MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. LONDON PH1NTKD BY 8POTTISWOODB AND CO. NEW-STREET SQCARB John Mtara* lib esmarle. Street 1&6 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE MAJOE SAMUEL CHAETEES MACPHEESON, C.B. POLITICAL AGENT AT GWALIOR DURING THE MUTINY, AND FORMERLY EMPLOYED IN THE SUPPRESSION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ORISSA. EDITED BY HIS BROTHER W I L L I A M M A C P H E R S N. ' Is genu<=> moocile PC dispcsrVun raon-llVi.-' altis Comijosuit, iegesque deuit. ; ' VIHG. WITH PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1865. The rlijht of tTanf.la.tion i% re*erccd. PS 4-8 5 HENRY MORSE STEPHEN* TO THE EEV. ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D. LATE OF CALCUTTA, IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE FRIENDSHIP WHICH SUBSISTED BETWEEN HIM AND MAJOR MACPHERSON, THESE PAGES ARE, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 51,2925 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE FIRST YEARS OF INDIAN SERVICE JALNAH SECUNDERABAD THE NlLGHERRY HlLLS 1 CHAPTER II. SERVICE IN THE SURVEY DEPARTMENT THE DECCAN THE NIL- GIIERRY HILLS NELLORE (1831-1386) . . . .22 CHAPTER III. THE GOOMSUR WAR (1836) 35 CHAPTER IV. FIRST VISIT TO THE HILLS (1837) 51 CHAPTER V. DESCRIPTION OF THE KHONDS ....... 60 CHAPTER VI. THE KIIOND RELIGION HUMAN SACRIFICE AND FEMALE INFANTI- CIDE ... 84 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PAGE RETURN TO NELLORE AND VISIT TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE (from January 1838 to January 1841) . . 137 CHAPTER VIII. MEASURES FOR THE ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE AMONG THE KHONDS (from 1837 to 1842) 146 CHAPTER IX. APPOINTMENT AS ASSISTANT TO THE AGENT IN GANGAM RETURN TO GOOMSUR (1841) 158 CHAPTER X. SECOND VISIT TO THE HILLS (1841-42) 165 CHAPTER XL FIRST STEPS TOWARDS THE ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE (1842) 173 CHAPTER XII. THIRD VISIT TO THE HILLS OPPOSITION AND REMOVAL OF SAM BISSYE (1842, 1843) 184 CHAPTER XIII. FOURTH VISIT TO THE HILLS ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE IN GOOMSUR (January to May 1844) 197 CHAPTER XIV. RESULTS OF CAPTAIN MACPHERSON'S MANAGEMENT OF THE SACRI- FICING KHONDS (1842-1844) . . . . .212 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XV. PAGE MEASURES FOR THE ABOLITION OF INFANTICIDE (1842-1844) . 218 CHAPTER XVI. MR. CADENHEAD'S MANAGEMENT OF THE KHONDS (1844-1845) . 220 CHAPTER XVII. THE HILL AGENCY FIFTH VISIT TO THE HILLS (November 1845 May 1846) 241 CHAPTER XVIII. RETURN FROM THE HILLS RUIN OF THE INFANTICIDE WORK NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE BOAD RAJAH GENERAL WORSHIP OF THE GOD OF LIGHT REFUSAL OF ESCORTS (April October 1846) 256 CHAPTER XIX. SIXTH VISIT TO THE HILLS DISTURBANCES THEIR SUPPRESSION (November 1846 March 1847) 267 CHAPTER XX. DISMISSAL AND VINDICATION OF THE HILL AGENCY RETURN TO GREAT BRITAIN . . . . . . . .277 CHAPTER XXL MR. CADENHEAD AND MAJOR PINKNEY 284 CHAPTER XXII RETURN TO INDIA BENARES BHOPAL GWALIOR (1853-1857) . 292 x CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. PAGE THE MUTINY THE GWALIOR CONTINGENT KEPT OUT OF THE FIELD (1857) 310 CHAPTER XXIV. SCINDIA'S OVERTHROW AND RESTORATION ILLNESS AND DEATH OF MAJOR MACPHERSON 329 APPENDIX A 353 APPENDIX B * . . . . 371 APPENDIX C 379 APPENDIX D 382 APPENDIX E 384 APPENDIX F. 392 ILLUSTBATIONS. PORTRAIT OF MAJOR S. CHARTERS MACPHERSON, C.B. to face title-page KHOND VILLAGE, WITH SACRED HILL AND MERIAH GROVE ..,..-.. to face page 61 KHONDS DRESSED FOR BATTLE .... 79 KONOBAGRI, NEAR COURMINGHIA, IN THE GOOMSUR KHOND COUNTRY 185 VIEW IN THE GOOMSUR KHOND COUNTRY . . ,, 197 FORT OF GWALIOR ...... ,, 298 OF shewing ^ SCINDIA'S DOMINIONS. ^ i .WestiukHattotL Garden. Published by JohnMurraj.AIbemarle S^ MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA CHAPTER I. FIKST YEARS OF INDIAN SERVICE JALNAH SECUNDERABAD THE NILGHERRY HILLS. THESE Memorials tell of a barbarous race won over from, dark and cruel rites ; and of an important Indian State rendered in the hour of need a mainstay of the Empire, when its defection would have involved that of every Native Power. They show how these objects were attained through the benevolence, the sagacity, and the firmness of an officer whose name is almost unknown to the British public, but whose earnest desire was that good men should think well of him. They may also serve to convey to the reader some idea of the labours and anxieties of Indian Political life. SAMUEL CHARTERS MACPHERSON, the second son of Dr. Hugh Macpherson, Professor of Greek in the University of Aberdeen, and of his first wife Anne Maria Charters, was born on the 7th January 1806, at King's College, Old Aberdeen. In consequence of delicate health in child- hood, the years which most boys pass at school were spent B OF SERVICE IX INDIA. [CnAr. J. /%? hint 1 at- 'home Bunder private tuition, but lie eventually grew up tall and strong. He studied at King's College, and afterwards at the College of Edinburgh. His classical training was carefully attended to, but his favourite studies were botany, chemistry, and geology. His mind made a great advance during the winter of 1822-23, when he studied moral philosophy at Edinburgh, under the celebrated John Wilson ; whose lectures, or rather ora- tions, reverentially listened to by day, were discussed in the evening with his tutor, the Eev. Dr. George Tulloch, who informs the Editor that upon these occasions he was catechised, puzzled, cross-questioned, and debated with as he never had the pleasure of being questioned and worked by a pupil, before or since. Dr. Tulloch adds : 'He uncon- sciously showed great ability; his talents and capacity were very far superior to those of his contemporaries ; and I count it great honour to have aided slightly in de- veloping his reasoning powers, and his love of doing good for its own sake without the least alloy of vanity or self.' He spent his two next years at Trinity College, Cam- bridge. That place of learning has ever contained some of England's best minds, and at the period referred to it was perhaps more than usually rich in intellectual ability and pleasant companionship. Macaulay's voice had but lately ceased that of Praed had not ceased to be heard at the 'Union' Debating Society; Peacock, Whewell, and Julius Charles Hare were among the younger tutors of Trinity College, and many gifted and active spirits were to be found among the undergra- duates. The intelligence and genial disposition of the subject of these Memorials gained him many friends, and he profited much by his residence at Cambridge. Like many others, he learnt quite as much from the free collision of thought which takes place among young men at college, as from the regular studies of the place. A near relative, with whom he now formed a close and intimate friendship, gives the following account of CHAP. I ] VOYAGE TO MADRAS. 3 his Cambridge life : ' He had a quiet dignity of appear- ance which was very striking. His intellectual powers were of a high order, but he was disabled from cul- tivating them in the manner prescribed by the University authorities, by the increasing delicacy of his eyes, which rendered him unfit for prolonged study. Had it not been for this, there was nothing which seemed beyond his grasp. The result was that he formed a habit of independent and somewhat desultory reading, chiefly upon scientific and abstract subjects, which added largely to the vast mass of miscellaneous information which he possessed. He was honest, upright, and true too honest perhaps and too plain for his interests. His vigour of character and firmness of purpose were remarkable. He was social and joyous, and at the college symposia he was the life and soul of the party ; yet he had entire self- control, and never carried festivity to excess. Kind and wholly unselfish, he commanded the esteem as well as the love of a small knot of attached friends by whom he was encircled.' At the end of two years he returned, as had always been intended, to read for the Scottish bar, at which it is usual to commence practice at an earlier age than in England. At Edinburgh, however, he devoted himself somewhat too eagerly to his new subjects, particularly Political Economy and the Civil Law ; and his eyes, already weak, became subject to an affection which in- terfered seriously with his studies. After anxious con- sultation with the best surgeons of the day, who gave him very little encouragement to hope that his eyes would ever be able to meet the demands of a laborious profession, he became desirous to provide himself with an occupation in which they might be less severely tasked. A cadetship in the East India Company's service was obtained for him, and he sailed in the ship 'Waterloo' for Madras early in 1827. He had secured the luxury of a large and airy cabin on board the ' Waterloo,' but, with B 2 4 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. the genuine kindness of heart which characterised him through life, he gave it up to a young cadet, whom he nursed through a long and fatal illness, putting up with very bad quarters himself. In June he arrived at Madras. He was soon after posted to a regiment at Wallajahbad, but his destination was changed at his own request to the 8th Eegiment of Native Infantry, which he joined at Jalnah. The following extracts from letters, addressed to various members of his family, contain the early impressions of a subaltern whom Cambridge had (as he afterwards said himself) somewhat spoiled for his place at the bottom of the Madras Army List : < Jalnah, 25th December 1827. ' I have at length arrived at our head-quarters upon the very eve of changing their locality, and shall ever look back with pleasure on my late fine stretch nearly across the peninsula. The continuation of our route from Hy- derabad was the pleasantest portion of the march. No longer cumbered with the plodding tread of our recruits, lightly and well, by extended marches, we reached Jal- nah, by many spots great in old renown and now mag- nificent in the gradations of decay. The regions of the Northern Deccan are usually spread in immense plains, portions of which are richly cultivated, while other parts present the aspect of boundless wastes. The climate in the latter portion of the march, although in mean tem- perature nearly approaching to the European, was not grateful. The cold of the night and morning was extreme, while nothing was abated of midday heat. In this spot the extremes are not at present severely felt. The air is delightful, save during the meridian hours. The thermometer before sunrise from 60 to 65, in the heat of the day from 74 to 78. During the march it was often 100 in the coolest tent.' CHAP. L] EXCURSION FROM JALNAH. 5 1 Secunderabad,* 1st June 1828. ' I will endeavour to give you a brief account of a late excursion of mine. I left Jalnah with two friends, to visit, in a route of 130 miles, some of the most interesting spots that India now presents, in memory of her civil and religious greatness. On the first evening we rode after sunset eighteen miles, and by ten o'clock found our tent pitched under the wall of a considerable village ; for in those territories which have not been long familiar with the English sway the villages are universally fortified. The walls are of mud, and bold and strong ; and although, since the final suppression of the great predatory powers, the torrents of heaven have been their sole assailants, their repair is still in general most religiously cared for. We started next morning by two, and, as the sun had just broken fully forth, found ourselves in command of the pro- spect of the city of Aurungabad. It lay before us on the plain, partly seeming to rest on the broad slope of a hill, which afforded it the most noble and picturesque relief. Its turreted and bastioned wall, waving beneath us in a course of fifteen miles, defined the circling outline of the city, Without, the domes and minarets of the tombs rose profusely from amid the gardens of the dead. The most beautiful is sacred to the peerless daughter of Aurungzebe, whose appellation on earth was " the gem of heaven." Our tent was pitched at its outer gate, itself a structure worthy of any site, with minarets and battlements and gates of brass. The monumental edifice occupies the centre of a garden of fifty acres, spread forth in all the lux- uriance of Eastern taste. The building is in shape nearly square. Four principal towers compose the angles, the great dome encircled with glittering minarets the centre. Of this pile, the tomb itself occupies only a single secondary dome. Its form is an octagon, converging in a dome 70 feet overhead. Over a tombstone, very slightly elevated, a * The military station attached to Hyderabad in the Deccan, 6 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CnAr. I. coverlet of silk and gold is laid', strewed with the freshest flowers arid constantly perfumed by censers. This is surrounded by a double fence of rich open palisade work in white marble. The sides of the octagon are clothed with the same material to the height of 20 feet, broken only by niches wrought with exquisite labour. There a gallery of lattice-work, in which the marbles vary in every compartment to all the light and beautiful shades, is carried completely round. ' The next march, along the base of a range of hills, brought us to Dowlatabad. It rises from the plain as a bold rock from the sea, and with the perpendicularity of a house-wall gains the height of about 800 feet. It is further insulated by a broad ditch cut close round the base to the depth of 40 or 50 feet. The city lies at the foot and rises on one side of the hill. The wall enclosing it joins the fortifications of the rock, which surmount it as a coronet. On all sides the hills rise beautifully, and the city is encircled with vineyards and the valley filled with wild peacocks. In the next succeeding march we ascended a steep hill and attained an extensive plain at a new elevation, supported by a circle of hills. We halted at Eosa in a tomb, after passing through exquisite scenery. The site of Eosa surpasses in loveliness any- thing I have seen. From the plain of Eosa we descended to Ellora., on the old level of Dowlatabad ; and in one of the supporting faades of that elevated plateau we perceived the dark mouths of the excavations or caves of Ellora studding the face of the steep for about a mile. The detail of these most wonderful works of men's hands I cannot give ; but in the solid mountain are nearly twenty distinct excavated cathedrals of some hundred feet in every direction. They are pillared arid supported by ranges of columns approaching every architectural style. The walls are crowded with colossal figures of the gods or men of the Hindu heroic or deific age. The figures vary from the colossal to the pigmy scale, and are hewn in the rock CHAP. I.J REGIMENTAL LIFE. 7 with every variety of relief. They are in some cases detached, and the excavations often reach the surface and admit copious light. Sometimes chapels sculptured out- side and excavated with sculpture within ; and gods and elephants, and men in loves, in battles, and in triumphs, rise in tiers composing rich pyramidal spires. For the last month the wind has been blowing a regular sirocco at 96 of the thermometer. The rains are just beginning to threaten and we gasp for relief; however, we are still alive, and should the thermometer fall to 80, we should be thank- ful. The soil here is granitic, and the dust rises in such columnar clouds as to blind the very sun.' Next conies a sketch of regimental life, not meant, perhaps, to be quite seriously taken. The truth is, he very early wearied of what General Wolfe, when still a young officer, termed ' the barren battalion conver- sation ' : ' Secunderabad, 15th July 1828. ' On march every tent is struck and every man at his post by 2 a.m. The officers are allowed to mount, and on we plod for the next four or five hours, half in darkness ; and as the sun grows hot take up ground near a village and a tank, the apparatus et commeatus moving upon elephants, camels, and bullocks innumera- ble. Breakfast is prepared in advance, and while we eat in weariness, each man's domicile is rearing. The sepoys' pretty tents stand in three rows in front ; second, the moving bazaar or market ; the line of subalterns succeeds, then the staff and superior officers ; and lastly, in pre-eminence, the commandant environed by a guard. We have mess-tiffin at two o'clock. The day is passed in dozing, or in shooting in the sun ; each morrow the type of the future and the reflection of the past, and the average advance ten miles per diem. At length we reach cantonment, that is, besides a congregation of laby- rinthine huts for the sepoys, some ranges of barracks serving only as storehouses, &c., and a number of bunga- MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. of all descriptions, generally mixed with trees or gardens. In the most suitable of these we post ourselves, paying heavy rents. I shall write on at random con- cerning my daily routine. First, then, and I write it not in bile, as to the " luxury of the East." I believe 1 have seen it in the most attractive guise, and must pronounce its existence fabulous, unless it is to be dis- covered among the Himalayas, as it is fully expected the unicorn will be, for the good reason that it is to be found nowhere else. If the allusion be not simply to curry and rice, the origin of that expression, " luxury of the East," is to me an enigma. Before 5 a.m. every morning I am wakened by my clothes-boy's bawl that the first bugle-blast is gone. A pony is at the door with the complement of keepers for a royal tiger. The second trumpet sounds ; no other hint is needed by the animal, and in one minute I am on parade. There are a dozen fellows lounging on their bending legs and rapiers, or dozing against the adjutant's charger, or probing each other's livers,' which they declare to be in a rapid course of enlargement or evanescence. The colonel comes on the ground, and we are requested to fall in smartly. We get in motion, march and countermarch, under every condition of time, quantity, and place for the next two hours, and various and frequent may be the miseries of the morning. The colonel forgets " what the book said next," and asks the adjutant, "who had not read so far," who applies to the major, who protests " he would tell him if he knew." Then a luckless ensign trots wrong in the face of the sun, and is plainly told he is leading the corps to the lower world of horror ; and if true misery on earth may be laughed at, I think it is the misery of a bothered corps of sepoys. The gaping of the rank-and-file, the staring fright of the native officers, and the polyglot jabbering of the European, the terrific Saracen-like visage of the colonel, the major's grin, and the adjutant's gallop in dismay these are CHAP. I.] SICK LEAVE. 9 amusing matters in my craft. At length we are dis- missed with burning visages, and cantering home (for the art of trotting is here unknown), subject ourselves to a waterfall for half an hour, and replacing our accoutre- ments by the lightest conceivable vestures, apply to breakfast, c^nsisting_^of_jtea and toast, with the addition of some fruit. The thermometer now stands at 96 in your coolest, corner, and you dare scarce look uporT~the glare of the earth. Aching with the fatigue of drill, I assure you that some strength of will is requisite to resist the desire of rest, or to lend the energies of the spirit to exertion. But at twelve o'clock is sword- v exercise, and you battle for an hour accordingly. Two iTthe hour of tiffin ; it is generally the best time to dine, and the mess-house is near a mile off. There you sit till four. At five, in all probability, comes the bugle for evening drill ; there you fag till half-past six ; you mount for a short ride ; get home in time to sleep, and waken with the bugle-blast. I study the languages, and could make myself master of them at a very brief notice ; but in the absence of an immediate motive, it is not very easy to be enamoured of the most graceless tongues in the universe. However late I may see fortune, I do not despair. Friends may arise, but you know how bad a hand I am at making them where soothing and suing are required.' The health of the writer gave way about this time, and he set out upon a course of travels which lasted for upwards of two years. The remainder of this chapter is made up of letters which he wrote in the course of his wanderings : ' Secunderabad, 17th September 1828. 'Having been of late annoyed by slight feverish attacks, which are here endemic, I am advised to go to the coast for a few months, where the ailment will speedily and inevitably disappear. I run down to Masuli- 10 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE* IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. patam, a distance of 200 miles, and it being the depth of the rains, I am obliged to use precautions, to me rather expensive. The country is so deluged that, were there no other reason, its geological traversing must be de- ferred until my returning march, when I bring to execu- tion the vigour of a sea-lion. ( We had a little expectation here lately which has sadly evaporated. The Nizam or monarch of the Deccan, who still exists at Hyderabad amid the forms of power, was the other day expected to retire to the abodes of the faithful departed. A younger son, hostile to English interests, prepared, with considerable force, to maintain his succes- sion to the throne in opposition to the elder, whom the Company supports. All was warlike ; the troops were in breathless readiness, and I on the point of throwing my- self off the sick-list, when lo ! the Nizam swallowed an elixiric bolus, composed of pearls and gold, and all manner of invaluables ; averted fate, and still sticks to his earthly sovereignty in spite of the prayers of all, good, bad, or indifferent, in our force. I can, indeed, give you no idea of the relief which the remotest pro- spect of having anything to do administers to us in these quiet times. In a couple of days I am once more on march, and on a new route, though on this side of the peninsula ; in these latitudes I do not look for much society ; I have four months' leave.' ' Masulipatam, 1st November 1828. ' Here I arrived ten days ago, my health improved by march, and with the prospect of its early restoration. So much in truth did my ailing leave me, that by the time I shall have completed my march, I shall be in possession of a very complete geological section of the country in my route (which, by the way, presents not a geological fragment, but a completed primary series), and shall have besides a satisfactory collection of illustrative specimens. I have not yet determined what scientific I.] TRAVELS FOR HEALTH. 