OR CUTTACK. 205 



spoken by the Oorias, and is scarcely intelligible to any but themselves. 

 They are said to worship certain rude forms of Devi and Mahadeo orratherthe 

 Hindus so interpret the adoration paid by them to a few natural objects, as 

 stumps of trees, masses of stone, or clefts in rocks, in which an impure ima- 

 gination may discern some resemblance to the human organs of generation. 

 Some are fixed in small villages called Sour S'ai's ; others lead a migra- 

 tory sort of life, clearing annually spots in the jungle, where they erect 

 huts of sticks, leaves, and grass, and sow different sorts of grain of the Millet 

 kind, as the Jooar, Bajereh, Makye, Mandea, &c. which sprout up with ex- 

 traordinary luxuriance in such situations. They will eat almost any kind 

 of food, whether animal or vegetable. A great part of their subsistence 

 is derived from the roots and produce of the jungles. The flowers of the 

 Madhuka (Bassia latifolia), and the Keora,* yield them an intoxicating 

 liquor ; in lieu of rice they consume the seed of the bamboo, a very heat- 

 ing and indigestible food ; the wild yams, arums, and other roots furnish 

 a nutritious, and uot unwholesome substitute for bread ; and for a desert 

 they have the wild mangoe, the fruit of the Bela every where abundant, 

 and the seeds of the Bauhinia racemosa, served up on the large ribbed leaf 

 of the Ravya (apparently a species of Dillenia), which answers the purpos- 

 es of a dish. 



The author of the work called the Kholaset ul Towarikh, places in the 

 neighbourhood of Orissa, the country called the Triya or Stri Raj, where 

 females (not amazons) exercise the powers of government, and have the up- 

 per hand in society, and in the management of all affairs. As the fable of 

 the existence of such a country in this part of India seems to be a purely 

 gratuitous invention of the iMahommedan writers, and is not supported ei- 

 ther by the histories or the current belief of the natives of the province, 1 

 shall not here stop to inquire into its meaning and origin. 



The language of the Or or Odra nation is a tolerably pure Bhasha (dia- Lan 

 lect) of the Sanscrit, resembling closely the Bengali, but far remote ap- 



* Pandanus odoratissinws. 



uage. 



