118 
W. L. Samuells — Gond Legend of Bnghesar. 
[No. 2, 
Speak ! speak ! thou fearful guest ! 
Whose spirit haunts thy breast ?* 
Why thus as one possessed 
Come ye to daunt me ? 
Amidst a breathless silence, the demoniac giving the wretched Kusru a 
piercing look of recognition, informs him and his terror-stricken guests in 
a voice peculiar to gnomes, bogies, goblins, and such like fry, 
I was a tiger bold ! 
My deeds, though manifold, 
No Gond hath yet extolled, 
For this I sought thee. 
Kusru is thunder-struck, and the company in dumb show betoken 
bewilderment, whilst the restless and impatient spirit roars, ‘ Worship me 
with offerings and sacrifices.’ 
A fowl was immediately fetched for the purpose of being offered up 
in the orthodox fashion ; but the spirit evinced such unmistakeable signs of 
dissatisfaction at the very sight of this familiar bird, that a kid was instantly 
brought to be sacrificed in its stead. As soon as the demoniac espied that 
animal, he sprang at it after the fashion of a tiger, and, seizing it between 
his teeth, gnawed and tore it to death. 
Krisru’s joy at this sight was unspeakable ; for there was a something 
in the killing way in which the demoniac went to work that revealed to him 
beyond a doubt, that the spirit present was of a truth no other than that 
of his favourite tiger-son. So he brought out a pot of the last home-brew, 
and some of the finest and purest ghi which his store contained wherewith 
to treat his welcome guest. 
Three loaf-cupfuls of the former were poured down the demoniac’s throat 
and a handful of ghi forced into his mouth, whereupon the spirit being 
satisfied went out of the man, and took its departure for the shades below, 
leaving Kusru dilated with joy, but the company en masse in grave doubt 
as to the light in which this apparently unwarrantable intrusion ought to be 
regarded. 
But they soon received the assurance of Kusru and the Baiga that this 
little novelty which had so alarmed every one at the first was the happiest 
omen possible. So from that day forth, the spirit of Kusni’s tiger-son was 
deified and worshipped under the name of Baghesar by the five Gond clans 
descended from, and respectively named after, the brothers Kusru, Suri, Mar- 
ram, Netia, and Sarsun. 
* “ Speak ! speak ! thou fearful guest ! 
“ Who with thy hollow breast, &c.” 
Longfellow’s Skeleton in Armour. 
