amongst their jungles and fastnesses, to their comparative independence of the Rájá's authority, and to the distance of his agency from the districts where they resided, this plain order would be but little obeyed. What was the result of Col. Ouseley's efforts, and whether they have been continued by his successors, I am unable to say.

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Such were the early measures adopted by the Governments of Madras and Bengal for the suppression of the dreadful Meria sacrifice and such the kind of success which their plans met with during the first few years. Begun in the upper Maliás of Goomsur, and its several mutahs, they had been continued there for four successive years: and partially extended to Chinna Kimedy. Boad and Duspalla had been really visited for only two seasons with any thing like a persevering determination to put the evil down. Immense tracts of country, and numerous branches of the Khond tribes, had not been visited at all. Some of the effects of these visits had been immediate and some had an influence upon the practice of the rite which would be exhibited only in future years. The first result of the Government enquiries was to reveal the actual fact of the Meria sacrifice, the ground on which it was maintained by the people, and the revolting barbarities with which it was accompanied. Then, the deeper the enquiry went, and the greater the variety of the modes of investigation, the more appalling did the sacrifice appear, from the immense extent of territory over which it was celebrated unchecked; its perpetrators ignorant of its dreadful heinousness, and its victims every where awfully numerous. Then too did men learn the many difficulties by which the efforts to suppress it were surrounded. It became evident that the Khonds who had first learned the might of the Government in a disastrous war, and were ignorant of the humane principles by which these efforts were suggested, were suspicious of all interference with their peculiar customs, and doubted the motive by which the rite had been so earnestly attacked. Endued with the warmest love for liberty, they feared, in these efforts, underhand attempts to bring them into complete political subservience to this new Power around them. It was seen also that their political relations to the Government were unfavourable to the decided measures which their case seemed to require. In only one case, was the East India Company a direct ruler, in the districts of Goomsur: in others, there was a Rájá over the Khonds, who paid a small tribute to him: while he alone had any direct dealings with the Government. Far to the west, other districts were even more independent than these. Again,

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the physical difficulties in the way of the Agent's progress were very great. The passes from the plains to the Maliás above the ghauts are few and hard to travel: the districts are cut off from each other, by lines of hills, precipitous valleys, and immense tracts of forest and jungle: in some cases, as in Boad, the routes could be entirely closed, the valleys blockaded, and all intercourse with other parts brought to an end. Malaria and fever are very prevalent at some times of the year; the heat and rain are obstacles at other times; so that the period of each year in which Europeans could safely visit the hills was reduced to a very limited time. Added to these things was the fact that all the agents employed were amply engaged in other duties and that but little leisure could be spared from them, to devote their attention to the important work of saving merias and humanizing their barbarous sacrificers. Happily these difficulties were not all insurmountable: they did not therefore prevent all good: they served to call forth the zeal, energy and self-denial of all engaged in the good work: so that in spite of all disadvantages attempts were made to meet the evil and to meet it with success.

The good really effected during the few years mentioned can scarcely be reckoned small. In addition to the knowledge acquired of all the circumstances that had to be dealt with; two hundred and forty victims. had actually been rescued and safely placed under Government protection. Repeated conferences had been held with the Khond Chiefs; in which principles of humanity had been expounded, the revolting nature of their sacrifices explained, the horror of the Government at their cruelty been declared, and all had been informed in the plainest terms that the Government had determined to have them abolished. Such explanations were indeed but steps towards that suppression, but they were absolutely required for a clear understanding of the proceedings of Government, about which the Khonds were suspicious. They had also an immediate effect upon the people, in checking the sacrifice, which till then they had never hesitated to perform; this gratifying result is shewn in several ways. First the sacrifices became much more private: secondly; they became less numerous and thirdly; the people were inspired with a wholesome fear of punishment for what had now been declared to be wrong. I quote two very interesting illustrations of this last fact from the statements of rescued children. They reveal several painful elements in the private preliminary history of these horrid crimes; as well as exhibit the influence of the Agents' visits:

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Deposition of Susta, of Boad, aged about twelve years. "About three years ago, Rotna Panwa, of Putka in Boad, sold me, for I know not what sum, to Sugaib Mullick Khund. He had previously brought my mother to live with him. I went with her; he then kidnapped me. I was employed in fetching wood. Last October, the paiks of the village in which I was, went to call the priest to sacrifice me, but the priest would not attend. He told them to wait until all the Government servants had left the district, and then he would sacrifice me. There was no other meria in the village but myself. Upon the occasion of sending for the priest, I first knew of the human sacrifices. My mother is still alive. The man who sold me, I have heard since my release, has died. I beg to be sent to my mother, who is in Ulut in Boad.

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Deposition of Subdee, aged fifteen years, of Duspulla.

"About five years ago, my father and mother went to Patka in Boad, for the purpose of getting mangoes, as it was a time of scarcity; they took me with them; and when in the jungle at that place, Peenka Panwa, of that village, took me away and sold me to Gobur Naik, who employed me in fetching wood. Two months ago I was covered with turmeric, and then I heard from the villagers that I was intended for a 'meria.' The villagers sent for one Ruthee Gooroo, a priest, but he refused to come, as the Government servants were in the district and had forbidden the custom."