11 annals my memoir shall adorn, but it, with the minerals, shall be transmitted to you when opportunity can be made to arrive. I have visited and explored, with all the toil within my physical power, the most interesting tract of old Golconda, including the diamond mines which pro- duced the Eegent diamond, &c., arid hope to give you a better account of that country than I have been able to discover elsewhere. In truth, if I have nothing better to do, I believe I shall make an effort some time hence to be turned loose on this peninsula until I shall have completed five or six transverse sections of the whole, to the super- session of all paltry and limited observations ; for even to take a hammer where hammer never was before is some- thing.' At Masulipatam his medical adviser ordered him to the cool climate of the Nilgherry Hills, which had recently been discovered, in the southern part of the peninsula. 1 Nellore, 18th February 1829. ' If in place of your quiet mode of life you can conceive yourself to have been so long a daily and nightly wan- derer among these Indian wilds, driving before you your own tent and provisions, and halting on the grassiest spot and beneath the freshest tree, then you will imagine the delight, upon occasionally emerging from the jungles in one of our by-stations, to find accounts fresh from our own hearth and household. And in this life of solitary travel, though intolerable to many, there is to me perhaps more pleasure of a certain cast than I can well express. Starting at two a.m. there is not a dawn-blush till near six, but a moon brighter than your noontide, and a firmament which I can only say suggests no comparison, and beneath these a bright show of nature, which to me, even in its sameness, brings no pall ; and I assure you that the fruits, the bowers, the flowers, and the fragrance of the East owe nothing to fiction. Moving utterly alone in the quiet of these scenes, I leave you to imagine 12 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. 1. whither my thoughts wander, or rather where they rest. When my breakfast is concluded by seven, and my book- trunks are opened and writing-desk upon the table, I enjoy the day as largely as a day may be enjoyed that passes in calm and solitude, and with employments of abundant interest. Of course when devoted to geolo- gising, the uniformity as well as the silence of my move- ments is a little interrupted, but the daily addition of a small table of specimens is indeed bread in the wilderness. It may be curious to you that, in the character of a dis- ciple of Thor, I am uniformly reputed among the natives mad, and that as the character of insanity is held by them in superstitious reverence, from the belief that natural reason is never taken away without preternatural endow- ment being added, the attribute is convenient on the whole. You will probably be aware, ere this reaches you, that my present march has for its object seeing our friend Mr. M., with his family, at Madras, and going from thence nearly to Cape Comorin, to some salubrious hills, for the sake of health and novelty.' 1 Ootacamund, Nilglierry Hills, 25th June 1829. 'My route from Madras hither was interesting and beautiful, and rendered pleasant by agreeable halts. I slept for two nights in the palace of Tippoo in Seringa- patam. It is not a military station, but I went on pil- grimage, and visited the breach, the death-spot of the sultan, &c., &c., with a religious interest. These hills are encircled by a wide zone of ravenous and pestilential jungles filled with wild elephants, tigers, bears, hogs, leo- pards, deer, monkeys, &c., but presenting to the eye a wildered paradise. Of the animals, the elephants are almost alone dangerous, and they have played sad pranks at the expense of invalids seeking the hills. The great bucks are met singly on the road whisking the flies with half a tree for a fan, and a poor lady having thus encoun- tered one the other day, took refuge with all her atten- dants in the thickets. The beast went up to her palanquin CHAP. I.] THE NILGIIERRY HILLS. 13 and twirled it by one pole over his head with much glee, then by the other pole till it gave way, and then danced upon it with much delight, and capered into the jungle, as she said, with a horse laugh. The top of the hills pre- sents a table-land, if a surface of hill and dale may be so designated. The elevation is 8,000 feet above the sea, the surface varied and beautiful, and the climate like a constant spring in England, the temperature being for three months of the year 59 to 63, for a short time a little above, and for four months considerably below these points, when there is ice every morning. You cannot easily conceive the luxury of such a retreat at a season when the thermometer at Madras and Hy- derabad ranges from 86 to 100. The inhabitants are of three races of men, entirely distinct in features, lan- guage, and observances both from the natives of the plains and from each other. The villages of these tribes are built after distinct fashions, and they do not inter- mingle in the same districts. The men of the different castes appear to come in contact only for the general purposes to which their distinctive habits direct them, one class being nomadic, another agriculturists, and the third craftsmen and labourers at mean works. Of their religion little is known, but they have one or two neg- lected buildings of a religious character. The popu- lation is very scanty, and the labouring tribe, till within the last few years, uniformly destroyed nine female children out of ten, the surviving ladies enjoying an un- limited plurality of husbands.. The figures and features of these people are the finest I have seen, or have ever seen represented. The fine apostle of a painter ap- proaches nearer to their mould of countenance than any other manner of head, their black hair and beards flowing over their necks and breasts in antique ringlets. They have an extreme aversion to the natives of the plain, but are delighted with Englishmen, and receive us with plea- sure to inspect their houses, &c., but quite on the footing 14 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. of equals. Very little is known of this curious people, but from Roman coins being found abundantly among their women's ornaments, it appears plain to some of our anti- quarians that they are of Italian stock ! There are in the season abundance of woodcock that migrate as in England, no one knows whither. There are large numbers of a magnificent species of deer, of bison, of ibex, and of tigers and leopards, the two last being almost inoffensive in this climate. There are, besides, a lake without fish, beds of richly-flavoured wild white strawberries, and ditto red, very beautiful, but devoid of taste a kind of fruit something like a gooseberry ; abundance of potatoes and English vegetables, but neither the goose- berry nor the currant ripens here. There are beau- tiful white Ayrshire roses and the small deep damask rose ; and I think I have run over the most striking fea- tures, animate and inanimate, of the spot, not to omit a " Cluny " built by a Captain Macpherson, and a chilblain that one lady had the delight to find.' < 13th August 1829. 'I have pitched my tent on a lower and somewhat warmer quarter of these hills than that on which I. at first resided, my thermometer ranging from 62 to 70, and the weather being very delightful. What a luxury to look from this cool height of 8,000 feet upon the Car- natic that glows beneath with its woods, and lakes, and plains outspread as smooth as a bowling-green, with a horizon 100 miles distant ! An hour's ride down the beautiful ghaut* raises my glass to 90. I cannot picture the delights of this climate : in a garden close by me is a geranium hedge as high and thick and long as the hedge in Colonel F.'s avenue, and absolutely clothed in flowers. A gentleman on the hills commissioned from England 100 guineas' worth of plants, of which a currant-bush and a * The word ' Ghaut ' is used indiscriminately, for the hills which support the table-land, and for the passes which connect it with the plains below. CHAP. L] CANNANORE. 15 pear-tree alone arrived alive ; and these two receive in con- sequence a species of worship, but don't even promise anything in return. I have noticed our army reductions, by which I am thrown back from senior ensign to third, and I believe also a later regulation, by which the num- ber of staff officers in each corps is to be equalised. There are to be three or four from every regiment, and mine already furnishes the maximum. The Ben- gal Army is in a most violent state. Lord W. Bentinck treats them with extreme good temper, and allows the vent of all feelings in the public prints. He has refused permission to the surgeons of the army to resign, but under a new name has kept up their allowances nearly to the old mark. I should fear much from mili- tary commotion in Bengal. Sepoys are a genus irritabile, with which poets may not be compared, and of which an adequate idea can only be formed by contact. Would you believe that I have known a company absolutely stirred to mutiny by an officer, who, from ignorance of the language, called their head-dresses caps, when they choose them to be considered turbans? the head-dress bearing the while as strong similitude to a turban as to a whale ! ' ' Cannanore, 25th October 1829. 6 1 have unwillingly sojourned here for nearly twenty days, wasting upon the ocean's brink the time which I hoped to have spent upon its bosom, and encroaching upon the valuable period destined for the prosecution of my geological plan. There is a vicious description of native coasting grab an harmonic combination of the Cam- bridge barge and the Eoman antique smack (vide Adam), in which I expect, through the alternations of land and sea breezes, to edge up to Goa within six days of my embarkation ; the said Argo-like craft having, by the way, gone a little to the southward for a somewhat unclassical half cargo of cocoa-nuts, and perhaps, as I 16 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. begin to dread from her delay, made a diversion in favour of deep-sea coral and seed-pearls.' At Kuladghee he again became ill, and was sent back to the hills, whence he wrote : ' 26th June 1830. 'I assure you that either as a matter of taste or of advantage I could not have passed my three first In- dian years more agreeably or more profitably than I have done, having travelled nearly 4,000 miles, with my eyes (such as they are) open, and with nothing lacking save an old friend, new books, and now and then a rupee. As to ulterior views, now that I hope well of my health, I have expectations for which I can indeed offer you no base. None of our reductions have been rescinded ; a survey orship within the next two years is the only thing in sight, as I am not ambitious of appoint- ments on the regimental staff, which would only take up my time without affording any means of coming into notice. I cannot read at present with satisfaction ; yet I study history and India and my health, and hope on. ' I made a pleasant descent lately into the plains to an elephant hunt, which I enjoyed especially from having been myself so much hunted in some of my late marches by these mountainous mammalia. I was not long ago, in treading a deep wild, arrested by the fearful bass of a tiger in a bush close upon our narrow pathway. My guide passed to my astonishment, and I followed as in honour bound. The Hindu stood for a moment as if transfixed, a few feet beyond the tiger's lair, and went on. You may imagine my horror upon finding the savage roaring exactly upon my right, to see a heap of reeking elephant's dung (the reason for the pause) lying immediately upon the left. We were safe in the mutual terrors of the beasts. I should not be so much horrified another time, but I almost plucked a hair to see if it had not turned grey/ CHAP. I. ] THE NIZAM'S GOVERNMENT. 17 ' Nilgherry Hills, 31st August 1830. 6 You have often required of me some notice of Hyder- abad, which must have become with you almost a house- hold word. This letter must go to-day, so here goes the account of an empire at score. Hyderabad is the capital city of the territory of the Nizam, lying in the centre of the Indian peninsula, and containing a population of twelve millions. The restoration of conquered dynasties not being the policy of the house of Timour, sovereignties were assigned from the subdued provinces to those gene- rals whose power and ambition raised them above obe- dience ; and upon the tenure suited to such circumstances the Nizam has held this kingdom from the Mogul. After the final struggle for British supremacy the Hyderabad state emerged with its independence less impaired than that of any of the greater native powers, weak from the constant flux and reflux of population and devastation which had accrued from collision with the predatory powers, but not inferior in capacity for social advance- ment to the most favoured of the Asiatic provinces. A native court now subsists in the old Eastern fashion in the vast metropolis. A large subsidiary force is given in consideration of the provinces ceded to us to uphold the authorities of the land, and the state maintains an army besides of 20,000 men disciplined in the European style, and commanded by European officers ; partly adventurers, partly lent by the Company. The argument of persons will, I think, afford you the best insight into the Hyder- abad order of things. First is the Nizam, who, though of illegitimate birth, is the legitimate sovereign on the throne, whilst his occupancy sears the eyeballs of all the remaining scions of royalty who have escaped the gouge. Next is the British Eesident, whose duties are those of undefined supervision, assistance, and control, to be ex- ercised according to what Coke calls ' the crooked end of discretion ' toward a state that is nominally free. And to omit the multiplicity of bright consolers of royalty, who, c 18 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. though in these climes of no cerulean hue, yet mingle as they may, to make perchance to mar lady-like interests in the persons and affairs of state, his highness has, after the manner of his ancestors, that essential levamen, a grand vizier ; while, on the other hand, to render interference practicable to him, the British Eesident has his " man ;" and amid these conflicting elements and ministers of grace and power, while the sovereign attributes remain in plenary independence to the prince, and his Mahomedan vizier enjoys every Oriental sublimity of office, the ruling functions are committed in executive trust to the Hindu of the Eesident. Such is the cast in theory of directing powers. The actual drama has ever been after the most approved fashion of ' " Power into will, will into appetite. And appetite an universal wolf !" ' ' The probable elements of political evil may be deemed yet undiscovered, if they are not realised under a system of things ruled conjointly by a Nizam, a Eesident, a Harem, a Vizier, and a Hindu.' < Nilgherry Hills, November 1830. ' I start hence in two or three days for Hyderabad, in the first instance, and ultimately, I believe for Viziana- gram, which, if you take the trouble to note my progress upon the. map, you may observe by Yizagapatam above Masulipatam on the coast. It is a cheap and healthy place, twelve miles from the surf, but I shall have neither society nor books, and our corps will be solitary and without ladies. Hog hunting is to be had, however, which is our solace, as also fish, and I have an unquiet pleasure in the long lone marches. c I hope in this favourable season of the year to make out my new march of 1,000 miles without reserve on the score of health, and to add to the chances of my so doing, I have flung my hammer into a tank. I go in a right line hence to Hyderabad, the whole way on one old horse having sent my charger before. I have a CHAP. I.] MILITARY INSPECTION BY THE NIZAM. 19 small set of minerals to send home very far surpassing in every respect those I sent before.' ' Hyderabad, 9th January 1831. ' I completed my long march hither about a fortnight ago. It was a most pleasant journey in our fine season, and my health has proved so well confirmed that I trust I shall have no more interesting exercitations in the bul- letin department. I do not, however, rest here. In three days we commence a 500 miles march to Chicacole, a station of two corps on the east coast, nearly approaching the southern provinces of Bengal. It being a corner of the country yet new to me, I am delighted by this new movement. It is pleasant, too, to be on the coast, where I have always had the best health ; and when oppor- tunity shall permit, I have no mind to leave the seas unploughed. ' I write this in extreme haste to catch an unexpected ship, and immediately after some four hours, baking in the sun for the pleasure of His Immensity the Nizam, whose royal caprice it was to inspect our brigade this morning in all his pomp. I have no time for description. The elephants were innumerable ; the trappings gor- geous ; the rabble incalculable ; the heat ineffable ; the nuisance intense. We had 8,000 troops of all arms under arms. His highness gave us a splendid breakfast after grill, and sat at meat with us himself. After food attar of roses was distributed to all the officers, and I wish I could send my two bottles to A. Chicacole is the best place for shells in India next to Ceylon. ' Were it not for better hopes in the long long run, this system of life would be intolerable. I am not a little jaded by standing at ease, &c., &c., in our cloudless atmo- sphere from seven to eleven a.m.' ' Near Masulipatam, 10th February 1831. 'We have been a month under canvas, on march to Chicacole, since I wrote to you last, and I send this from c2 20 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. I. my tent to say that all things go with me fairly and well. We have hitherto been merely upon the track which I geologised some years ago, but are about to turn to a new country to the northward, having still about an eight weeks' march to perform. Though comforts produced by regimental arrangement vastly surpass those which may be commanded by a lone way-faring sub, formal pro- cedure with a corps by no means suits my taste so well as the starving freedom of which I have hitherto enjoyed so liberal a share. There is a pleasure in pitching one's tent upon the patch of sward, or under the green tree, or by the hill or the lake that fancy may fix upon for the day's rest, which the superior coction of a curry does not counterbalance even with the added zest of the socialities of a marching battalion. I reach our encamping ground a little after sunrise, pass the day in something closely resembling idleness, for our tent heats are intense till three o'clock, when we dine ; thereafter we sally as our humours may suggest, the majority to shoot, some to fish, gbme to find a fox or hare, in which sport I rather delight to par- ticipate. We are in camp by nightfall; the mess assembles to supper. I drink tea at my tent door, alone with the stars, or with W., or some other friend, as the case may be, and "to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow," are as the days that went before and those that shaU come after. I hope, however, on my settlement at Chicacole to be able to notice a less barren scheme of existence. Our commander-in-chief has determined, in accordance with some malarian notion of Dr. MacCulloch's, that marching in the heat of the sun preserves from cholera, and from his refrigerated office at Madras has issued orders that corps shall not quit their sleeping ground till half-an-hour after sunrise. The sufferings of European troops under this system may be conceived, but as our officers, almost without exception, spend the complete day among jungle and snipe grounds, the ordinance is not so terrible to them as might be imagined, while I am per- CHAP. I.] INTENSE HEAT. 21 mitted to evade it entirely by marching on when I please. I feel slight inclination to tempt a heat beyond that now indicated on my table in a cool hour of 97. You will admit this to be pretty decided for two months of the year. A fine river within fifty yards of me is such an alligator- pond, that having no supernumerary legs or arms, I do not think of courting its cool delights ; so I hope you will make some aUowance for my languid gossip.' 22 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. CHAPTEE II. 1831-1836. SERVICE IN THE SURVEY DEPARTMENT THE DECCAN NELLORE. THE summer of 1831 brought with it the grade of lieu- tenant, and also, by the good offices of friends and the assent of the governor (who waived on this occasion the objections which he was alleged to entertain to the em- ployment of Scotchmen in general and of Macs in par- ticular), a staff appointment, the nature of which will appear from the following letters : ' Vizagapatam, 4th July 1831. 