary called c Demam,' who foretells events, offers sacrifices, 

 regulates feasts and exorcises devils. In the Ho and Moondah villages, 

 all priestly functions may be performed by the head of the family, or, 

 if the occasion be one in which the village generally is concerned, by 

 any elder of the requisite knowledge and experience. They worship 

 the sun, " Singbonga," as the supreme being, the creator, the preserver ; 

 and a number of secondary gods, all invisible ; material idol worship 

 they have none. The paganism of the Ho and Moondah in all 

 essential features is shamanistic. 



The Oraons, in addition to the Pahan whose business it is to offer 

 sacrifices for the benefit of the community, have recourse to a person 

 called " Ojha" whom they consult regarding the proper spirit to be 

 invoked and the nature of the sacrifice that is required of them, and 

 whose functions appear to me to bear a strong resemblance to those 

 of the medicine man of the African tribes. The Oraons have wooden 

 images or stones to represent the* village and domestic spirits that they 

 worship. Thus a carved post in the centre of their dancing arena 

 represents the tutelary deity of the village, " Daroo ;" and they have 

 objects of some kind to represent their domestic gods, penates. 



They never build a house, or select a new site for a village or even 

 a new threshing-floor, without consulting the ojha and omens. When 

 a new house is ready for the reception of its owners, an ojha is called, 

 and he takes earth from the hearth and charcoal, and mixing them 

 together, marks on the floor a magic circle. In the centre of this 

 he places an egg, and on the egg a split twig of the Bel tree. The 

 egg is then roasted and eaten by the people who are to occupy 

 the house. This is followed by a great feast and dancing — a regular 

 house-warming — on the top of the house an image of a fish is hung 

 to avert the evil eye. These peculiarities in the paganism of the 

 Oraon, and only practised by Moondahs who live in the same village 

 with them, appear to me to savour thoroughly of feticism : before 

 affirming this positively, it would be advisable to examine more 

 minutely the customs of the Rajmahal hill tribes ; but the elephant 

 gods, depicted by W. Sherwill as seen in their villages, are very fetish 

 in appearance.* 



* Vide Journal, Asiatic Society Bengal, No. VII. 1851, page 553. 