Beyond these direct results of their interference, the Government officers had acquired valuable experience respecting the greatness of the evils to be dealt with, the difficulties to be encountered in suppressing them, and the means demanded for their removal. The measures suggested by them for the future, in order to attain a more secure, speedy and complete suppression of the meria sacrifice, were both direct and indirect.

1. The indirect were such as would remove obstacles to the exercise of more extended influence, and would aid in humanizing and civilising the barbarous people. They were measures calculated to secure increased intercourse with people of better habits and better views of the laws which govern society at large. For this end it was essential to have good and easy roads formed through the various districts; a difficult work, owing to the precipitous passes which shut off some localities, and the dense forests which covered others. Capt. Campbell suggested that the chief road should be formed, from Aska near Ganjam, up the Koorminghia pass, and across the districts of Gomsur and Boad to Sohnpore on the Mohanadi. This is the high road from the coast into Nagpore; and as it would run through the very heart of Khondistan and would carry immense traffic both to and from the sea coast, it would not only prove

of the greatest use to the Khond trade, but would bring the hill tribes into constant communication with the plains. For the same reasons it was recommended by Capt. Hicks, that a similar road should be formed leading from Cuttack through Duspalla and Boad, up the Burmúl pass, then almost impracticable. In all the districts other roads might be opened, leading from the main routes. Thus trade would be carried on with ease, the people of different districts be no longer isolated, communications be secured both with Nagpore and the sea coast; and best of all, unity be imparted to the various branches of agency among the Khonds which they had never yet enjoyed. It was also suggested that markets should be maintained, and fairs established, for the purpose of facilitating trade, and that they should be amply stocked with all the articles which the Khonds are anxious to buy. It was proposed also that a body of Khond police should be raised and permanently maintained in the Goomsur territory, in order to keep the peace. The value of these measures as subsidiary to the higher purposes of maintaining political and social order, of humanizing the wild people, and above all, of suppressing the dreadful rites of their cruel religion, will be readily acknowledged. It must be regretted however that several of them, especially the completion of the great routes, were not accomplished for several years; and thus the other plans of the Government were needlessly impeded in their progress.

2. The most important question which arose from the experience of the first few years, related to the principle on which DIRECT measures for the abolition of the meria sacrifices and infanticide should be based. By all the Government officers, who were men of judgment and well acquainted with the country, the case was felt to be exceedingly difficult. Here was a barbarous people, extremely ignorant of the Government, extremely ignorant of the first principles of true morality, engaged in the constant commission of the most brutal murders, without one thought of their heinousness, and convinced that by their means they were securing the favour of the gods and the fruitfulness of the soil. These people were to be taught the real character of their rites and to be induced entirely to abolish them. Was the Government to turn missionary, and strive to get rid of the evil merely by producing an entire change in the moral and religious opinions of the Khonds? Or was it to turn despot, issue an ukase, denouncing the sacrifices, and despatch a military force to crush the rite with bullets and the sword? Or was it, in assuming the rule of the country, to recognise the sacrifices as murders, and steadily

punish the perpetrators with imprisonment and death. It was felt that something must be done, and done on system, to meet the evil as extensively as it existed: and accordingly from the first, the local officers in submitting their own views of the matter, asked direction from their respective superiors as to the RULE by which they were to act.

a. On one point all the officers were agreed. All rejected as impracticable and cruel, the despotic plan of crushing the system by bullets. All felt that the ignorance of the people claimed compassion, and that the kindest persuasion must be employed to induce them voluntarily to abstain from their repeated cruelties. All felt that justice and mercy alike required that the most earnest endeavours should be made to convince the people of their guilt; to explain the true nature of their human sacrifice; to exhibit its brutality, its cruelty, its utter uselessness; to shew how those who did not sacrifice, fared in their harvest as well as those who did that the people of the plains also needed no such dreadful rites to secure the harvests by which they are fed, and that on the contrary, such sacrifices are horrid crimes which alike meet with the reprobation of men and with the anger of an offended God. Such persuasions therefore were offered from the very first, and such considerations were laid before the Khond assemblies, year after year, to convince them that their rites were both wrong in themselves and injurious in their results.

b. But this was not all. The various officers of Government, civil and military, were agreed also that some degree of force must be used in its suppression. All were agreed that the sacrifice should be treated as a CRIME, and that those engaged in it, either as principals or accessaries, should not only be declared worthy of punishment, but have that punishment inflicted upon them. This suggestion was a most natural one. Even in the professing church of Christ, which occupies the highest stand of morality, the motives to holiness embrace not only the love and gratitude due to the Redeemer, but appeal also to the fear of his punishment and the rebuke of fellow-christians. In the most civilized communities all great vices and crimes are checked, and the cause of order sustained, by inflicting punishment upon offenders. At this very time, the burning of a Suttee, human sacrifice at Kalighat, the sacrifice of a child at Gunga Sagor, are all crimes in the eye the law, and are punished as deliberate murders. The Government of India regards these acts, though professedly religious, as crimes against society; and not content with mere persuasion, endeavours by

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