4 1 have " stopped the press for you," in the hope now realised of being at length able to report to you that I have been appointed to the staff as assistant surveyor- general, being nominated within a week of the time when, from my standing in the service, it was first pos- sible for me to be removed from regimental duty. You may observe on the map the fine extent of the Hyderabad country, over which I shall move quite unfettered and unquestioned. It approaches the western sea within 100, the eastern within 50 miles. It contains the two rivers of India next in importance to the Ganges (not including the Indus), and in its limits, 500 miles in length and 500 in breadth, presents as many and as varied objects of moral and physical interest as are bounded by similar lines in any portion of Hindostan. The six fine months of the year I shall pass in the country .with the survey establishment in my tents ; the remaining portion given CHAP. II.] SUKVEY-DUTIEte. to rain and heat I spend in Hyderabad with the best society and the best library that Southern India affords. All now depends upon health, which you will believe I shall spare neither pains nor expense to cherish, my new al- lowances being perfectly adequate to such views. In the last three months, in fact, my pay has risen from 180 rupees per mensem, an ensign's allowance, to nearly 500 rupees a month, being about double my lieutenant's pay. I have, however, to keep up a large marching establish- ment of tents, palanquin-bearers, servants, horses, and bullocks, at very heavy pay, from my being perpetually on the move in by far the most expensive province of all India. In the seasons of vacation I hope, by accommo- dating my march to the lines of the different monsoons, to carry on my geological plans, reporting progress to the Bengal Asiatic Society. The trying portion of my new business will consist in taking eternally recurring angles with an instrument in the afternoon while the sun is clear, being sad work for my eyes.' 1 Secunderabad, 22nd October 1831. ' If you know anything at Cambridge, you must know of Colonel Lambton and his operations in measuring the arc of a meridian in India. I am employed in complet- ing his work. Not with his view, to ascertain the form of this planet, which you are old enough to know is round, but with the geographical and highly patriotic object of putting everything in India for once in its right place, by means of triangles subordinate to those measured by the great geodest above named. There is but one way of conducting a trigonometrical survey with com- pleteness, and that we pursue. I frame a geological map as we proceed over the land, and in the general memoir of each district which is required of us the matter which we record in all the departments of physical geography and general statistics is limited only by our powers of re- search. Marching being now my business for the six least hot months of the year, my establishment is of course in [EMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. such condition as is most propitious to desultory move- ments ; and though our survey work is more than sufficient to occupy all our time, I think I shall contrive to do some- thing printable before my return to summer quarters if I should trench upon the hot season. But all depends on the state of my sight, about which I am now sadly dis- pirited, though by the way I have got hold of a fellow who will, I think, save me much optical labour in the department of flowers, which I mean now to cultivate a little. The use of the theodolite, the bother of logarithms and minute map drawing, in which my duty consists, are enough to eliminate the eyes of a lynx. I am, however, a fluent Hindostani scholar, and not ignorant of Persian, and can bear creditably the scholastic recommendations given me. The temple of written knowledge has been inexorably shut against me since I was of the age you now are. I catch but passing and desultory glimpses of what goes on within, but I am a worshipper without the gate, and improve my uncommon opportunities of study- ing this strange race, and the land which it inhabits, and so keep my mind active and enlarged in physical and moral views, and ready for any march that fortune may assign to it.' ' Near Hyderabad, 21st November 1831. ' I have now been a month in the field, chiefly beating about for stones and flowers, and pretty viUages, and cool tanks and green ruins, and, in short, in all sorts of idleness. But I am about to repair to my post, of my success at which I shall be anxious to give you notice, as from the illness of my superior and only colleague I expect the entire duty of the year to fall on my shoulders. I may not have mentioned to you, that to each survey are at- tached two officers, one in charge, the other assistant, and besides, eight or ten half-castes generally well edu- cated for that class, and all educated on purpose for the survey, but desperate blunderers the best of them, CHAP. II.] PROSPECT OF FIELD SERVICE. 25 and, I am sorry to say, least of all to be trusted in taking angles delicately with the theodolite from the hill tops ; but from this month's seasoning at light work, and from the weather now approaching being the coldest, I really hope to get through all without a pause. ' We are not without our changes in this hemisphere. The Mysore state, the masterpiece of Indian policy, the one bright page in the retributive history of our rise, has completed its course in thirty years, and ceased to have a distinct existence, and all the other provinces which wehave endeavoured to maintain at once in a substantive and an adjective state of being are tottering rapidly to their fall. The state of Oude passes description, and that of Hyder- abad is not much better.' < Secunderabad, 26th June 1832. c In the neighbourhood of my regiment a serious revolt is spreading. There is in the Orissa and Cuttack country a numerous tribe of hill people never at rest, to whom vast numbers of weavers thrown out of employment by the withdrawal of our factories and cloth investments and large bands of irregular troops discharged in these times of reduction have joined themselves. Through causes of dissatisfaction which no one seems to comprehend, but which are vexing the whole eastern line of country from the Grodavery to the Ganges, these people have taken arms, and are plundering and sacking in every direction. 1 It is expected that my regiment will take the field against them as soon as reinforced by a light infantry corps, which is joining it with great speed ; when, on the respectable appearances which the war may assume, depends my going back for a while to the head of a company, or my remaining to extinguish my sight thanklessly through theodolites.' 1 The Kole war is alluded to. 26 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. ' Hyderabad Jungle, 27th November 1832. ' My immediate superior, of the upper provinces, 1 writes as highly gratified with my geological work, which he enjoins our whole establishment to combine in aiding me to extend, says that I have now many claims upon his attention, and promises to have me removed to Bengal to. afford him my immediate aid in the execution of our grand and delicate work, the measurement of a base when it shall next be required in the great survey ; for you must note that there are two distinct surveys now going on in the land, one the geographical, in which I am en- gaged, the other that above noticed, the grand trigono- metrical, the object of which is to ascertain the length of a degree of the meridian. ' My own defects form the point of difficulty. By a curious infelicity of fortune, after having quitted one hemisphere on account of visual incapacity, I find every- thing conspire to assign mere optical power as the best of my faculties in another. For with Everest I shall have terrestrial observations by day and celestial by night, while earth and stars abide in his department, and shall be thought nothing of if I am not a very Chaldean, and a speller of micrometers to millionth parts.' ' Sholapoor, 5th January 1833. ' The public prints will probably have noticed, in Europe., the somewhat alarming conspiracy of a portion of our troops with Mysore natives to destroy the Europeans of the force of Bangalore, &c. Taken in connexion with a number of rows which have recently occurred elsewhere, it is regarded by the thinking public as an omen of serious import. Gerard 2 has gone with' an engineer officer upon a very important and perilous expedition through Caubul and the Indian Caucasus, north towards the Caspian, to explore the possible routes of an army of invasion from 1 Major, now Colonel Sir George Everest, C.B. 2 Dr. Gerard, the companion of Burnes, an Aberdonian neighbour. CHAP. II.] VISIT TO BOMBAY. 27 that quarter, as well as to collect all the floating views of the tribes with regard to Russian domination upon the border over which it is rolling. There have been late accounts of them, and they are considered now beyond the limit where personal danger is to be feared.' ' Sattara, 25th February 1833. ' I have described a path westward hither to the capital of the Sattara state, just under the great line of Ghauts which bounds as a rampart the western flank of our peninsula. Although the main object of my proceeding hitherward l is removed, you will easily believe that my curiosity suffices to carry me onward to take a glimpse of Bombay, particularly as some fine hills, like the Ml- gherries, but lower, some beautiful country, and some delightful sea and river boating, vary the march.' < Bombay, 3rd June 1833. ' I am, in fact, exactly as you have lately heard, linger- ing here after M.'s departure, until I may hope to find something besides truth in the dried-up tanks and wells betwixt this and Hyderabad ; pursuing my translation of a somewhat large but interesting Persian volume of manuscript history, by the Nizam's premier, during the wars with Tippoo, and amending a long geological story, for what fate I do not distinctly know. General reflec- tions or dozing, lounging in a large and well-ordered library, which this place boasts, an occasional visit, a canter in the evening's dust, fill up my passing existence on shore, while I sometimes take a boat and cruise amongst the great fleet here, or beat about Elephanta and its caves. While living upon the other shores of India I have been accustomed to take to water in despite of sharks and surf, but in this muddy bay the ocean stream is so extremely hot, that while it scarcely bears either foam or fish of prey, it is a most unrefreshing bath.' 1 To meet friends who had failed him. 28 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP, II. 1 Madras, 23rd February 1834. ' A small war is getting up with an old dependent rajahship of the Mysore state. The country is a difficult and pestilential jungle ; the chief is well supplied with money and men, and somewhat insane. Eight or ten thousand men will be taken into the field against him,' but if he resists, as he may, his arms and the climate may do much before we can effect a complete conquest. The name of the district is Coorg, at the base of the Western Ghauts, and the commander-iri- chief and the general staff will be near the scene of action. The business in which my regiment has been lately engaged is now at an end. I believe I told you that I had offered to join for the service, but that I was told I was not re- quired. One of our officers was killed, and another died of jungle fever, the best men, of course, in the regiment ; one gave me the place of fifth lieutenant ; and when I say that an officer who came in the " Waterloo " with me is now fifth ensign, you will at least appreciate my luck.' < Hyderabad Jungle, 25th December 1834. * On my way hither I visited an inland salt water lake, one of the most remarkable objects in this country. It is contained in an extraordinary bowl, about 500 feet below the general level, and without any outlet, there being in the rains 10 or 12 feet of water in the centre, in the dry weather only two or three, when the salt, principally a carbonate of potass, is dug out. This deep basin occurs in the centre of a great basaltic district. The circumference of its upper lip is about six miles, that of the green dead lake below about three. Its sides are very steep, and are clothed in the densest jungle, which abounds with bears, tigers, panthers, and such pet animals. From one side a rill of fresh water, over whose source a temple is built, finds its way into the dark hollow, watering some excellent vege- table gardens formed in its ravine. The place recalled to my memory Coruisk, in the Isle of Skye, but, saving that CHAP. II.] INCIDENTS OF THE SURVEY. 29 in both cases there is a lake in a mountain basin, no two spots in the world bear fewer points of resemblance. And the barren magnificence of our highland scene, with its black facades of rock, its cascades, its violent stream, its clouds and its eagles, certainly leaves impressions on the mind of a much higher order than those which any one but a dervish might derive from the sullen solitudes of this Indian jungle lake.' 1 ' Hyderabad Jungle, 30th January 1835. ' I write this from my tent pitched under a shadowy mango-tree by a village of the Deccan, as in former years ; and it being my natal month, I may add that I am certainly in the enjoyment of much better health than has ever yet been my lot. We are this season engaged in the survey of one of the most beautiful districts of India, being not further off than fifty or sixty miles on an average from, a provincial canton- ment ; the good people of which supply me in abund- ance with newspapers from all parts of India, and books of all descriptions, I should add, except those which I particularly wish to see. Bodily comforts, too, of all sorts, they communicate in great abundance ; and my friends the ryots, gardeners, farmers, headmen of villages, &c., besides the higher classes of govern- ment officers, are so much friends indeed, that the Governor-General could not be more abundantly sup- plied with the best produce of the land, and certainly would not have it tendered after so gratifying a fashion as it is every day at my tent door, totally devoid as all know me to be, of claims to dignity, or distinction, or the power of making return. Poor indeed com- plains to me that he meets with nothing but insolence, and suffers comparative starvation. You would be indeed 1 The name of the lake is Lonar : it is described in a paper by the late Dr. John Malcolmson, in vol. v. of the Transactions of the Geological Society of London. 30 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. richly amused by our modes of procedure here, indica- ting a state of society very unlike any contemplated by European minds not thoroughly conversant with oriental subjects. I, for instance, the other day despatched a ser- vant to plant a flag upon a hill ten miles off ; the flag was to be procured at the village at the foot of the hill, and was to consist of a branch of a tree, rolled round with thick bundles of grass, and bearing on its point the largest and roundest earthen pot to be found in the village, well daubed over with whitewash. The potail, or head man, who was an insolent pale-faced Brahmin lad, declared that this was some new 'proceeding of the Eeringees (Franks), to which he had received no order to conform, and ordered my man to depart from his village bounds without delay. I believe that I am not the most patient of mortals under obstruc- tion, but I could not bring myself to run the risk of bringing ruin on the family of a foolish boy by reporting the circumstance to the government through our Eesident ; yet it was necessary that this flag should be set up, and that such insolence should be repressed in such a manner as to obviate all chance of its recurrence. The man knew well that he was disobeying a public order of his government ; and next day he sent notice to my people to come and put up their flag, which they did. In the meantime I had sent notice of the circumstance to the zemindar, some sixty miles off, believing that from his knowledge of me, though we had never met, he would attend to any wish of mine. Within an hour from the receipt of my note a party of horse were on their way to the recusant village, and a civil personage of great importance despatched to me to express from the zemindar what was due. In three days the potail, with every other village authority, was laid by the heels, and brought to await their doom at my tent door, from whence they were of course liberated to celebrate my mercy, and declare their own sorrow and repentance. I have out with me the whole body of evidence taken on the Eenewal of the Charter, for quiet CHAP. II.] PICTURESQUE VILLAGES. 31 digestion, and I daily reap knowledge in these village fields which is not to be obtained from books ; from the farmers, who give me in the gloamings the history of their leases, and advantages, and exactions ; the story of their maize crop, and sugar crop, and tobacco crop, and true and anxious statements of their cattle, including those which died in the drought, and those which have since had calves, and those best for the plough, and those whose feet are too tender for stony ground. I obtain the most curious insight into the manners arid condition of the men of this portion of India.' ' Hyderabad Jungle, 20th February 1835. ' We are engaged in the survey of a beautiful table-land, which is itself surrounded by tablets of secondary ex- tent. The soil is the richest black loam on the surface of the earth, arising from the decay of rocks of the trap series, and bears the most luxuriant and wide-spreading crops of wheat, maize, cotton, sugar cane, pulse, and oil plants, besides occasional patches of poppies grown for opium. The plains are clothed in fine grasses, unbroken even by brushwood for thousands of square miles, and alive with herds of antelope. The villages are frequent and beautifully placed for the most part, each with its " stern round tower of other days " wasting under the monsoons of these peaceful years. Mango, and tamarind, and peepul trees of extraordinary size and the densest foliage generally surround the villages in groups, or, as it often happens, placed singly, just shunning each other's shades ; and amongst them, of course, my canvas dwelling is pitched. My plan is to march in the morning, and I have generally concluded my canter of eight or ten miles before eight o'clock, when the sun becomes powerful. I halt at the village nearest the point at which I intend to make observations ; and in the afternoon, between three and four o'clock, sally forth in my palanquin, which bears me whither I may desire. On my descending from this 32 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. vehicle, a servant bears over rny head an umbrella, one of the largest which English prudence ever opposed to an Indian sun. It is of folds reduplicated as the shield of Ajax, and its handle may only be compared to that of the spear borne by that hero. Under this maximum parasol I stand and enjoy the contemplative amusement of angling until the shadows of evening come on. I then mount my horse, and I find my solitary dinner ready in my tent, or if there be light enough remaining, under my tree, where I feel less alone, for there are in general as many bird as leaves, and no voice is obligate. The crows caw from the very depth of their soul ; the paroquets scream at/, and the flying foxes skirl as if the whole har- mony of the thing depended upon their exertions, with notes anomalous as the other accidents of their physiology, and in shrillness rivalling (to my ungallant memory) those shrillest of symphonists, the maiden psalmodists of St. Machar's 1 themselves. The rural population of this part of India, with which I am intimately acquainted, finds great favour in my sight. The people are simple, temperate, and moral, and exceedingly intelligent when rightly esti- mated by comparison with the peasantry of Europe. But they groan under a despotism 2 the most inevitable and minute in its incidence which was ever inflicted upon any portion of the human race. Amongst the various schemes which enter my imagination for palliating my endless absence from you and it, I often think of J. or W.'s extending, some of these summers, their steam-boat movements to meet me on the shores of the Mediter- ranean, at Smyrna, or some such point, which will soon be within easy distance of our shores.' 1 Hyderabad, 3rd June 1835. fc One of our three Madras surveys having become vacant, I am appointed to the charge of it, which makes 1 The parish, church of Old Aberdeen. 2 That of the Nizam. CHAP. II.] THE NELLORE DISTRICT. 33 me, in point of fact, in my department (as in my regi- ment) very fortunate ; as since I entered it I have only served de facto as a subordinate for a few months. 6 My new ground is in the Company's country, in the Kellore district, immediately to the north of Madras, be- twixt the sea and the Eastern Ghauts. It is a very hot and a very healthy, and rather favourite country. I have many griefs in quitting this delightful Deccan. My health is so good and the society here is so large and pleasant ; while I am much interested in its inhabitants, its institu- tions, and its hills, its morale and physique. ' Nellore is a small station, purely civil, with not a dozen people in it, but then it is within 100 miles of Madras.' < Nellore, 1st January 1836. ' I have never heard from since he went to England. I find that people who return home from hence have their minds so completely overlaid with new feelings and associations as almost to supersede all recol- lections of India, or of those who dwell therein ; and happy they. It is a very singular fact too, bearing a physical analogy to this, that many people after a period of residence in the Mlgherries completely forget the character of the sensations which they have suffered in the tropical plains below. This reminds me that in four or five days hence I shall be again under canvas in these plains of Nellore. No two tracts of country can exhibit a greater contrast in their superficial characters than this and the Hyderabad country. Here we have a vast littoral plain lying betwixt a long line of mountains and the sea ; many rivers flow down from the hills, forming in some cases deltas, in others giving rise to estuaries ; they are vast torrents of water in the rains, and when these have sub- sided, broad sand beds, with here and there a pool con- nected by barely li ving rills ; here and there low granite crusts spring up. There are large forests of palmyra and cocoa-nut trees, and most villages are adorned by groves ; D 34 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. II. but the whole is flat, stale, profitable only in rice fields fed from tanks, and in a fine breed of cattle which over- spreads the land. However, to make up for all deficiencies in interest in my subject matter, I shall have my camp joined this year by at least one fair lady friend, and in your old land you cannot imagine the difference that such a happy incident makes in the life of a poor bachelor. Under my window they are performing an operation that would surprise you. The collector of the district is out in the country betwixt 50 and 100 miles from hence, and they are filling a dozen great pots of water from my well, the favourite one, which are trans- mitted daily by relays of men from hence to him ! 6 1 'shall be in Madras in the course of the next fortnight to see a friend or two there, and to buy a strong Burmese pony for clambering about the country, such ponies as those the world cannot show. They are exactly Shetland ponies, on a rather larger scale, never tire, are never sick, and never die. Besides this, I shall have my fine Arab charger, one of the most beautiful in the world, and a horse that does either for my buggy or for the saddle, and when I am out I keep them all in work.' CHAP. III.] THE GOOMSUR WAR. 35 CHAPTER III. THE GOOMSUR WAR, 1836. LIEUTENANT MACPHERSON was now acquiring much infor- mation, and the invaluable art possessed by so few of easy intercourse with all classes of the natives of India, when he was summoned to join his regiment, the 8th Native Infantry, which had been engaged for some time in operations against a native chief, the rajah or zemindar of Goomsur in Orissa. In the course of this service he became acquainted with the aboriginal tribes, upon whom, at a grievous cost to himself, he was destined to exercise the happiest influences. The rajah and the aborigines must now be introduced to the reader. 1 The Hindus had in ancient times driven the primitive races of Orissa the Khonds, 2 the Koles, and the Sourahs to the forest or the hill ; 3 and had established a kingdom 1 The next five pages are abridged from the Introduction to the 'Account of the Religion of the Khonds of Orissa, by Captain S. Charters Macpher- son/ read before the Royal Asiatic Society of London in 1852. 