44 



On the Language, Manners, and Riles, of the [July 



top of which is an effigy of a bird, and at the foot of which a brass 

 figure of the same bird is buried. The Khonds and others dance round 

 the post to music, and addressing the earth, say, " O god ! we sacrifice 

 to you, give us good crops and seasons and health." Then the victim 

 is addressed — " We have bought you with a price, not seized you, and 

 now sacrifice you according to custom. No sin rests on us." On the 

 following day the victim is intoxicated with toddy again, and anointed 

 with oil. Each individual present touches'the anointed part, and wipes 

 the oil on his own head. They then proceed in procession around the 

 village and its boundaries, bearing the victim, who is preceded by 

 music and a long pole to the top of which is attached tufts of peacocks' 

 feathers. On returning to the post, which is always placed near the 

 village deity {Gram devete), here called " J akaree penoo" represented 

 by three stones, and near to which the brass effigy of a bird, before 

 alluded to, intended to represent a peacock, is always buried. They 

 proceed to dig a pit, and having killed in sacrifice a hog, the blood is 

 allowed to flow into the pit. The victim, who, if it has been found 

 possible, has been made senseless from intoxication, is seized by five 

 or six persons, thrown into the pit, and his face kept pressed to the 

 earth, till suffocated in the bloody mire. All cries, if any, are drowned 

 by the noises of instruments. When supposed to be dead, the Janee 

 cuts a bit of flesh from the body, and buries it with ceremony near the 

 effigy and village idol, as an offering to the earth ; all present then 

 cut pieces of flesh and carry it to their own villages, where part is 

 buried before the same idols, and morsels in the boundaries of the 

 villages, or fields, to which it is carried in procession, with music, &c. 

 The head and face remains untouched, and when the bones are depriv- 

 ed of flesh, they are buried with the head in the pit. 



Subsequently to this horrid rite, a calf is brought before the post, 

 and his four feet being cut off, it is left there till the following day, 

 when women, dressed in male attire, and armed as men, drink, and 

 dance, and sing round the post. The calf is then killed and eaten, and 

 the Janee dismissed with a present of rice, and a hog or calf. 



Captain Millar (43d Regiment N. I.) when at Coopautee, managed 

 with much discretion to rescue no less than twelve victims ; seventeen 

 more have fallen into my hands, making in all twenty-nine. The first 

 who made her escape to my camp, although closely fettered, disap- 

 peared after a few days, and I could never learn more of her. She 

 was an elderly woman ; of the remainder, ten were restored to their 

 friends, and eighteen children from three to ten years of age, remain 

 with Captain Millar and myself. These were all sold by their parents, 

 or I have been unable to discover their history and origin. 



