lighter to bear, as it is easier to crush the body than to mortify the soul. Because the gospel of the New Testament finds these spiritual evils to contend with, while all other religions yield to and adopt them, I take the fact as a clear indication that that GOSPEL IS FROM GOD.

LECTURE FIFTH.

GOVERNMENT EFFORTS AMONG THE KHONDS.

WHEN visiting in 1849, the missionary boarding-schools at Cuttack and Balasore in the province of Orissa, my attention was specially drawn to a class of children, who but for the humane interference of Government would have been brutally sacrificed upon the blood-stained altars of heathen gods. These children were termed MERIAS. They belonged not to the Oriya population, amongst whom they were then living, but had sprung from the Khonds of the distant hills, and for very safety had been brought by the officers of government down into the Orissa plains. Their dark complexion, broad face, and flat nose, shewed them to be of different origin from that of the Hindus; while the position they had occupied, and the horrid death from which they had been saved, invested them with a peculiar interest; and rendered them objects of peculiar solicitude to those who are interested in seeing the fruits of christian humanity developed amid oriental barbarity and crime. Surely every christian heart will join in the prayer, then mentally offered, that these dear young people might be brought by the Spirit of God to "present their bodies a living sacrifice" to the Saviour of sinners; as the most "reasonable service" they could render to Him for saving them from a cruel and bloody death in ignorance and sin; and for bringing them out of the darkness of idolatry into the gospel's marvellous light. Much has been written of late years concerning the human sacrifices prevalent among the Khonds but I have thought it advisable in order to complete these sketches of Missions in the Presidency of Madras, to describe them somewhat in detail: and to sketch the history of those measures which have been employed for their suppression.

THE KHOND COUNTRY.

The KHONDS are an aboriginal people inhabiting the hills which border the southern portion of the country of ORISSA: their territory lies almost entirely within the Presidency of Madras. Till a few years ago, nothing

whatever was known concerning them. In the year 1829, when Lord Bentinck abolished the rite of Suttee, no one could have informed him, that within four hundred miles of Calcutta, their existed numerous tribes, who were then perpetrating human sacrifices and destroying their female infants, without one thought that they were doing wrong. Even by the Supreme Government of India, the thing was absolutely unknown. It was in 1836, when the Raja of Goomsur, who had long been tributary to the East India Company, rebelled against the Government, that a military force was required to occupy his territory and to subdue the Khond tribes of Upper Goomsur, to whom he had fled. The Government and the Khonds then became intimately known to each other for the first time; and then for the first time all the barbarous practices of the latter stood revealed to the wide world. The enquiries then and subsequently made by the Government officers, brought to light the manners and habits of these hill barbarians; the character of their country; the constitution of their Societies; the relations in which they stood to each other and to the Zemindars of the country near them; their domestic, social and tribal feuds; their mode of life; the amount of their civilization and knowledge; their religious superstitions; and the objects and method of their worship. Thus was it found that in extensive districts human sacrifices were practised; in others, female infanticide; in others, both these evils; in a few others, neither of them. This information contributed chiefly to the Madras Government, by many officers and during several years, appears in the most complete form in the ably-written Reports of Capt. Macpherson, the first of which was published by Government, in 1841.

The Khonds inhabit the hill districts on the borders of Orissa and Ganjam. Their country naturally divides itself into two parts; lying as it does partly above and partly below the Ghát range, of which we have so frequently spoken. In the lower districts the hilly wastes, clothed with deep woods and interspersed with extensive valleys and undulating downs gradually come down to the level plains of Orissa, near the sea. From these the higher districts are separated, by the steep and precipitous Gháts; and form an extensive plateau above them, somewhat similar to that of Mysore, stretching far away into the territories of Central India. These hill regions termed Máliás, are distinguished by different names. Bordering on the Orissa territory and the river Mohanuddy, lie the Boad Máliás; next toward the south the Goomsur Máliás, including Hodzoghoro, the Bara and Atháro Mutahs, and Chokapad; south

of these are the Surádá and Corada Máliás; and west of these, the extensive Máliás of Chinna Kimedy. These are the chief divisions of the Khond country. Of these only the Surádá Máliás entirely, and Goomsur partially, lie below the Gháts: the rest are entirely above them.

