A LITTLE KNOWN PKOVINCE OF TUE INDIAN EMPIRE. 13t 



to the human sacrifices wliich prevailed there. Tlie Kandhs are 

 •one of the ancient peoples previously mentioned ^vho, under 

 pressure of the Hindu invasion, retreated to the hills and formed 

 the peasant militia which repelled the Afghan invaders. Their 

 only business is agriculture ; war, which was their former 

 •occupation, being now forbidden. They retain the bow and 

 arrow, the axe, a sword and a slinc^, but the old battles, whicli 

 •are said to have contiijued — the women and old men looking 

 on — until one side was exterminated, have perforce ceased. 

 They pay neither taxes nor land revenue, acknowledge no 

 subordination to a local ruler, though the headman, in 

 conjunction with the elders of the village, is an arljiter in the 

 case of private wrongs, depending for obedience on his personal 

 influence; in short, there is as near an approach to anarchy, in 

 the sense of every man doing what is right in his own eyes, as 

 is compatible with the stern repression of armed aggression. 

 The British Agent supplies a real want as a centre of authority 

 for the village communities, who otherwise recognise no coQimon 

 head : his duties are confined to stopping blood feuds, adjusting 

 •dancjerous disputes, and taking cognizance of heinous crimes. 

 The one diflSculty with the Kandhs was the practice of human 

 sacrifice. Their great ceremony was the worship of the earth 

 god, and this involved shedding blood twice a year. The 

 victim was provided by a special servile caste who kidnapped or 

 purchased their prey. So far as the Kandhs were concerned it 

 Avas essential that the victim should be bought. The cry as 

 the first blood of the victim fell to the ground was " We bought 

 you with a price, no sin rests on us." The practice was stopped 

 by Lieutenant Macpherson, who gained the goodwill of the 

 priesthood and village headmen partly by recognising their 

 position and partly by grants of land. 



The hill states governed by the feudatory chiefs are mainly 

 inhabited by wild tribes under various names, some of whom 

 are sufficiently civilised to have settled habitations round which 

 there is cultivation, others clear the jungle, burn the trees, take 

 two or three crops from the virgin soil, and then move on. 

 Some live by collecting forest produce, which they exchange for 

 grain. The clothing of these people is frequently rudimentary ; 

 most of them have so far advanced in civilisation as to wear 

 woven clothes, but when I first went to Orissa in 1866, leaves 

 formed the apparel of the wilder of the aboriginal tribes. 

 During the minority of the Eaja a friend of mine was in charge 

 •of the state of Keonjhur ; with much trouble he came to an 

 ■arrangement with the men of one of the wild tribes of that 