2 N.B. The o in Khond is long. 3 f The physical conditions most favourable to the preservation of the aboriginal races were combined in high perfection and on a great scale in the portion of the north-eastern quarter of the peninsula nearly comprised between the Vindhya range on the north, the eastern chain of Ghauts, and a line connecting these drawn from the mouth of the Godavery to the centre of the valley of the Nerbudda ; a region composed of lofty and rugged mountains, impenetrable forests, swampy woodlands, and arid wastes, inter- spersed with extensive tracts of open and productive plain, and possessing a climate in many districts highly pestilential, while, for strangers, it is salu- D 2 36 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. great in arts and arms, extending from the Ganges to the Godavery, and possessing a mighty hierarchy and a body of territorial nobles who bore the title of rajah, and held great estates, mainly wielding the great distinctive institu- tion of Orissa its Paiks, or hereditary landed militia. The breadth of the Orissan territory was about three degrees of longitude, and the eastern chain of Ghauts, at an average distance of seventy miles from the coast of Coromandel, traversed its whole length, sending clown innumerable buttresses and offshoots to within a few miles of the sea. Upon the west, the range is generally supported by compact plateaux, broad ridges, and expanses of elevated plain. The maritime division extends along the whole sea- board, nearly 400 miles in length, with an average breadth of fifteen miles. It is an open, salubrious, well- peopled, and highly productive expanse, with the excep- tion of several groups of barren hills, and a tract of marshy and wooded deltas intersected by lagunes. The open and fertile parts of this territory formed the state domain of Orissa, and included a large portion of the lands dedicated to religious purposes. The wilder dis- tricts were partitioned into estates, or zemindaries, of very various value and extent. The primitive races were expelled from the whole of this seaward territory, save brious in the open country alone. In that territory, large remnants of no fewer than five peoples who claimed to be children of the soil the Khonds, the Koles, the Sourahs, the Goands, and the Bheels, have preserved, with various degrees of purity and distinctness, their race, their institutions, their language, and their superstitions. Wholly or in part within it, kingdoms were established by the Oriyah, the Telugu, the Mahratta, and the Rajpoot divisions of the Brahminical people ; and between the ancient races and each of those kingdoms, strikingly contrasted in their genius and institutions, connexions have sprung up, the most diversified in their origins and their forms, but having one common tendency towards the supersession and obliteration of the ancient and ruder by the more civilised people worked out, consciously and unconsciously, through the gradual assimilation of manners, through proselytism to the Hindu or the Mahomedan faith, and through the fusion of races, notwithstanding every barrier of caste and custom,' CHAP. III.] DESCRIPTION OF ORISSA. 37 where they were permitted to linger in its sequestered and unhealthy tracts, occupying lands on half-servile tenures. The middle region comprised above one hah of the entire area of the kingdom. It forms a vast expanse of hilly wastes, entangled forests, and rugged watercourses, exceedingly unhealthy, but interspersed with beautiful and fertile valleys, and occasionally broken by broad and productive plains. This region was divided into a large number of zemindaries of various sizes. The more im- portant of them are possessed by families which trace their descent from the royal houses of Orissa, or from the principal stocks of Eajputana. The zemindars were bound by tenure to maintain, and bring into the field, large contingents of the national landed soldiery ; to pay tribute, in some cases heavy, in some nominal ; to perform special services, both public and personal, to the sovereign ; and to receive at his hands investiture with their honours and domains. The rivalries of the zemindars, and the terms of their tenures under the state, obliged them to maintain, and often to increase, the soldiery even where the necessity in which it had originated ceased to exist. The zemindars stood to it simply in the relation of military patrons ; while its chief officers, on whom they depended for the execution of every measure of defence or aggression, greatly influenced and often controlled their councils. The aboriginal peoples have existed within the zemin- daries in two distinct positions. In the more open tracts they were generally reduced, as in the state domain, to a semi-servile condition ; the Khonds, for example, dwelling in petty hamlets, their ser- vices appropriated by the raj ah to supply himself and his officers with jungle produce, or assigned by him to par- ticular villages or temples, and bearing the appellation of 4 Vettiah,' or ' labouring without hire.' Amongst the rugged bases of the mountain chain, the 38 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. aboriginal tribes, on their subjugation, did not fall into servitude, but became free subjects of the zemindars, cul- tivating the soil on the usual rent tenure, or living by military service, or enrolled amongst the landed militia. They have everywhere tended and the process goes on daily by the most curious steps to become assimilated to their conquerors in manners and religion ; and the Khonds, in particular, have formed, by intermixture with the latter, new castes, many of which hold a respectable place within the pale of Hindu society. Lastly beyond the proper limits of the zemindaries in the mountainous region, comprising the central ridges, the lofty plateaux, and the inner valleys of the chain of Ghauts, large portions of the primitive races remain im- perfectly subdued, while some have maintained their independence against the utmost efforts of the Hindus. The zemindaries being interposed between this wild population and the state-domain, the zemindars have had relations with it to the almost complete exclusion of the successive governments of Orissa, and have formed con- nexions with its several divisions, generally upon equal terms. In the quarter of the Khond people for example the zemindars having been ever at feud with one another and prone to resistance to the state, while the mountain tribes were exposed to attack by every adven- turer who might hope to seize their lands there have arisen between each zemindar and the cluster of unsub- dued tribes bordering on his domain alliances for mutual defence, in which, while the tribes have a part and rank distinctly subordinate, their independence is recognised and equal advantages are stipulated. Since the extinction of the native monarchy, the ze- mindar rajahs have acknowledged, in succession, the supremacy of Delhi, of the Mahratta power, and of our empire ; but, secure in their mountain strongholds and pestilential climate, they have generally yielded to these governments a precarious and unfruitful allegiance. CHAP. III.] THE GOOMSUK ZEMINDAKY. 39 The rajah of Goonisur was one of these zemindar rajahs. The zemindary which belonged to him is in- cluded within the lines of 19 36' 3" and 20 20' north latitude, and those of 84 14' and 85 I/ east longitude, and has an area of 1,350 square miles. Its hill tracts (called Maliahs) are possessed by the Khonds, 1 while the lower or sub-alpine region constitutes the khalisah, or domain. The domain (or Goonisur proper) is divided into eighteen mootahs, which contain 464 villages. Its population, which is estimated at 61,000 souls, is exclu- sively Hindu, except in a limited tract in its south-western angle, and where families of the ancient people exist in hamlets thinly scattered amongst its least productive wilds. The area of the domain is 840, that of the Khond districts about 500 square miles. The former, situated beneath the eastern face of the great mountain range, occupies the upper portion of the valley of the Kussa- gorla, a considerable stream which, rising from many widely-spread sources amongst the Ghauts, reaches the sea at Ganjam by a winding course of about 150 miles. The western division of the domain, lying immediately at the base of the mountain plateau, is principally composed 1 l Of the primitive peoples, the Koles prevail in the northern division of Orissa, the Khonds in the middle portion, and the Sourahs in the south. The Khonds are now seen within the following ill-defined limits. Upon the eastern side they appear in the wilder tracts of the Ganjam district bordering upon the Chilka lake, and touch in that quarter the coast of the Bay of Bengal. On the north-west, they are found on the boundaries of Gondwana, in long. 83 j while on the west, they extend to an unknown distance within the unsurveyed frontier of the Nagpore state. They are found as far south as Bustar in lat. 9 43", while the zemindary of Pal- conda, in the Vizagapatam district, is possessed by a Khond chief. On the south, the Khonds are replaced in the zemindary of Pedda Kimedy, in the Ganjam district, by the Sourah race, which is said thenceforward generally to occupy the eastern acclivities of the Ghauts to the Godavery. To the north, fifty miles beyond the Mahanuddee, in the meridian of Boad, the Khonds are succeeded by the Kole people. On the north-east, they are found high in Cuttack; while Sourahs (not identified with the Sourahs of the south) inhabit there the inferior ridges of the Ghauts.' 40 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. of the narrow and rugged glens amongst which the feeders of this river rise. It is included within the great forest of Orissa, which is here interspersed with open glades of great beauty, and frequently varied by lightly wooded tracts, in which, by the streams, villages flourish amongst rich corn fields, gardens, and orchards. These glens becoming gradually less densely wooded, and less insalubrious as they recede from the mountains, expand into open and highly productive valleys upon the eastern frontier of the zemindary ; but of the whole khalisah or domain of Goomsur, little more than a fourth part is cultivated. Of the Khond districts of Goomsur, three are situated upon the table-land above the Ghauts ; the fourth (called Chokapaud) lies at the base of the hills, and within the vast forest of Orissa, which forms a zone from fifteen to thirty miles in depth along the eastern face of the Ghauts. The Khonds below the Ghauts consist chiefly of scattered families of the class already described as ' Vettiah Khonds,' 1 or of the free subjects of the zemindary, partially assimi- lated to their conquerors, and known as ' Benniah Khonds.' On this subject Lieutenant Macpherson, in his re- port of 1841 (to be mentioned hereafter), writes as follows : ' It is most important to understand distinctly the two following points, upon which facts and forms are diame- trically opposed. 1st. The military aids to the zemindar, which are given or withheld with perfect freedom by the Khonds, bear much of the external character of " ser- vice," while they receive that designation exclusively from the Hindus. 2nd. The tribes recognise the superior social and personal rank of the Hindu chiefs in contradistinction to their authority, by forms which are nearly identical with those by which the latter acknowledge the political superiority of their paramount sovereign, and these forms 1 See above, p. 37. CHAP. III.] POLITICAL RELATIONS OF THE KIIONDS. 41 nearly resemble those which attached in feudal usage to the incidents of "homage" and "investiture." Hence the distinct and independent Khond tribes of Goomsur and Boad have been regarded as forming an integral part of the population of each zemindary, their territories are habitually styled "included ;" they have been considered vassals, not allies, and have been supposed to hold their free lands upon some species of tenure analogous to the feudal. 6 A late event established unequivocally the true nature of this relation. The Khond district, or rather half dis- trict of Hodzoghoro, lately transferred its attachment from Boad to Goomsur. This affair was the subject of frequent discussion while I was at Boad between the chief servants of the Boad rajah, and the Khond chiefs who visited me. The right of any Khond community to dissolve old and enter into new relations was not disputed on the part of the zemindar. He complained only of the loss, through the arts of Sam Bissye, of an old subor- dinate ally whom he had never injured. The idea of the defection of a subject society, far less of the departure of a fief from its allegiance, was not for a moment con- templated. The rajah had, however, put forward very different pretensions before I had an opportunity to in- stitute exact inquiry.' The practical method by which the zemindars availed themselves of the military aid of their mountain friends was this: 1 The rajah communicated his desire to the federal patriarch of the cluster of tribes connected with him, that patriarch being the Bissye (or hereditary agent of the zemindar for Khond affairs), and styled 'Dora Bissye.' If there was no doubt as to the propriety of compliance with the demand, the Khond patriarch at once sent his ' arrow of summons ' through the mountain valleys, and as it circulated like the Celtic fiery cross, each house 1 See the Report of 1841. 42 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. afforded a fighting man. Should the requisition, however, require consideration, the patriarch summoned a council of heads of tribes, or of the whole people, as usage might prescribe, to determine the course to be pursued. The two forms by which the Khond chiefs significantly recognised the high rank and social superiority of the rajahs are those which have been alluded to as resembling those which were associated with the feudal incidents of ' homage ' and ' investiture.' The patriarch of each tribe attended annually, or once in two years, at the Hindu capital, to make a small offering of rural produce, and to perform his simple obeisance to the rajah, this act of ceremony being repaid by equal courtesy and by a gift of superior value, and the heads of tribes all accepted (although the usage is said to have originated at a period comparatively recent) " saris," that is, Orissan dresses of honour and investiture from the zemindar. These they received at any convenient period after their induction into their hereditary offices according to their own ancient forms, and they considered the ceremony to import simply the acknowledgment of their official position by the rajah, from whom, however, they were pleased at all times to receive the slightest mark of honour, such as a dress, a gift, or a rarely-bestowed title. In a word, they regarded this form as adding some degree of ornament, but no mariner of sanction, to their ancient dignities. The Khond tribes sent in their turn to the rajahs, upon their accession, a similar silken sari of investiture. The true signification of this form is of course differently in- terpreted according to the conflicting pretensions of the parties ; but its acceptance is essential to the recognition of the rajah by the Khonds. The rajahs, on the other hand, guard their nominally-included territories and their own proper domains with equal and jealous pride from every aggression by rival communities. From the time when Southern Orissa fell under the CHAP. III.] REBELLION OF RAJAH OF GOOMSUR. 43 British sway, in the last century, the Goomsur zemindary had been in a very unsettled state ; l each successive zemindar had been in rebellion against us, the public revenue uncertain, and never collected without difficulty; the actual state of the country and its management so little known, that it was governed for more than two years in the name of a boy who was dead, and was per- sonated by a girl ; and the endeavours made at different times to establish our power by military force had been attended with a great sacrifice of treasure, life, and character. The sceptre, if it may be so termed, had been swayed for 800 years by a noble Eajput family, whose surname was Bunje. They were now unworthily represented by a father and son, each of whom had been by turns in possession of the zemindary, or living upon a pension in exile sometimes in confinement. In 1835 the son (a man of doubtful sanity) was in power. His tribute fell a little into arrear, and as his previous conduct entitled him to no favour, he was pressed very hard by the collector of Ganjam. That officer, under orders from the Madras government, moved forward some troops and summoned him to appear. Having come part of the way, he found himself under constraint, made his escape by a sudden ruse, and was at once in rebellion. The collector, Mr. Stevenson, suggested to the Madras government that another member of the family perhaps even the old father under proper limitations should be appointed rajah in his place, as all parties, even our own public servants, desired a rajah, and were adverse to the downfall of the house of Bunje. ' The conquest of the country,' he wrote, 'is attended by many more difficulties than may appear ; so long as there remains a popular, or even any, claimant of the rajah of Goomsur 's 1 See Mr. Russell's Reports on Goomsur, in the ' Selections from Records of Madras Government, published by authority/ No. xxiv., Madras, 1856. 44 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. family, the district must be subject to constant disturbance and be held by a military force. Detachments can and do march to any part of the country, but when they arrive at their point, they find nothing but a few deserted thatched huts in some place of difficult access ; the post, from the nature of the country, the difficulty of supply, and the climate, cannot be retained there even if there was an object in so doing, and the detachment returns under a heavy and constant fire from an invisible enemy, who consider that they have obliged the troops to retreat. Government is not perhaps aware that its authority is, and has, I believe, ever been little more than a shadow in these districts. It is not in the least acknowledged be- yond Koladah, or the limits of the fertile plains ; and in the Amanyas, and, indeed, generally, the rajah is all in all. The extensive mountain portions of Goomsur join on to endless tracts of mountain and forest, of which we have no knowledge, and with the independent chiefs of which we are not acquainted by name.' But the troops had now come into actual collision with the inhabitants, and the Madras government refused to allow the appointment of a rajah. The policy of annexation was uncompromisingly carried out under the direction of a very able civil commissioner, Mr. Eussell, a member of council at Madras, who had been employed a short time before in quelling a revolt in the neighbouring territory of Purla Kimedy, and was now deputed upon this special service at the request of Mr. Stevenson, whose authority was thereby superseded for the time. The rajah having taken refuge in the hills, we were soon at war with the mountain tribes who sheltered him. Mr. Eussell resorted to operations very similar to those which he had pursued in Purla Kimedy, and of which he had given the following account 1 : 1 P. 75 of Mr. Russell's Report on the Disturbances in the Zemindary of Purla Kimedy, 1st Nov. 1834. CHAP. III.] OPERATIONS AGAINST THE KHO'NDS. 45 4 The only way any impression can be made upon these chiefs (supposing the other Bissyes, &c. to be in league with them, and their aid therefore unattainable) is to destroy their villages and grain. This may appear a harsh pro- ceeding, but it is no more than daily occurs in European warfare, and how else can we hope to subdue an enemy whose jungles render it impossible to close with them, or even to see them ? To bring away their grain is impos- sible ; to leave it, is to give them the means of persevering in their rebellion. ... In cases in which it may be intended to establish outposts, it is absolutely necessary to burn or unroof part of the houses, or the troops would be burnt out the first night.' Mr. Eussell further remarks, in his first report on the Goomsur operations, 1 that in the low country the destruction of a village involves the pun- ishment of the innocent with the guilty, but above the Ghauts every man bears arms, and joins the common cause. By these measures, and by the infliction of capital punishment, of transportation more dreaded than even capital punishment, and of imprisonment, opposition was at length crushed. The events of the war are summed up by Lieutenant Macpherson as follows, in his report of 1841 :- 4 The barrier by which the Khond tribes were separated from our immediate provinces was suddenly removed by our assumption of the zemindary of Goomsur for arrears of tribute, which was followed by the rebellion of its rajah in the end of the year 1835, That chief retired before a force which advanced to apprehend him, and to take possession of his estates, into the Khond districts above the Ghauts, which were most anciently attached to Goomsur, and there he soon after died. A small body of troops then penetrated the great mountain chain for the first time to endeavour to obtain possession of his heir, of the remaining members of his family, and of his 1 P. 51. 46 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. treasures. The region into which it advanced was en- tirely unexplored. Of the Khond people we knew nothing save the name. We were ignorant of the nature of the connexions which subsisted between them and Goomsur, or the neighbouring zemmdaries. We knew nothing of their social organisation, of their feelings towards the late zemindar or towards ourselves, of their numbers, their language, or their manners : while they could have formed no idea of the character of our power, of our views, of any of our objects. A part of the mountain population was already combined against us, without any suspicion on our part, in anticipation of the course which we pur- sued ; and was arrayed in the name of every authority which they regarded as legitimate, confirmed by the most binding religious solemnities, and in the sacred name of hospitality. The dying rajah had obtained a pledge from several of the tribes of the plateau, given before their great divinity, to prevent, in any event, the capture of his family, which had suffered treatment in the last degree dishonourable at our hands upon a former occasion. The disposition of the Khonds, at first considered amicable, was observed to tend towards hostility upon the appre- hension of these distinguished guests ; but the existence of their pledge first appeared from a bold, startling, and partially successful attempt to fulfil it. They rose and overwhelmed a small detachment which (contrary to the intentions of the commissioner) was employed to escort a portion of the family of the zemindar by a difficult pass from the plateau to the low country, putting to death, to prevent their dishonour, seven ladies of his Zenana. 