OF BHAEATAVABSA OR INDIA. 
123 
The four tribes to whom the title Koitor is applied are 
the Raj Gond^ Raghuwal, Padal and Dholi, and occasionally 
303, 357-359 ; vol. VIII, pp. 33-36, 219-221 ; and vol. X, pp. 259-264. 
Eead ibidem, vol. V, pp. 358, 359 : " Formerly on a certain day in the year 
the Koi men of each village were driven into the jungle by the women 
to hunt, and were not allowed to return unless they brought home some 
game, — a small bird, or even a rat, being enough to give them the right 
to be welcomed back. This practice is still carried on jby the Eois in the 
Bastar country, and also by many in the Nizam's territory. Mr. Van- 
stavern, whilst boring for coal at Beddadanolu, was visited on that day by 
all the Koi women of the village, dressed up in their lords' clothes, and they 
told him that they had that morning driven their husbands to the forest to 
bring home game of some kind or other. Mr. Vanstavem also states that 
the Kois round Beddadanolu do not eat the goat annually offered for a 
prosperous harvest, but leave it to itself in the jungle tied up to a tree. 
' ' The Koin say that the following gods and goddesses were appointed to be 
•worshipped bj- the Sildras : — Muttelamna, MaridimahdlakshmJ, Potiirdzu, and 
Kofrazitlu, and the following were to receive adoration from the Kois : — Kom- 
malamma, KdtUradu, Adamarazu. The goddess Mamili or Lgle must be propi- 
.tiated early in the year, or else the crops will undoubtedly fail ; and she is 
said to be very partial to human victims . . . All the Kois seem to hold in 
great respect the Pdndava brothers, especially Arjuna and Bhima. The wild 
dogs or dhoh are regarded as the dutas or messengers of these brothers, and 
the long black beetles which appear in large numbers at the beginning of the 
hot weather are called the Pandava flock of goats. Of course they would on 
no account attempt to kill a dhol, even though it should happen to attack 
their favourite calf, and they even regard it imprudent to interfere with 
these diltas when they wish to feast upon their cattle." In vol. VIII, p. 34, 
we read : " They say their dance is copied from Bhima's march after a 
certain enemy. There is no Koi temple in any village near here, and the 
Kois are soldom if ever to be found near a Hindu temple." 
In the Jeypore territory of the Vizagapatam district a similar practice 
as the abovementioned prevails. The men are often away for days in 
search of game, and if they return with none of an evening, their women 
pelt them with cow-dung. 
The Historical and Descriptive Sketch of H.H. the Nizam's Dominions 
remarks in vol. I, pp. 325, 326, about the Kois as follows : — " The Koyas or 
Kois (45,300) are an aboriginal race, found chiefly in the Khamam District 
(39,990). They belong to the same family as the Gonds and the other primi- 
tive races of Central and Southern India. The Kois say that ' they are the 
descendants of Bhimadur, and the local tradition is that when Bhimadur 
accompanied his brother Dharma Ragu to his forest exile he one day went 
hunting in the jungle, and there met a wild woman of the woods, whom he 
fell in love with and married. The fruit of their union was the Koi people. 
The tradition further stales that this wild woman was not a human being.' 
The language spoken by them is similar in some respects to that of the 
Gonds. Like the latter they are noted for their truthful habits . . . The 
fruit of the Ippa tree is dried and reduced to powder. This made into cakes 
and porridge forms their favourite and principal food for the greater part of 
