OR CUTTACK. 203 



a considerable degree of neatness and comfort, and they carry on a very ex- 

 tensive cultivation. Their arms are the bow and arrow, and a small iron 

 battle-axe called Tangi, in the use of which they display much spirit and 

 dexterity. This people own none of the Hindu divinities, and indeed 



seem scarcely to have any system of religious belief whatever, but four 

 things are held by them in high veneration, the Sahajna tree (Hyperan- 

 thera Morunga,) paddy, oil expressed from the mustard seed, and the do°\ 

 In all their contracts and negociations, the leaf of the former is always in- 

 troduced, and they rub each other with oil which is considered to give so- 

 lemnity to the proceeding. They have also a curious method of striking 

 a bargain or concluding a pacification, which will not fail to remind the 

 classical reader of the origin of the word stipulation. I allude to the cir- 

 cumstance of their breaking a straw (stipula) between the disputants, a 

 practice which always follows or precedes the final adjustment of any com- 

 pact. The Coles are passionately fond of fermented liquors, and eat all 

 kinds of flesh and grain, as well as various roots which grow spontaneously 

 in their jungles called the Buenjkarba, Charmika, Tanka, Pachali, Pani 

 Alu, Massia and Mankachu. The flesh of the hog is particularly prized 

 by them, so much so that every house of the Coles almost is said to have 

 the appendage of a piggery. Tiiey are governed chiefly by numerous 

 petty sirdars, or heads of villages, called Manki and Munda, but acknowr 

 ledge allegiance, and in some cases pay tribute, to the hill zemindars in 

 whose countries they are settled, 



The Rands are found in great numbers in all the hill estates south of 

 the Mahanadi. They form the principal part of the population of Kil- 

 lah Ranpur which has thence been called the Kandreh Dandpat. The 

 natives also haye the idea of a district situated between Daspalla, Boad, 

 and Gumsir, inhabited entirely by this tribe of hill people which they 

 call Kandra, I believe that the vast unexplored tracts of mountain and 

 forest lying at the back of the Ganjam and Vizagapatam hill estates, down 

 as far as the Godaveri, are peopled chiefly by Kands in a very savage 



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