6 The tribes which were chiefly implicated in this move- ment immediately felt the weight of our vengeance ; but the extreme sickliness of the advancing season soon after compelled us to suspend active operations. At the end of the rains a large and nearly fresh force of every arm was assembled to compel the unconditional submission of the Khonds, involving the surrender of their patriarchs, CHAP. III.] FIDELITY OF THE KHONDS. 47 and of some officers of the late rajah who had taken refuge with them, and a promise for the future to yield to us the obedience and the services which had been given to Goomsur, that obedience being supposed to com- prehend submission to the authority of a " Bissye " of our appointment. No opposition was offered to our advance. But the Khonds refused, with the most admirable con- stancy, to bring their natural heads, or their guests, bound to our scaffolds. The country was laid utterly desolate ; the population was unceasingly pursued by the troops. At the end of about two months the rajah's Hindu officers were given up for a reward in the Maliahs of Boad. The patriarchs of the offending district of Goomsur were be- trayed one by one through the Naicks of the border, and the Hindu inhabitants of the hills ; with the exception of the chief, Dora Bissye, who, favoured or feared by all, escaped to the Patna zemindary, from whence, having obtained the promise of his life from the commissioner for Cuttack, he sometime after came in. The Khond chiefs of Bara Mootah were condemned and executed almost without exception. 1 Sunnuds, 2 of the exact terms of which I am not informed, were given generaUy to their supposed heirs. 'Sam Bissye, the Hindu employe of the Khonds of Hodzoghoro, a district recently connected with Boad, was invested with the authority supposed to belong to the office of the chief Bissye 3 of the rajah of Goomsur, and with a title, in the room of the federal Khond patriarch Dora Bissye.' The following letters will now be intelligible : ' Goomsur, 10th November 1836. ' You know that I came up here to assist in establishing the imperial authority over a fair wide mountain district, 1 Lieutenant Macpherson notices elsewhere the singular courage and dig- nity with which they met their death. 2 Charters granting or confirming the possession of lands or office. 3 See above, p. 41. 48 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. which, not being ruled in a manner at all suitable to its stage of civilisation, its system of manners, or order of society, rebelled, if this may be said of a community whose subjugation and allegiance were rather theoretical than real and practical. Well, first a small number of troops was sent to reduce it. They effected nothing. Then a large force was sent ; but by this time the circle of the war had also extended, so they were insufficient too. But although too few for the work, and too few for the climate, the troops were too many for the food, for the medicine, and for the carriage ; and starved, fevered, and outwearied, the work was left by them unaccomplished. Now a new campaign with fresh troops is to begin, and if there be no very great mismanagement, perhaps all may be concluded soon, for I am ashamed to tell you, our poor enemies, a mere wild hill tribe, are not far enough advanced in civilisation to use gunpowder. They fight valorously with battle-axes of the most trenchant shapes, and only learnt the use of fire-arms from acquiring the arms of a party of our sepoys, whom they cut off to a man in a mountain defile. Well, my regiment having stood the brunt of all this " war," as it is facetiously called, is at last allowed to go into quarters. I joined it some months ago before the rains, which are now over. I had then to build a house, as our tents can scarcely keep out the torrents of these regions in the monsoon. It was a splendid house of jungle trees, bamboo, and grass. First, of course, I built my stable, a very fine, large, distinguished looking shed as one can imagine. Then, my house con- sisted of one large room about 20 feet square ; four posts like pillars supporting a bamboo roof warmly thatched. My walls were what we call wattle and dab, which means a wattling of bamboos finely split and well dabbled over and overlaid inside and out with mud. Inside I made several divisions, and whitewashed the whole, built outhouses for my servants, and was most comfortably established : when, before I had lived in it a week, I CHAP. III.] SURVEY OF GOOMSUR. 49 was sent off with rny company to take charge of an outpost. It cost me 8, which the pleasure I had in building it was well worth. Much tabasheer 1 , too, did I collect for your cabinet from the splitting bamboos.' ' Camp, Goomsur, 28th December 1836~ ' The war still drags out its weary length. It is a war in which there has been no enemy, and it has long been reduced to a mere personal contest of speed, skill, and endurance, betwixt a mountain chief 2 who darts through the jungles of this forest-laden and difficult country with from ten to fifty fugitive followers, and one of our oldest civilians, backed by eight regiments of the Madras army, horse, foot, and artillery. When my corps, knocked up in the last campaign, was permitted to retire to its can- tonment in the rear of the scene, I was ordered to pro- ceed to survey a portion of the assumed zemindary. 3 In this task I have since been employed. The whole country is now occupied by our dispersed troops.' The following letter appears to have been written about the same time. ' I am employed in surveying the portion of country which has just been assumed. A fair portion of the earth is this; mountain, valley, and stream most richly adorned. In certain seasons it is pestilential beyond all measure. Last year the number of sick amongst our troops amounted to 400 per cent, in six months ; that is to say, every man in the force was four times under medi- cal treatment. Even now my servants, who are much exposed to the night dews, are suffering dreadfully. My head servant and second servant have been long sick, the latter dying, I grieve to say, after serving me most faith- 1 A kind of silex that forms in the bamboo. 2 Dora Bissye. 3 i. e., of the proper territory of the rajah of Goomsur in the plains and lower hills, not the country of the mountain Khonds. E MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. III. fully for eight years. My tailor sick, and, as became the fraction of a man, absconded through fear. The man who keeps my milk-goats sick, and six or eight other menials ; amongst them my important cook, frightened and bolted with the tailor. My food for many days has been the curry of my guard of sepoys, a Serjeant's party of twelve, and all perfect gentlemen. I climb the rugged hills which I am obliged to ascend, after a fashion which would surprise the men of Eigg, but absolutely necessary here. I form a swathe of a piece of cloth, and fixing ropes to either end place it round my waist. Now my bearers, making a team of six, take these traces and pull me up the hill. Eeceiving from them the least assistance in the world, I reach the summits of the steepest hills little fatigued and ready at once to begin my work. I expect to get from hence back to Nellore in a month or two, but yet know nothing certainly. I think my eyes are vastly improved lately. I can now, and do every day, write, read, and work all day, and then am still able, as at this moment, to write off a light letter by candle- light. My tent has been nearly pulled down about my ears while I have been writing. A great herd of cattle has been careering round and round me like a whirlwind, now and then darting amongst my tent ropes ; the shout- ing and yelling of my people to keep them off only making them madder. However, they have not interrupted me ; now they are gone, and the foxes and jackals are howling prodigiously. We mind them no more than you do a caterwauling in your garden.' CHAP. IV.] VISIT TO THE HILLS. 51 CHAPTER IV. 1837. FIRST VISIT TO THE HILLS. MR. BUSSELL, after quelling the insurrection, departed for Madras, where his services received the warmest thanks of the government. Mr. Stevenson then resumed his authority, and he immediately despatched Lieutenant Macpherson upon a mission, of which the latter has given the following account * : ' On the very day on which authority was restored to him, Stevenson asked me to undertake a mission of sur- vey and inquiry into the unexplored country with re- spect to which it was of the last consequence that correct information should be obtained, saying " that he thought me alone capable of such service." The unhealthy season had set in, and all had fled or were flying from the scene. The general demurred to the exposure of the troops neces- sary for my support, to that deadly climate. Stevenson said, " the information which you will procure will be of more consequence than the health of an army." The day of my departure into that country was amongst the happiest of my life. I succeeded in my objects be- yond expectation, but was struck down by fever and blindness, for I was worn out by the hard exertions of three preceding months. But the idea that T had at length achieved some small amount of good, that I had made the first step towards the redemption of my 1 In a letter dated 24th February 1840. E 2 52 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. IV. time, and the first blessed step towards home, made suf- fering lighter than I have known many pleasures. I thought I had accomplished what in the common course of things the government could not possibly entirely overlook, and I expected such recognition of my hard, dangerous, and most difficult service as would lead to em- ployment, were it in that den of pestilence itself but em- ployment on which I might raise so much character as would bear me home ; for my view since I left England had been this, that I had no right to return thither until I could say that I had done something, until I had done what would secure my employment out of the ranks of a regiment on my return. For the attainment of this object I did not hesitate to risk health, nor did I grudge it when it was gone. Now poor Stevenson died, who could alone, with the exception of Eussell, have appreciated my work ; and it then appeared that my overstrained frame refused, as it still refuses, to enable me to realise the fruits of my toil. Whether wisely or not, I acted with my eyes open, remaining in India until I had put my work roughly together.' The survey undertaken at Mr. Stevenson's request com- prised the northern part of the Khond country, from Goomsur to the Mahanuddee. Having been accustomed during the whole of his Indian life to ' hold the freest communication with the natives, discussing with them every subject that was nearest to their hearts, Lieutenant Macpherson had peculiar facili- ties for opening an intercourse with the Khonds ; and as he saw them not, as others had done, in the character of enemies, it is not surprising that he became ere long the depositary of much information which no other person possessed. The people are half savages, and generally sacrificers of men ; and most of the officers who were compelled to enter the country got out of it as soon as they could, and cared not how little infor- mation they brought away with them ; but he was of CHAP. IV.] VISIT OF THE GREAT SOW. 53 a different spirit, and among those barbarians he con- tracted friendships, if they may be so called, which neither he nor they forgot. For instance, a fierce old chief, the patriarch of Baramullick, called Bagwan Sow, 1 commonly known as ' the Great Sow,' came to his tent to pay him a visit of mere curiosity, full of ill-will and disaffection, and believing himself and believed by all his followers to be one of the most important of living men. He was to call his new-born son after Dora Bissye the chief (not yet cap- tured) of the insurrection, ' the greatest and wisest man he knew.' His host jokingly said, 6 You had better call your next son after me, and then you will have friends on both sides/ a proposal which was received with a snort of in- dignation. But after passing a week in camp, using his eyes and ears, and enjoying the hospitality of his new acquaintance, the Great Sow was quite another being ; and at last he spoke out, saying ' You are a great and wise people, and know everything, and we are poor jungle beasts, and know nothing.' So he ended by learning with much pains the name of ' Maak ' to call his next son by, a promise which he faithfully kept, adding the name of some Hindu god ; and many years afterwards, on hearing that his friend's authority was opposed, he raised his men and marched to his assistance. While Lieutenant Macpherson was in the hills, 4 The rajah of Boad,' he says, 2 ' was required by the au- thorities on the south-western frontier of Bengal, but in terms which are not precisely known to me, to announce to the tribes of his zemindary the abhorrence of the go- vernment of the Meriah rite, and to exert his authority for its suppression. He represented to me, then at Boad, that, as I knew, it was in his power to yield even a formal obe- dience to this order in the case of many of the Khond dis- tricts, only if his messengers were allowed the protection of my camp, and that protection I very willingly gave, as the occasion promised to afford me valuable opportunities of 1 l Sow ' is a title of honour. 2 Report of 1841. 54 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. IV. observation. A considerable degree of alarm followed the receipt above the Ghauts of the communications of the rajah, which were, I believe, made in very vague and various terms to the different chief patriarchs. Councils met everywhere. The whole population was deeply agitated, and all friendly intercourse with me ceased. In the remote and sequestered district of Euttabarri it was believed that I was come to enforce compliance with the mandates, and on arriving there, I found that active pre- parations had commenced for resistance. Very serious results threatened, when the opportune appearance upon the scene of the great Khonro of Boad, whose friendship I had previously made, removed every difficulty. The Khonds could arrive at no distinct conclusion respecting the real meaning of the intimations which were thus made to them ; and, under all the circumstances, it was exceedingly difficult for me to give any explanation of them. But the tribes having made out that no coercive measures were then intended, and that I, at least, was there with views purely friendly, they gradually became at ease, and laid their minds bare to me on the whole subject. ' In the end they consented, without much difficulty, to deliver up their victim-children to me as other tribes have done to -other officers, and not as signifying the slightest intention to relinquish the rite, but as a peace offering, or a mark of deference for our power. But to this surrender they assented only on the express con- dition that the tribes of Goomsur should also be required to give up their victims. The Meriah children they looked upon merely as property of a certain value, and as victims which could be immediately replaced. Their real and deepest anxiety was, lest they should even seem to submit to a necessity which was not acknowledged by all the tribes within their social sphere. As the authorities on either side of the Mahanuddee did not on this occasion act in concert,. the necessary requisition could not at the mo- CHAP. IV.] KETURN FROM THE HILLS. 55 nient be effectually made in Goomsur for the fulfilment of the condition stipulated, and so the victims were not liberated, and the tribes were left bewildered between the apparently discrepant counsels of the two governments. 1 6 1 may remark here what I should have supposed to be self-evident, but for much proof to the contrary, that nothing can be effected, in any case, either by the simple liberation of victims which can be replaced, or by the prevention of sacrifices at any particular time, or in any single district, when they can be performed, at some sa- crifice of convenience, elsewhere and at another season. Had these victims in the Boad Maliahs been liberated, I was afterwards distinctly informed that a larger number must have suffered in their stead.' The expedition was stopped by sickness, and he was compelled to return to the low country before he had spent a month in the hills. He remained for about a year at Ganjam, by the sea-side, engaged as far as his broken health would permit in completing his survey reports, in preserving and arranging the miscellaneous informa- tion which he had collected, and in obtaining from personal conversation with Khond prisoners (of whom there was a very large number in the gaol of Ganjam), and from every available source, as much intelligence as possible regarding the hill tribes. 1 Ganjam, 1st June 1837. ' I have not been able, in perfect safety, until now to fol- low up my blind scrawl despatched to you above a month ago. My sight and health are perfectly restored. The affection of the former was merely an effect of the Goom- sur malaria upon my constitution, which has thrown it off entirely. I would, however, have preferred to suffer more than to have omitted the labours which produced this ailment. I was at the close of the military opera- 1 This was the first exemplification of the inconvenience, so much felt throughout, of the Bengal Government acting separately from that of Madras. 5G MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. IV. tions I should say military forms employed in exploring a perfectly new and unvisited tract of country in the valley of the Mahanuddee river ; and could I have spent two months instead of one in those scenes of absorbing interest, I should have been able to exhibit a new and clearly-written page of the history of rude nature. The people amongst whom nay routes chiefly lay were the .Khond tribes, the highlanders of the Eastern Ghauts, whom, at the expense of several of our best regiments and of nearly all our public credit, the government was compelled, after a two years' struggle, to acknow- ledge to be at least morally invincible. But so profit- able a sojourn my lot forbade. The season was too far advanced. The detachment kept in the field to sup- port me if necessary, went into hospital to a man, and I was compelled to return to prevent its entire sacrifice. Still, as it is, I shall have an interesting report to make, and one which, from the novelty of the matter at least, will attract some notice. I have been afraid yet to plunge into the labour of its preparation. I cannot easily, in paucis, give you distinct ideas of my field, or of what I have gleaned. You can imagine a people, distributed into clans, occupying the mountain valleys and plateaux of this chain, and existing, from the beginning of time, undisturbed by the political and religious revolutions of Hindostan. This people we discovered, by accident, two years ago. I found my way through the territories of a number of these fine clans, and so conciliated their good will as to get all their chiefs to meet me in confidential intercourse. From them I learnt a good many all that my time permitted of the most important facts relative to a large portion of this new country and people, and executed a very extensive survey. The religion 1 of these Khonds is an original system. Its base is a weak, inco- herent theism, with a subordinate demonology, the re- * See Chapter VI. CHAP. IV.] SUPERSTITIONS OF TIIE^ ABORIGINES. 57 flection of the wants and fears and predominant sentiments of a rude society. It acknowledges, 1. A supreme power ; 2. An earth god, analogous to Pan in his pro- vince and functions ; 3. A god of limits ; and 4. Lares without end. Local divinities besides abound. You will be astonished to hear that the main feature, and, in effect, the animating principle of this system of superstition, is the rite of human sacrifice. This rite is solemnly perpetrated in every district every month of the year ! The Governor- General has vowed to put an end to the horrible practice. How is the question. Our troops can exist in the country but during three months in the year. The lan- guage, manners, and institutions of the people, and nine- tenths of the country itself, are utterly unknown. The country of the Khonds is beautiful and often very rich, and their agricultural industry is of the best sort. Every man has his farm, a perfect freehold; I should say, held in fee simple, and subject to no form of impost whatever. The people are a very fine race.' ' Ganjam, Otli October 1837. 6 Besides this story of Orissa and the Khonds, I have been so exceedingly fortunate as here, sitting by the sea, to have been able to get in the most satisfactory shape an account of a probably cognate aboriginal people of the same part of India called the Souras. Will you credit that until I made the discovery no one suspected that a mountain group within three miles of one of our oldest stations here l was exclusively inhabited by Khonds, of whom . no one had ever heard till the Goomsur war led us above the Ghauts ; and can you believe that we have been mixed up with these Souras in the relations of war and peace for nearly 100 years, while .no one has ever made a vocabulary of their language ? Is it not strange, too, that these two primitive races should have been in the habit of carrying off our subjects in large numbers 1 Berhanipore is the station referred to. 58 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. IV. annually for human sacrifices to the earth god, their great divinity and that this should have become known last year? The principles of the institutions of these rude societies are strongly contrasted. The Khond community is ruled by an hereditary aristocracy, jeal- ously limited by democratic councils ; the Souras are ruled by a theocracy. But for my stumbling, under cir- cumstances peculiarly favourable, upon these Souras, I should have been ere now at Madras. My report will still take me a long time to digest. Without my good friend Cadenhead, who occasionally lends me his hand when writing would hurt my eyes, I could not get on at all.' Although the report which cost him so much labour was not completed till a later period, it may be convenient to introduce in this place the description which it con- tains of some of the chief characteristics of this strange hill people, of whom he alone has up to this day given any connected and systematic account. The fifth chapter of the present work is accordingly taken, with some alteration of the arrangement, from that report ; but many interesting passages are omitted, as they would take up too much room. In answer to some criticisms upon the report he ob- serves, ' When you talk of zoology, geology, and other ologies, you surely forget that I was among the mountain Khonds only a few weeks, in which time I executed a most laborious survey, besides obtaining the great mass of my information. Had I been there five or six months, I should have doubtless collected matter enough for a complete account and a good book. Then as to statistics, properly so called, you might as well have expected from Captain Cook the statistics of the land which he described as " either an island or a peninsula ; very hazy ; passed at night under double-reefed topsails." My statistics include the name of every district, subdivision, and village, with number of houses (whence population) in each, and names CHAP. IV.] PAPER ON THE KHOND RELIGION. 