The country thus divided presents a varied aspect to the traveller's eye. Below the Gháts, the villages are somewhat scattered; the valleys appear poor, bleak and barren; water is less abundant than in the higher lands; the country displays no varieties of scenery; and the hilly slopes under the great range are thickly covered with the Dammer tree and the bamboo. The districts on the plateau above are far more picturesque. The table-land is much broken by valleys sometimes deep and rugged; and is crossed by ridges of hills of varied height some being 4000 feet above the sea. Many parts are bare of wood; in others are groups of forest trees; in others a jungle rich in flowers; the valleys and glens furnish sites for the villages and fields for culture; while in the higher and deeper recesses of the hills thick forests grow inhabited by the tiger and the bear. In the Máliás of Chinna Kimedy a thick forest of timber trees covers the whole surface and extends westward without a break for more than a hundred and forty miles. Portions of this forest have been cut down by the people, and the cleared land in the valleys cultivated. The soil is every

where fertile; and if the land were all cleared and the numerous waterfalls and springs properly turned to account, it would yield the most abundant harvests. Numerous vegetable products are raised, which furnish materials for traffic in the plains. In Chinna Kimedy alone, besides what is consumed by the people, more than ten thousand bullock-loads of turmeric and four thousand loads of mustard, pepper, tamarind, arrow-root, honey and wax, are carried to the markets below the Gháts to be exchanged for cloth, brass and iron vessels, and beads. The routes by which the traffic is carried on from the higher land to the plains are most difficult to traverse. Till lately they were merely the natural openings through the mountains, unimproved by any aid of art: one of them however, leading through the heart of Goomsur, has been greatly improved by the Government, and rendered a safe and easy pass.

THE KHOND PEOPLE.

The people are in general divided into two great classes; those living on the lower ranges of the Gháts, and those in the districts above them.

The former are called Bennia Khonds; the latter, the Máliá or highland Khonds. The Bennia Khonds were apparently permitted by their Hindu conquerors to retain their lands on a rent tenure or on that of feudal service to their zemindars. Living nearer the plains, and in subjection to Hindu governors, they have of course been brought into constant intercourse with the Hindus who people them: they attend the markets and bazars, and witness much of a life and habits different from their own. The consequence has been a partial adoption of Hindu manners. The most changed among the Bennias are very like the Hindus; and between them and the pure Khonds may be seen all grades in the change from the habits of the latter to those of the former. They wear the Hindu dress, speak the Oriya language, build houses after the Hindu plan, use the Oriya plough, refuse to cultivate turmeric, drink milk, eat ghee, and abstain from the barbarous practice of dancing, of which their less refined countrymen are extravagantly fond. They have even adopted Káli as one of their deities; while the Hindus in the same districts have adopted the Khond god and call him Khondini. In the worship of the deity both people unite together; while the Khond priest and the bráhman serve together at his altar. In this way while they retain many of their original customs, the Bennia Khonds have departed from the thorough barbarism of their highland brethren and become assimilated in some measure to their Hindu neighbours. The process of assimilation is still going on; and will advance, perhaps with accelerated speed, now that the East India Company are rulers of the whole country, and more frequent intercourse has been established between its different localities.

The Máliá Khonds on the other hand, living on the plateau and in the vallies above the gháts, exhibit all the characteristics of Khond society in their purest form. They have, it is true, always been in intercourse with the zemindars of the lower country; sometimes making a raid or foray into their territories to levy black-mail, but acting usually as independent allies and friends, never as subjects. Separated from the Hindus of the plains by the broad belt of hill zemindaries, filled with men like themselves, and shut out by their inaccessible hills and jungles from all attempts at conquest, they have remained the same people in manners and pursuits for many hundreds, it may be thousands, of years. To some particulars concerning these manners, let me briefly direct your attention.

The dress of the Khonds both male and female is very scanty, and resembles that of the poorer Hindus. The men wear their black and shiny hair in a knot fastened by an iron pin above the forehead or

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