59 of chiefs of every grade, besides, of course, area ; all, you know, of vast importance. But what I wish to im- press on you is that the whole thing amounts only to a sketch, not a complete picture with all its incidents.' The most important part of the report is the account of the Khond religion ; but though correct as a de- scription of the religion of the tribes which he visited in the beginning of 1837, a visit several years later to the southern tracts convinced him that it was incomplete. He made full reports to government of all the additional knowledge which he had obtained, and finally, after many years of close observation, he combined the whole in a single paper, which, as already mentioned, was read before the Eoyal Asiatic Society of London in the year 1852. 1 This paper forms the sixth chapter of these Memorials. 1 An abstract of the religious chapter of the report of 1841 had been read before the same Society. 60 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. CHAPTER V. DESCRIPTION OF THE KHONDS. THE Khonds are fitted by physical constitution to undergo the severest exertions and to endure every form of pri- vation. Their height is of about the average standard of Hindus of the peninsula. Their forms are characterised by strength and symmetry. The muscles of the limbs and body are clean and boldly developed. The skin is clear and glossy, its colour ranging from a light bamboo to a deep copper shade ; the heel is in a line with the back of the leg, the foot is somewhat larger than that of the Hindu, and the instep not highly arched, although the Khond, nevertheless, has extraordinary speed of foot. The forehead is full and expanded. The cheek bones are high and rather prominent ; the nose is seldom, though occasionally, arched, and is generally broad at the point. The lips are full but not thick ; the mouth is rather large. The whole physiognomy is generally indicative of intelligence and determination, blended with good humour. Their clothing consists of a single piece of coarse cloth, either white or chequered, from twelve to twenty cubits in length, which is in some districts girt round the loins with its extremities flowing loose behind, and in others wrapped round the waist, and thrown across the chest something in the Hindu fashion. The 'women wear cloths of the same material, wound round the waist, and brought over the shoulders. They in some districts wear brass CHAP. V.] KHOND VILLAGES. 61 armlets and anklets, and small nose and ear ornaments of gold and silver. The villages are in general beautifully situated, either by a clump of trees, or at the bases of the wooded hills, or on the knolls of the valleys, slightly raised above the level of irrigation. In the southern districts they consist of two rows of houses, slightly curved so as to form a broad street, which is closed at each end by a strong wooden barrier gate. In the northern tracts they are built, like Hindu villages, after no regular plan. In founding a village, the first act is to plant a great cotton tree, consecrated to the village deity, in the centre of the site, where the house of the patriarch, or abbaya (called the Mullicko by the Hindus), is placed. The Panwa, or weaver, lives at either end of the village, his dwelling being marked by the pegs used for weaving before the door. The site of a village is determined by the priest after carefully consulting the will of the god. Each man builds his own house, and in the southern districts the walls are formed exclusively of planks placed edgewise as in a ship, the roofs being thatched. When a village begins to decay it is not repaired, but a new one is built on a different site, and none of the old materials are used. A Khond village lasts on an average about fourteen years, but > ' its locality is readily changed on account of other causes besides decay ; upon the slightest suspicion that the site has become unlucky from the occurrence of an unusual num- ber of deaths, or from the loss of stock, &c., the priest is put in requisition and a new hamlet is constructed. The Khonds use no medicine of any sort. To wounds they apply the earth of an ant-hill made into a warm mud, or a poultice of millet. They also apply in extreme cases the actual cautery to the belly, using a hot sickle over a wetted cloth. They are very subject to fever, and apparently to inflammation of the bowels from excessive drinking. They are often swept off in numbers by small- pox, and many are blind. The women suffer little or 62 MEMORIALS OF, SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. nothing in child-bearing, and nurse their children only six months. The pursuit of agriculture, varied by war and the chase, is exclusively held in honour, the only ex- ception being in the southern districts, and in favour of the arts of working in iron and in clay ; there are no renters of land or labourers for hire, and each petty freehold consists of a portion of the irrigated soil of the valley, which is minutely subdivided, and of a tract of the upland, which is held in much larger portions. The paternal authority is absolute, and the son cannot possess property of any kind before his father's death. Upon that event landed property and agricultural stock descend ex- clusively in the male line, females being incapable of holding land. In most districts the eldest son receives an additional share of both of these species of property ; in a few, they are equally divided. In case of failure of issue, brothers inherit equally, and then the brothers of the father. Daughters divide equally personal ornaments, household furniture, money, and movables, while their brothers are obliged to maintain them and to contribute equally to the expense of their marriages. On the failure of heirs male, land becomes the property of the village, and is divided among its members. The right of possession of land is simply founded in the case of tribes upon priority of appropriation, and in the case of individuals upon priority of culture. The usages of different districts in respect to waste land vary much. In some quarters the waste land is partitioned amongst the villages, but in others not. The exclusive use of unreclaimed land, for pasturage or for jungle produce, was, however, in no case asserted, and generally few practical restrictions existed as to the occupation of waste by individuals within the boundaries of their tribe. Agriculture is practised by the Khonds with a degree of skill and energy which is perhaps nowhere surpassed in India, and which has produced a degree of rural affluence CHAP. V.] AGRICULTURE OF THE KHONDS. 63 i rarely paralleled. At the season of labour the Khond rises at daybreak. Before quitting his cottage he eats a full meal, consisting of moong, raggi, or tuar, 1 boiled with a portion of jungle herbs, and flavoured with a piece of goat's or swine's flesh. Then yoking his team, or shoulder- ing his axe, he goes out for the day. When employed in ordinary work, as at the plough, he labours without in- termission until three o'clock in the afternoon, when he bathes in the nearest stream. But when his toil is more severe, as in felling wood, he rests to eat a mid-day mess, which is brought to him in the field. At evening he re- turns home to a meal similar to that of the morning, with the addition of liquor or tobacco. At harvest and seed time the women share in every form of field labour, and where there is no Hindu cowherd, those of each family watch the village cattle by turns. The Maliah [Mountain] Khonds are extremely rich in every species of agricultural stock. They have large herds of bullocks of a small breed, and of buffaloes, numerous flocks of fine goats and abundance of swine, and every hamlet teems with poultry. Bice of several sorts, various oils, millets, pulse, and fruits, with tobacco, turmeric, and mustard of superior quality, are the most important species of hill produce ; and these the Khonds exchange with resident Hindu merchants, principally of the Soodoo ' caste, or at the fairs of Koladah and Codundah (where the Khonds are aided in their bargain-making by the Panwas), for salt, cloth, brass vessels and ornaments, and a few other necessaries. Transfers of land by sale constantly take place in these ^ districts, and the value of a piece of ground at Borogootza, which required four bullocks for its cultivation, and sufficed for the support of a family of four persons, was estimated by some intelligent Khonds at from forty to fifty pairs of bullocks, while Lieutenant Macpherson was told by an inhabitant of Borapall in Nowsagur, that it would fetch at 1 Raggi is a small grain like millet. Moong and tuar are kinds of pulse. 64 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. least as much if situated in that district. This being with reference to the rent of land in Boad, as nearly as could be judged, about ten or twelve years' purchase ; and a village of Bulscoopa, which was sold by its abbaya and inhabitants, as having become unlucky, to a rich Khond from Chokapaud, brought a price which was in keeping with this estimate. The forms observed in the transfer of land by sale are these : The selling party intimates his purpose to the abbaya of the section, not to obtain his sanction, but to give publicity to his intentions. He then goes with the intending purchaser to the village in which the property is situated, and summons five respectable inhabitants to bear witness to the act of sale. When assembled on the land to be transferred, the seller calls upon those wit- nesses, and at the same time solemnly invokes the village deity to bear testimony that a portion of land specified is alienated by him for ever to a certain person for a cer- tain consideration. He then delivers a handful of soil to the purchaser, who in return makes over part of the pur- chase-money, when the transaction is complete. The close similarity between the forms which obtain among this people and those which are employed by the nations of Europe and of Western Asia, to give publicity and certainty to transfers of real property, is sufficiently striking. The use of money, with the exception of cowries, was until recently nearly unknown to the Maliah Khonds, and the value of all property is estimated by them in ' lives,' a measure which requires some adjustment every time that it is applied, a bullock, a buffalo, goat, a pig or fowl, a bag of grain, or a set of brass pots being each, with any- thing else that may be agreed upon, a ' life.' A hundred lives, on an average, may be taken to consist of ten bul- locks, ten buffaloes, ten sacks of corn, ten sets of brass pots, twenty sheep, ten pigs, and thirty fowls. The practice of the art of agriculture exclusively by CHAP. V.] HOSPITALITY. 65 the mountain Khonds, with the partial exception above noticed, is rendered possible by the settlement in these districts of families of the following Pariah or Hindu castes, who manufacture first necessaries, and perform other in- dispensable services. 1. The Panwa, or weaver. 2. The Lohara, or ironsmith. 3. The Komaroo, or potter. 4. The Gouro, or herdsman. 5. The Soondi, or distiller (in the eastern districts). Of these, the Panwa is proverbially indispensable to every Khond hamlet. His duties are to provide human victims, an occupation which is, however, restricted to certain families in which it is hereditary ; to carry mes- sages, such as summonses to council or to the field ; to act as musician at ceremonies, and to supply the village with cloth, of which the Khond allowance is a yearly garment. These castes which have been settled in the Khond country from time immemorial, all partake of food which has been prepared by the Khonds, who will not, however, eat from their hands. They use both the Khond and the Oriyah languages. They appear to have their own gods, to whom they sacrifice, but they generally participate in the worship of the Khonds. By these they are treated, particularly the Panwas, with great kindness, but as an inferior and pro- tected, perhaps as a servile race. They are never neglected at a feast ; and any injury done to them is promptly resented. But they are never allowed to bear themselves as equals ; and they in few cases hold land. They gene- rally maintain their blood pure. Hospitality is regarded as one of the first duties. It is equally imperative upon all. ' For the safety of a guest,' say the Khonds, ' life and honour are pledged; he is to be considered before a child/ Every stranger is an invited guest, and any person may acquire, under any circum- stances, the privileges of the character by claiming them. 66 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. No person, whether Khond or Hindu, can appear at a Khond village without being invited to enter, and the burden of public hospitality does not fall more upon the abbaya (patriarch) than upon any one else. There is no limit to the period to which hospitality may be claimed ; a guest can never be turned away, and his treatment must be that of a member of the family. Fugitives upon any account whatever from other tribes must be received and protected. Meriahs, however, cannot claim refuge as guests : they are given up as property amongst friendly tribes ; in unfriendly ones they generally find an asylum ; a person who has sought refuge is supported until he can make up his mind to return to his tribe, or to seek adoption into that of his host, and in the latter case he generally labours on the land of his protector until he can procure a share for himself. If a man can make his way by any means into the house of his enemy it is considered a case of refuge, and he can- not be touched, even although his life has been forfeited to his involuntary host by the law of blood-revenge. A Panwa, having killed the son of the abbaya of his vil- lage, fled and escaped vengeance. Two years after he returned, and in the middle of the night rushed into the house of the abbaya. A council of the tribe, any one of whom would have previously destroyed the murderer, determined that he must be regarded as a guest, and he was accordingly permitted to remain unharmed. Some- times, however, when an enemy thus makes himself a guest, the house may be vacated and food may be refused to him, and he may be killed if he comes out. But this proceeding is very rarely considered justifiable. One tribe must receive another if it become fugitive. Two branches of a tribe having fallen out at a feast, fought until one was driven from its lands, of which, with the villages, the other part took possession; the expelled branch sought refuge with another tribe, and was sup- ported by it for a year ; in the end, an abbaya of the victorious portion relented, and secretly became a party CHAP. V.] PRIDE OF RACE. 67 to a scheme for the re-admission of the others. He sent them notice, when the watch which was kept for their exclusion was somewhat relaxed. The people rushed into one of their old villages, from which as guests it became impossible to expel them, and they at last ob- tained possession of their lands. The family of the rajah of Goomsur were considered by the Khonds, to whose care he confided them, in the light of guests, in the most sacred sense, and this was in a great measure the origin of our first quarrel with these people. The genuine instinctive spirit of savage freedom still oc- casionally shows itself in the preference of death to the endurance of the least restraint. A Khond, captured by our troops in Baramootah, immediately tore out his tongue by the roots and died ; another, made prisoner after maintaining a long and gallant conflict with a horse- man, until he was stabbed by another assailant from behind, sternly refused food, and perished on the fourth day. The Khond patriarchs are very proud of their race ; even when they most affect Hindu customs, they delight to assert their superiority to the more civilised people. Their most common boasts are, that they reverence their fathers and mothers, while the Hindus treat theirs with contempt ; that they are men of one word, whilst Hindus are false and uncertain ; that the Khonds are one as a race, while the Hindus are endlessly subdivided. They have the easy bearing of men who are unconscious of inferiority, and they rarely employ expressions of courtesy. In salutation they raise the hand perpendicularly above the head. In meeting on the road the younger person says, ' I am on my way,' the elder replies ' Go on.' In the districts which have enjoyed most intercourse with the low country, the chiefs readily embrace any oppor- tunity to acquire all that is learnt by the Hindus. ' In the small valley of Borogootza, for example (says the Re- port), three abbayas read the shasters with considerable F2 68 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. ease. An intelligent Sunnyasi, who resides there, in- structs a good many Khond children with his own in letters, and ascribes to them a capacity quite equal to that of Hindu children of any caste. The manjee of Nowsagur in Duspullah has learnt all that is generally taught in that zemindary ; and the patriarch of Punch ora, who entertains a number of Soodoo priests at his chief village, is said to be well informed in the doctrines and strictly observant of the ceremonies of the Hindu reli- gion. I first met Madwa Khonro at Raneegunge, seated at his door engaged in teaching his child to read. ' Dora Bissye, chief patriarch in Goomsur, commands to a great extent the admiration both of the Hindu and the Khond population of the districts which lie between Kimedy and the Mahanuddee, and he is well known beyond that river. He is the object of feelings of the deepest veneration to his own race in Goomsur, Duspul- lah, and a great part of Boad ; and having had opportu- nities of observation, I may state that my estimate of his character justifies the opinion of those before whom his life has been spent. 'In person he is somewhat below the middle size, according to the Hindu standard ; of spare habit, and by no means robustly formed. His physiognomy is spirited, and when excited intellectual, but with a predominating expression of benevolence. His features are regular, suf- ficiently bold for expression, but by no means striking, and not strongly marked by the peculiarities of his race His manner is animated, perfectly self-possessed, and very pleasing. He might pass for a well-bred Brahmin of Orissa. ' His views upon every subject on which he is informed are clear and discriminating ; and he perceives new facts and their relations with remarkable facility. His habits not being military (as is also the case with Nowbhuri Khonro, chief patriarch of Boad), cowardice was vulgarly imputed to him in our camp, as if a people ever lavished its affections upon a poltroon. CHAP. V.] TREATMENT OF THE WOMEN. 69 c Having passed his time by turns amongst the Khond valleys of the Ghauts and the petty courts of the zemin- dars, he is as well informed of all that relates to the Hindu population of a considerable portion of Orissa as of the usages and interests of his own people. He is well read in the Puranas, and forgot his prison in enquiring of the present state of the jewelled palace of Lunka. His per- sonal habits are those of an Orissan Bramin, and he is attended exclusively by persons of this caste.' Women, among the Khonds, appear to enjoy a degree of social influence at least equal to that which has been attributed to them in the patriarchal communities of Western Asia. They are uniformly treated with respect ; the mothers of families generally with much honour. Nothing is done either in public or in private affairs without consulting them, and they generally exert upon the councils of their tribes a powerful influence favourable to humanity. ' Our women are not deficient in intelligence,' said the fierce old Bagwan Sow of Baramullick, 1 ' but they have this fault, that when we are at feud with our next neigh- bours we never dare intrust to them a purpose of war. It would be strongly opposed, and inevitably revealed to some relative or friend whom it might endanger.' But, added the Sow, with an expression of deep thankfulness, ' we can impart such designs without risk of betrayal to the youngest stripling who can bear an axe.' Marriage can take place only betwixt members of different tribes, and not even with strangers who have been long adopted into or domesticated with a tribe ; and a state of war or peace appears to make little difference as to the practice of intermarriage betwixt tribes. The people of Baramootah and of Burra Des in Goomsur have been at war time out of mind, and annually engage in fierce conflicts, but they intermarry every day. The 1 See above, p. 53* 70 MEMOKIALS OF SEEVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. women of each tribe after a fight visit each other to condole on the loss of their nearest common relatives. Eeversing the usage which prevails amongst other people, boys of from ten to twelve years of age amongst some of the Khonds are very frequently married to girls of fifteen or sixteen. The arrangement is of course com- pleted by the parents of the parties. The father of the bridegroom pays twenty or thirty lives to the father of the bride, 1 and the marriage is at once thus solemnised. The father of the boy, with his family and friends, bear a quantity of rice and liquor in procession to the house of the parents of the girl. The priest tastes the bowl, and pours out a libation to the gods, when the parents of the parties join hands and. declare that the contract shall be completed. All present then partake of the prepared cheer. An entertainment, to which both fami- lies contribute equally, is then prepared, either at the dwelling of the bride, or at some convenient place near the house of the bridegroom. To the feast succeed dan- cing and song. When the night is far spent, the princi- pals in the scene are raised by an uncle of each upon his shoulders and borne through the dance. The burdens are suddenly exchanged, and the uncle of the youth dis- appears with the bride. The assembly divides into two parties ; the friends of the bride endeavour to arrest, those of the bridegroom to cover, her flight ; and men, women, and children mingle in mock conflicts, which are often carried to great lengths. Thus the semblance of forcible abduction attends the withdrawal of the bride amongst these Orissan tribes, as it does to a great extent amongst the Hindus, and as it did amongst many nations of ancient Europe, and now does amongst the tribes of the Caucasus. 2 The priest, who had previously bound, after the Hindu fashion, a yellow thread round the necks of the parties, 1 The transaction is virtually betwixt the branches of tribes to which the parties belong. 3 See 'Primitive Marriage/ by John F. Maclennan, M. A. Edinburgh, 1865. CHAP. V.] MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 7] and sprinkled their faces with turmeric water in the shed used for beating rice, attends them homewards to rehearse a charm wherever a brook crosses their path. The new wife lives with her husband if a boy, in his father's house, occupying the same couch, arid aiding his mother in domestic labours. She leads a life of re- tirement compared with that of an unmarried girl, ab- staining from much dancing, and from the most riotous feasts. When her husband grows up he gets a house of his own, unless he is the youngest son. In the superior age of the bride is seen but a proof of the supremacy of the paternal authority amongst this singular people. The parents obtain in the wives of their sons during the years of their boyhood very valuable domestic servants, and their selections are avowedly made with a view to utility in this character. Notwithstanding the payment which is made by the father of the bridegroom, the wife is not to be considered the property of the husband. 1 A Khond wife, if childless, has a right to quit her hus- band at any time ; and even if pregnant, within six months after her marriage ; the consideration paid by the husband to her father being in either case returned. And it appears that a wife who chooses to retire to her father's house can in no case be forcibly reclaimed. Marriage is ipso facto dissolved when the husband dis- covers the wife in adultery ; and generally, when her guilt is indisputably established by other evidence. And a wife who has either voluntarily, or in consequence of such conviction, parted from her husband, cannot again (in some parts of the country) contract marriage. A man may, with the permission of his wife, but not otherwise, contract a second marriage, or retain a concubine during her life, and neither practice is unusual. Concubinage is not reckoned in any degree disgraceful, fathers of respect- J This account refers chiefly to the Khonds of Goomsur and Boad. 72 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. able families allowing their daughters to contract this connexion. The children of a concubine are in some districts said to be of inferior rank in the family circle, and to inherit but a half share of the paternal property. In others, however, they are in every respect on a footing of equality with the children of marriage. The women upon ordinary occasions of festivity only taste the liquor cup, and habitual intoxication, the great vice of the other sex, is in them uncommon and held infamous. Passing through the districts of Moondagaum and Hodzoghoro at a season of periodical intoxication, the blowing of the mhowa flower, of which the favourite Khond spirit is made, Lieut. Macpherson found the country covered with frantic or senseless groups of men, but no women appeared in the least intoxicated. Upon occasions of human sacrifice, however, the women mingle freely and without shame, with the other sex, in the more than Saturnalian licence by which that rite is accompanied. The wife and children serve the father of a family while he eats, then take their meal. Women for some unknown cause are never permitted to eat the flesh of the hog. Khond births are celebrated on the seventh day after the event by a feast given to the priest and to the whole village. To determine the best name for the child, the priest drops grains of rice into a cup of water, naming with each grain a deceased ancestor. 1 He pronounces, from the movements of the seed in the fluid, and from observa- tions made on the person of the infant, which of his pro- genitors has reappeared in him, and the child generally, at 1 Captain Burton says (Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, 2nd edition, London, 18G4, vol. ii. p. 158), ' The child's name is given on the eighth day after the Bukono has pronounced what ancestor has sent it.' From 'The Story of New Zealand,' &c., by Arthur S. Thomson, M.D., London, 1859, we learn that f Before a child was a month old, often before it was ten days, its head was adorned with feathers, &c. ... a long list of names belonging to the child's ancestors was repeated by the Priest, and when the child sneezed or cried, the name which was then being uttered was the one selected.' Vol. i. p. 118. CHAP. V.] FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 73 least among the northern tribes, receives the name of that ancestor. On the death of the patriarch of a district, the event is everywhere proclaimed by the beating of gongs and drums, where the abbayas and heads of society assemble from every quarter. The body is placed on a high funeral pile. A large bag of grain is laid close by upon the ground, and in it is planted a high staff bearing a flag. Over the grain are heaped up all the personal effects, as the clothes, arms, and eating and drinking vessels of the deceased chief. The funeral pile is then fired, and his family and the people of the hamlet. perform a dance peculiar to this occa- sion, around the flag-staff until the pile is consumed. The . property which is thus exposed, besides much of the live stock of the patriarch, is distributed among the abbayas of branches of the tribe. The priest is usually present, but takes no part in the ceremonial ; he may not touch a dead body. The dance around the flag-staff is continued at intervals from the time of firing the pile until the tenth day, when there is a concourse of people from all quarters proportioned to the importance and the fame of the deceased chief. An assembly of the tribe or district is now held, at which the heir of the late patriarch is acknowledged. On the death of a private person his body is burnt on a pile with no ceremony, save a drinking feast, which is given to the inhabitants of the hamlets on the tenth day. Every village has a separate burning ground. Each tribe possesses a distinct portion of territory, ^ and is presided over by a patriarch, who is the repre- sentative of its common ancestor. It is divided into several branches, which are in like manner ruled by their family heads ; and finally these subdivisions are composed of a number of villages, each of which is governed by the descendant of a chief chosen by its first founders. Each cluster of tribes is presided over by a federal patriarch. The patriarch of a Khond tribe is aided and controlled 74 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V, in the management of its ordinary affairs by a council composed of the heads of its branches. These again have the patriarchs of villages for their assessors, while the village heads are assisted by the elders of their hamlets. Assemblies of the whole population of the tribe, or of its subdivisions, moreover, are convened, as usage may prescribe, under the directions of the patriarchs of each grade, to deliberate upon general or upon local interests. The federal patriarchs, in like manner, consult with the heads of tribes, and assemble when necessary the entire population of the federal group. Such is the theory of the social organisation of this portion of the Khond people. But it is nowhere to be seen completely realised. Every conceivable deviation from the model occurs. The tribes are generally much intermingled, although some are said to remain distinct. But each now forms a social body, of which the chief bond is the idea of natural affinity, while a common name, community of interests, of religious rites, of asso- ciations, and of traditions render its sense of unity complete. The patriarchal office, remaining hereditary as to family, has become virtually elective as to person, with- out having suffered any change in its character ; and herein consists a distinguishing peculiarity of the social situation of these tribes. They have, it is believed, attained the first objects of social union, the enjoyment of property, the fruit of fixed industry, in security and freedom, in a greater degree than any people which has been observed living under institutions which are in practice so strictly patriarchal. The lineal head is most frequently superseded in the case of the federal patriarchs. For example, the late federal head of Goomsur, Dora Bissye, was raised to that office on account of his superior abilities, in the room of his elder brother ; while in the case of heads of villages, whose duties nearly all are competent to CHAP. V.] OFFICE OF PATRIARCH. 75 perform, the regular course of succession is very rarely disturbed. When a tribe has determined that the chief authority shall devolve, not upon its lineal head, but upon another member of the patriarchal house more competent to rule, nothing takes place in any way resembling either a formal act of exclusion or of deposition. If the patriarch has not yet assumed authority he is passed over, as if by family arrangement. If he should have been recognised, he is gradually and silently superseded, retaining however much of his precedence. In neither case is a successor called to the management of affairs by anything at all resembling election in the form which we associate with that term. The general will is manifested in the form of popular acceptance alone. The chosen patriarch as- sumes the first place and the chief authority in virtue of the confidence and affection of the community which have rested upon him as the most worthy. The ancient line is restored when a capable son appears. The patriarch, abbaya, or mullicko of a Khond tribe is simply the head of a family of which every member is of equal rank, the first amongst equals. Unlike the chieftain of a clan, he is in no respect raised above the community whose interests, associations, traditions, and manner of life he shares. None minister to his wants. He has no trace of state however rude ; no separate residence or strong- hold, no retainers, no property, save his ancestral fields, by the cultivation of which he lives. He receives neither tribute nor aid, save perhaps an occasional harvest offering of good will. The enjoyment of the place of dignity at every public and private festival may be reckoned, as in the case of the Homeric kings, amongst the most valu- able, as it is amongst the most agreeable incidents of his situation. The patriarch of a tribe, whatever may be the degree of his personal authority, undertakes no measures except in emergency, transacts no affairs without the assistance 7G MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. and sanction of the abbayas, or of the assembled society. He has charge of the relations of his tribe to the neigh- bouring tribes and zemindaries. He leads in war, and always accompanies the military aids rendered to the Hindu chiefs. At home he is the protector of public order and the arbiter of private wrongs ; conciliating feuds and dispensing justice, but depending for obedience to his decisions entirely upon his personal influence and the authority of his assessors. He convenes councils of the abbayas, or of the whole tribe, as usage may pre- scribe, either for deliberative or for judicial purposes. He moreover discharges the local duties of patriarch of his branch and head of his village. When occasion appears to the heads of a tribe to re- quire a formal expression of the general will, the chief patriarch sends a summons by the Panwas to every village to attend upon a particular day, at a central point, which is selected by him for the assembly. The nearer hamlets contribute their whole population to the council, the more distant depute the person or persons thought best qualified to represent them. The place of meeting is generally the open slope of a hill. The district patriarch and the abbayas of sections first seat themselves in a circle. Around them the abbayas of villages form an outer ring. The rest of the community is arranged beyond, and all are armed ; women and children sit apart, but within hearing distance. As the day advances, and the assembly begins to fill, the chief patriarch rises from time to time to demand whether such an abbaya has taken his place ? whether such an elder has appeared ? or whether the men of such a, village are prepared for their part? despatches mes- sengers for some, chides others for delay, and receives replies, apologies, and explanations loud and various in return. The peculiar function of a patriarch of the tribe ap- pears to cease with the completion of the assembly. He CHAP. V.] POLITICAL ASSEMBLIES. 77 makes obeisance towards the four quarters of the globe, to the sun, and to the earth, and takes his seat in the circle of abbayas of subdivisions. He convenes the as- sembly, and is its most distinguished member, but he does not apparently regulate or preside in any way over its proceedings. In an assembly of a tribe the patriarchs of the inner circle alone usually offer public counsel, and upon its formation one of them immediately rises to address the meeting. He begins generally by touching upon some spirit-stirring theme of the past, the actions of a dis- tinguished man, or the memory of a cherished event, which bear some obvious relation to existing circum- stances ; and having by such preface prepared his audi- tory, he invites from amongst the crowd, within the inner circle, some elder of the people of venerable age and character to bear testimony, as a living record, and as a depositary of the traditions of the past, to the facts upon which the chiefs shall found their respective counsels. The abbaya then exhibits his view of the matter before the assembly, appealing, as he proceeds, to the reverend witness, who, standing in the centre of the meeting, now vouches, now modifies his statements ; or, taking the part of an interlocutor, maintains a dialogue with the speaker, or interposes episodes in his discourse, while the assembly freely interrupts the patriarch with loud tokens of applause or dissent, but in all cases, it is said, without infringing the natural rules of decorum. When the heads of the community succeeding each other in debate have fully expressed their views, a plan of action in accordance with the general sense of the assembly is finally determined on and declared by the chief abbaya, when the meeting is dissolved without farther formality. The councils of villages and those of branches of tribes are similarly held. The jurisdictions of all these councils, 78 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. however composed, are, of course, entirely undefined. Those of each higher grade are simply supplementary to those below, deciding on matters which the latter have not sufficient weight to determine. Questions, however, relating to property in land, or to serious personal injuries, are referred to the head of the tribe and his assessors. Such, then, is the mode in which a Khond tribe is go- verned ; by patriarchs, patriarchal councils, and popular assemblies ; it being carefully remembered that the social structure and the whole body of usages described, instead of being characterised by theoretical regularity and uni- formity, are eminently local, fluctuating, and partial. A tribe is called a ' Bengasikia,' as the ' Baska Ben- gasikia,' or the ' Jakso Bengasikia/ ; Baska ' and ' Jak- so' being the names of the common progenitors. A branch of a tribe is distinguished by the name of its first ancestor ; thus, one branch of the ' Jakso ' tribe is called ' Kooroo Jaksika.' A village is called ' Nadzoo.' Khond names seem to be universally taken from natural objects, never expressing qualities. Thus, there is the c Meeninga,' or Fish tribe ; the Janinga, or Crab tribe ; the Pochangia, or Owl ; the Syalinga, or Spotted Deer tribe ; the Grango, or Mlgae. Each federal patriarch, or hereditary head of a cluster of Khond tribes, besides mediating in questions between tribes and in all important disputes to which both Khonds and Hindus are parties, was usually the sole channel of intercourse between the tribes and the zemindar in mat- ters of importance, and the adviser of the zemindar in hill politics, it being obviously the policy of the zemindars to conciliate the chief people among the mountain tribes. He is called Bissye in Goomsur, Khonro in Boad, and all his sons bear the same title, though not the same authority. But the Bissye or Khonro, from his combination of offices, possesses unrivalled power of thwarting the zemindar if he thinks fit. KHONDS DRESSED FOE BATTLE. CHAP. V.] A KHOND FIGHT. 79 The Khonds are highly distinguished for personal cou- rage, and never ask nor give quarter. They prepare for battle, if with an enemy of a different race, and on some occasions if of a different tribe, by recording a vow of human sacrifice in case of success to the earth god, and by propitiating Loha Pennoo, the god of arms, both in his grove and on the field by the blood of goats and fowls. The priest, who in no case bears arms, gives the signal to engage after the latter offering by flourishing an axe in the air, and shouting encouragement and defiance. They adorn themselves for battle, like most rude nations, as for a feast. They carefully trim their hair, plaiting it in a flat circle on the right side of the head, where it is fastened by an iron pin and adorned with a plume of feathers, and bound with a shred of scarlet cloth when procurable. An eye-witness gave the following description of a fight which took place betwixt the hostile tribes of Bara Mootah and Bora Des in Goomsur. At about twelve o'clock in the day the people of Bora Des began to advance in a mass across the Salki river, the boundary between the districts, into the plain of Courmingia, where a much smaller force was arrayed to oppose them. The combatants were protected from the neck to the loins by skins, arid cloth was wound round' their legs down to the heel, but the arms were quite bare. Eound the heads of many, too, cloth was wound, and for distinction the people of Bara Mootah wore pea- cock's feathers in their hair, while those of Bora Des had cock's tail plumes. They advanced with horns blowing, and gongs beat when they passed a village. The women followed behind carrying pots of water and food for refreshment, and the old men who were past bearing arms were there, giving advice and encouragement. As the adverse parties approached, showers of stones, handed by the women, flew from slings from either side ; and when they came within range, arrows came in flights, and 80 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V. many fell back wounded. At length single combats sprung up betwixt individuals who advanced before the rest, and when the first man fell all rushed to dip their axes in his blood, and hacked the body to pieces. The first man who himself unwounded slew his opponent, struck off his right arm and rushed with it to the priest in the rear, who bore it off as an offering to Loha Pennoo in his grove. 1 The right arms of the rest who fell were cut off in like manner and heaped in the rear, beside the women, and to them the wounded were carried for care, and the fatigued men constantly retired for water. The conflict was at length general. All were engaged hand to hand and now fought fiercely, now paused by common consent for a moment's breathing. In the end the men of Bora Des, although superior in numbers, began to give way, and before four o'clock they were driven across the Salki, leaving sixty men dead on the field, while the killed on the side of Bara Mootah did not exceed thirty. And from the entire ignorance of the Khonds of the simplest healing processes, at least an equal number of the wounded died after the battle. The right hands of the slain were hung up by both parties on the trees of the villages, and the dead were carried off to be burned. The people of Bora Des the next morning flung a piece of bloody cloth on the field of battle, a challenge to renew the conflict, which was quickly accepted, and so the contest was kept up for three clays. The arms of the Khonds are a light, long-handed axe, with a blade very curiously curved, the bow and arrow, and the sling ; no shields are used. The axe is used with both hands, to strike and guard, its handle being for the latter purpose partly defended by brass plates and wire. Their feasts do not bear the exclusively sensual cha- 1 The New Zealanders offered to Tumatauenga (the god of war) the body of the first person slain in battle. Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i. p. 109. CHAP. V.] POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTER. 81 racter which distinguishes those of many rude nations. The women partake in every form of social enjoyment, but share sparingly in the liquor-cup ; and extemporary songs or recitations, and dancing, in which the married and unmarried of both sexes join, are the accompani- ments of every entertainment. Still every family festival is a night-long debauch which often leads to gross excess, and, the guests being armed, to sanguinary brawls. Finally, the distinguishing qualities of the character of the Khonds appear to be these : a passionate love of liberty, devotion to chiefs, and unconquerable resolution. They are besides faithful to friends, brave, hospitable, and laborious. Their vices, upon the other hand, are the in- dulgence of revenge, and occasionally of brutal passion. Drunkenness is universal ; the habit of plunder exists in one or two small districts alone. Amongst savage tribes the state of war is universal. At a more advanced stage, such as that which the Khonds have reached, hostility is limited or modified by special compacts ; but war is still the rule, peace the exception. Hence, while within each tribe order and security pre- vail, beyond, all is discord and confusion ; everywhere is seen an incipient or a dying feud, and every tribe has an unsettled account with the zemindar. But at the same time the general circumstances of the situation of most of these tribes, and the ideas and feel- ings upon which their manners are mainly tounded, determine them powerfully to pacific habits, producing frequent alliances and tending everywhere to soften hostility. Eetaliation is, in general, necessarily the sole remedy for wrongs of whatever order. But each society inter- poses to prevent the exercise of the natural right of revenge within its pale by a rude system of compensatory justice, which has in view exclusively the private satis- faction of individuals, not the vindication of any moral G 82 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. V or civil rules of right. The main provisions of this system are the following. In cases of murder, the Khonds recognise the right of blood-revenge in the kindred of the deceased ; and, like the Bedouins, regard the exercise of this right as a duty ; while, unlike them, they consider the acceptance of com- pensation as in no case disgraceful. The right to revenge blood appears to extend to relatives within a degree of affinity not strictly determined, and its existence certainly renders murder a rarer crime among the Khonds (as amongst the Arab tribes), than the state of manners would lead us to anticipate. When the revenge of blood is foregone, the entire personal property of the murderer is awarded in compensation to the representatives of the deceased, and it was uniformly asserted by Lieut. Mac- pherson's informants, that similar compensation is made in all cases both of excusable homicide and of man- slaughter. In cases of wounding equivalent in property is adjudged if the injury be severe or of a lasting nature, but not otherwise. In every case, however, the injured party has a right to subsist in luxury at the expense of the of- fender during the period of convalescence. For wounds, however serious, given under circumstances of extreme provocation, or in a drunken squabble, slight compensation is awarded. In cases of theft or of robbery the restitution of the property abstracted or the substitution of an equivalent is alone required b^ Khond usage upon the first offence ; but expulsion from the society follows upon its repetition. This crime is not very common among the Khonds, save in a few particular tracts. When stolen agricultural pro- duce cannot be recovered, the injured party is put in possession of the land of the plunderer until its produce replaces his loss, one-half of the crop being placed annually to the credit of the offender. Unjust occupation of the soil, for whatever period, is remedied amongst the Khonds by its simple restoration, without compensation. CHAP. V.] JUDICIAL TESTS. 83 A husband in case of adultery, established by his ocular testimony, has a right to put the adulterer to death ; and for this offence there is no composition. The adulterous wife (not regarded as the property of the husband) is punishable only by dismissal to her paternal home, and this may be inflicted upon sufficient proof of her guilt by any species of testimony. Questions of property in land, and of the greater offences against the person, are generally decided with much solemnity by councils of elders convened by heads of sections or of districts, and by the examination of wit- nesses and of the parties, to both of whom an infinite variety of oaths are administered, while they are occa- sionally subjected to ordeals. Of judicial tests the two most sacred are founded on the belief that rice moistened by the blood of a sheep killed in the name of the earth god, will, if eaten by litigants, destroy the perjured, and that a portion of the disputed soil made into clay will, if swallowed by them, have a similar effect. The former test, in which the great Khond deity is adjured, is resorted to only upon the most solemn occasions. The common oaths of the Khonds are upon the skin of a tiger, from which animal destruction to the perjured is invoked ; upon a lizard's skin, whose scaliness they pray may be their lot if forsworn ; upon the earth of an anthill, like which they desire that, if false, they may be reduced to powder ; and upon a peacock's feather : while the universal ordeals of boil- ing water, oil, and hot iron are constantly resorted to. Boundary lines, when determined by public tribunals, are marked by stones set up with renewed sanctions in presence of the abbayas. The liberal entertainment of the members of every tribunal with rice, flesh, and liquor, at the conclusion of its proceedings, falls in all cases as costs of suit upon the losing party. G2 84 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VL CHAPTEE VI. ' THE KHOND RELIGION. HUMAN SACRIFICE AND FEMALE INFANTICIDE. SECTION I. THE KELIGIOUS DOCTRINES OF THE KIIONDS, Doctrines common to all the Tribes. THERE is one Supreme Being, self-existing, the source of good, and creator of the universe, of the inferior gods, and of man. This divinity is called, in some districts, Boora Pennu, or the God of Light ; in others, Bella Pennu, or the Sun God ; and the sun and the place from which it rises beyond the sea are the chief seats of his presence. Boora Pennu, in the beginning, created for himself a consort, who became Tari Pennu, or the earth goddess, and the source of evil. He afterwards created the earth. As Boora Pennu walked upon it with Tari, he found her wanting in affectionate compliance and attention as a wife, 2 and resolved to create from its substance a new 1 This chapter contains a reprint of the paper above (p. 59) referred to as having been read before the Royal Asiatic Society in 1852, with the exception of the first ten pages the substance of which has been stated above (pp. 52-58), and of a preliminary statement of the sources of information, and some details as to the minor deities; which will be found in Ap- pendix A. 2 There are various accounts given of the nature of Tari's neglect, one of the most generally received being that she refused to scratch the back of Boora's neck when requested to do so. CHAP. VI.] THE CREATION. 85 being, Man, who should render to him the most assiduous and devoted service, and to form from it also every variety of animal and vegetable life necessary to man's existence. Tari was filled with jealousy, and attempted to prevent his purpose, but succeeded only so far as to change the intended order of creation. In the words of a generally received legend : ' Boora Pennu took a handful of earth and threw it behind him to create man ; but Tari caught it ere it fell, and cast it on one side, when trees, herbs, flowers, and every form of vegetable life sprang up. Boora Pennu again threw a handful of earth behind him ; but Tari caught it in like manner, and cast it into the sea, when fish and all things that live in water were generated. Boora threw a third handful of earth behind him, which also Tari intercepted and flung aside, when all the lower animals, wild and tame, were formed. Boora cast a fourth handful behind him, which Tari caught and threw up into the air, when the feathered tribes and all creatures which fly were produced. Boora Pennu, looking round, perceived what Tari had done to frustrate his intentions, and laying his hand upon her head to prevent her further interference, he took up a fifth handful of earth and placed it on the ground behind him ; and from it the human race were created. Tari Pennu then placed her hands over the earth, and said, " Let these, beings you have made exist ; you shall create no more ! " Whereupon Boora caused an exudation of sweat to proceed from his body, collected it in his hand, and threw it around, saying, u To all that I have cre- ated!" and thence arose love and sex and the continua- tion of species.' The creation was perfectly free from moral and physir cal evil. Men enjoyed free intercourse with the Creator. They lived without labour upon the spontaneous abun- dance of the earth ; they enjoyed everything in common, and lived in perfect harmony and peace. They went 86 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI unclothed. They had power to move not only on the earth, but through the air and the sea. The lower animals were all perfectly innocuous. The earth goddess, highly incensed at the love shown towards man thus created and endowed, broke into open rebellion against Boora, and resolved to blast the lot of his new creature by the introduction into the world of every form of moral and physical evil. She instilled into the heart of man every variety of moral evil, c sowing the seeds of sin in mankind as into a ploughed field,' and at the same time introduced every species of physical evil into the material creation diseases, deadly poisons, and every element of disorder. Boora Pennu, by the appli- cation of antidotes, arrested and held in abeyance the elements of physical evil ; but he left man perfectly free to receive or to reject moral evil. A few individuals of mankind entirely rejected evil, and remained sinless ; the rest all yielded to its power, and fell into a state of universal disobedience to the deity and . fierce strife with one another. Boora immediately deified the sinless few without their suffering death, saying to them, ' Become ye gods, living for ever and seeing my face when ye will, and have power over man, who is no longer my immediate care.' Upon the cor- rupted mass of mankind Boora Pennu inflicted high moral penalties ; and let loose the myriad forms of phy- sical evil by the withdrawal of the antidotes which had arrested them. He entirely withdrew his face and his immediate guardianship from mankind. He made all who had fallen subject to death ; and he further ordained that, in future, every one who should commit sin should suffer death as its consequence. Universal discord and war prevailed, so that all social and even family ties were broken up. All nature became thoroughly tainted and disordered. The seasons no longer held their regular course ; the earth ceased to bear spontaneously fruit fit for the food of man, and became a wilderness of jungle, CHAP. VI.] THE FALL. 87 rocks, and mud. Diseases and death came upon all crea- tures ; snakes became venomous ; many flowers and fruits grew poisonous ; and many animals became savage and destructive. Man now went clothed, lost the power of moving through the air and the sea, and sank into a state of abject suffering and degradation. Thus the elements of good and evil were thoroughly commingled in man, and throughout nature. Meanwhile, Boora and Tari con- tended for superiority in fierce conflict : their terrible strife raging throughout the earth, the sea, and the sky ; their chief weapons being mountains, meteors, and whirlwinds. 1 Up to this point the Khonds hold the same general belief, but from it they divide into two sects directly opposed upon the great question of the issue of the con- test between Boora and his rebel consort, involving the whole subject of the practical relation between the two antagonist powers with reference to man, the source and subject of their strife. The sect of Boora believe that he proved triumphant in the contest, and as an abiding sign of the discomfiture of Tari imposed the cares of childbirth upon her sex. Her rebellious will, however, her activity as the source of evil, and her malignant hostility towards man, remain unabated, and are ever struggling- to break forth ; but she is so completely subjected to control, that she is employed as the instrument of Boora's moral rule, being permitted to strike only where he, as the omnipotent ruler of the universe, desires to punish. The sect of Tari hold, upon the other hand, that she remained unconquered, and still maintains the struggle with various success. They fully recognise the general supremacy of Boora as the creator of the world and the 1 The comet of 184 was watched by the Khonds with the most intense interest, each of the opposite parties regarding it as a new and prodigious weapon in the hand of that deity to which their own worship was chiefly paid. 88 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. sole source of good, invoking him first on every occasion ; but they hold that his power, exerted both directly and through the agency of the inferior gods, is insufficient for the effectual protection of men when Tari resolves to inflict injury or destruction ; and, moreover, while they regard Tari as the original source of evil alone, they nevertheless believe that she has practically power to confer every form of earthly benefit, both by abstaining from the prevention of the good which flows from Boora, and by directly bestowing blessings. Doctrines of the Sect of Boora. The three Classes of inferior Gods. Ideas respecting the Soul. The Judgment of the Dead. Boora Pennu, say his sect, resolved that, for his own honour, his work should not be lost, but that man should be enabled to attain to a state of moderate enjoyment upon earth, and to rise after death, through the practice of virtue, to a state of beatitude and partial restoration to communion with his Maker. To accomplish these purposes Boora created a subordinate divine agency in addition to that of the first sinless men, who, when deified, were made guardians of man ; and he appointed all the inferior gods to carry out the first object, one excepted, to whom was assigned the duty of administering justice to the dead. It was the office of all these gods to regu- late the powers of nature for the use of man, to instruct him in the arts necessary to life, and to protect him against every form of evil. It was ordained, however, that men should obtain earthly blessings, in dispensing which the inferior gods are vested with a large discretion, only through seeking their favour by worship with the offerings which they desire and which are their food ; while it was specially provided that, as a standing acknow- ledgment, worship is due of right to Boora and Tari alone, and is paid to the lower gods only with their ex- press sanction, the names of the two great divinities should be first invoked at every ceremonial. CHAP. VI.] FUNCTIONS OF THE GODS. 89 The inferior gods are divisible into two classes, distin- guished by their origin, their attributes, and the scope of their duties and authority. The gods of the first class sprang from Boora and Tari. They are unchangeable and not subject to dissolu- tion, and have a general jurisdiction, while the offices of all save the judge of the dead correspond exactly to the primary wants of mankind under their new lot. The first necessity of that lot was that man should live by labour upon the soil, and accordingly the duty assigned to the three first deities is to teach the art of agriculture and to regulate the functions of nature necessary to its practice. It is the office of the first of these gods to send rain, of the second to give new vegetation and the firstfruits, of the third to give the increase and to send grain in every shape. These deities delivered from Boora to man the seeds of all useful plants, taught him to clear the jungle, to make ploughs, to yoke oxen, to know the seasons, and to suit the seeds to various soils. It was necessary also that man should subsist in part by the chase, and a god was provided to instruct him in the arts connected with the pursuit of game, and to lay down rules for its practice. The next condition of man's new lot was that he should live in a state of constant strife, and a god of war was accordingly provided to teach the art of war and to prescribe the laws for carrying it on and for making peace. The establishment of boundaries was necessarily a primary want of a population composed of hostile tribes subsisting by agriculture and the chase, and to meet it a god of boundaries was created. 1 These six deities, then, were created to meet the pri- mary wants of man on earth after the introduction of evil, namely : 1. PIDZU PEKNTJ, the god of rain. 1 In some parts of the country the god of boundaries is placed first in the class of minor local deities, 90 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CnAp. VI 2. BOORBI PENNU, the goddess of new vegetation and firstfruits. 3. PITTERRI PENNU, the god of increase, and of gain in every shape. 4. KLAMBO PENNU, the god of the chase. 5. LOHA PENNU, the god of war (literally the iron god). 6. SUNDI PENNU, the god of boundaries. To which is to be added, as an inferior god of the first class, 7. DINGA PENNU, the judge of the dead, who will be de- scribed hereafter. 1 The titles of these gods vary in different localities ; and between the three who preside over the functions of nature there is a partial community and interchange of functions. They are invoked next after Boora and Tari at every ceremonial. Next in rank to this class of inferior gods is the class of deified sinless men of the first age. They are the tutelary gods of tribes and branches of tribes. Like the first class of gods, they are unchangeable and immortal, but they have only a local, or rather tribal jurisdiction. 2 Their aid is supplicated when any common danger threatens a tribe, and they are invoked at every cere- monial after the inferior gods of the first class. The third class of inferior deities are sprung from the gods of the first two classes. They are the strictly minor and local deities of the Khonds. They are the tutelary gods of every spot on earth, having power over the func- tions of nature which operate there, and over everything relating to human life in it. Their number is unlimited. 1 The New Zealanders had ' 1. The god and father of men and war; 2. The god and father of the food of man which springs without cultivation ; 3. The god and father of fish and reptiles ; 4. The god of winds and storms ; 5. The god and father of the cultivated food of men j 6. The god of forests and birds. All these were the children of heaven and earth.' Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i. p. 107. 2 ' The deified ancestors of one nation never interfered in the affairs of other nations.' Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i. p. 110. CHAP. VI.] INFERIOR DEITIES. 91 They fill all nature, in which no power or object, from the sea to the clods of the field, is without its deity. They are the guardians of hills, groves, streams, fountains, paths, and hamlets, and are cognisant of every human action, want, and interest in the locality where they preside. The following are the chief of this class of gods : 1. NADZU PENOT, the village god. 2. SORO PENNU, the hill god. 3. JORI PENNU, the god of streams. 4. IDZU PENNU, the family or house god. 5. MOONDA PENNU, the tank god. 6. SOOGA PENNU, the god of fountains. 7. GOSSA PENNU, the forest god. 8. KOOTTI PENNTJ, the god of ravines. 9. BHOEA PENJSTT, the god of new fruits, produced on trees or shrubs. Such is the subordinate divine agency to which the care of man's temporal interests was intrusted. 1 Before describing the office and attributes of the god to whom the determination of the destiny of men after death was committed the god of justice to the dead it seems necessary to state the ideas of the Khonds respecting the constitution of the soul of man. Men are endowed 1 ' The Fijians have a supreme god to whom is attributed the creation and government of the world, and no images of him are made nor of any of the minor gods. Besides him there is a host of inferior gods, but their rank is not easily ascertained, as each district contends for the superiority of the deity it has adopted and specially worships. As soon as beloved parents expire they take their place among the family gods. Besides their regular gods and deified spirits, the Fijians have idolised objects, such as sacred stones, trees, and groves, and in addition to these certain birds and fishes, and some even are supposed to have deities closely connected with or re- siding in them.' Viti, an Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands, by B. Seeman : Cambridge, 1862, pp. 389-391. Captain Burton tells us (Mission to Getele, King of Dahome", 2nd ed., London, 1864, vol. i. p. 139) that in the days of Bosnian the little kingdom of Abydah adored three orders of gods, each presiding, like the several officers of a prince, over its peculiar province, and that the list of fetish or worshipped objects is nearly endless. 92 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. with four souls. First, there is a soul which is capable of beatification and restoration to communion with Boora. Secondly, there is a soul which is attached to some tribe upon earth and reborn for ever in that tribe, so that upon the birth of every child the priest declares, after inquiry, which of the members of the tribe has returned. 1 Thirdly, there is a soul which endures the sufferings in- flicted as the punishment of sin, and performs the trans- migrations imposed on that account. This soul, moreover, has the power of temporarily quitting the body at the will of a god, lea' ing it weakened, languid, sleepy, and out of order. Thus, when a man becomes a priest, this soul always leaves his body for a time to hold an inter- view with and receive instructions from the god who has appointed him his minister ; and when, by the aid of a god, a man becomes a tiger (a subject afterwards adverted to), this, I believe, is the soul which animates the bestial form. Fourthly, there is a soul which dies on the disso- lution of the body. Dinga Pennu, a name of unknown meaning, is the judge of the dead. Like the other inferior gods of the first class, he is sprung from Boora and Tari, is unchange- able and immortal, and has general jurisdiction. Dinga Pennu resides upon a great rock, or mountain, called Grippa Valli, or the Leaping Bock, in the region beyond the sea, from which the sun rises. The Leaping Bock is perfectly smooth, and exceedingly slippery, ' like a floor covered with mustard-seed,' and a black unfathom- able river flows around it. To it the souls of men speed straight after death, and it derives its name from the desperate leaps which they are compelled to make to reach and secure a footing upon its surface, 2 which they 1 See p. 72, supra. * ' Bulu, the ultimate abode of bliss, is separated from this world by water, across which the souls have to be ferried by the charm of Fiji. Before embarking they have to do battle with Samuyalo, the father of souls, informed of their approach by the cries of a^ parroquet. Should they CHAP. VI.] THE JUDGE OF THE DEAD. 93 constantly fail to do, and so break limbs or knock out eyes, contracting deformities which they generally communicate to the next bodies they animate. Upon that rock sits Dinga, engaged day and night in writing on it a history of every man's actions towards gods and towards men, during every life passed upon earth ; in receiving the souls of the dead ; registering their com- ing ; casting up each man's account of good and evil ; passing sentence according to desert, and dispatching the shades by troops to fulfil his perfectly just and inflexi^ ble awards. The plan of retributive justice which Dinga administers is, in a word, this. If he judges that a soul has acquired by virtuous conduct a claim to beatification, he permits it at once to pass among the blessed spirits ; but if, on the other hand, he judges that it has failed to establish that claim, he recommits it to earth for further probation, after such detention in Grippa Valli as he thinks proper to inflict ; sending the soul to be reborn in the tribe to which it belongs, and to suffer in a new life penalties proportioned to its guilt. 1 The punishments which Dinga Pennu inflicts on souls released from suspense in Grippa Valli include every conquer, they are allowed to pass on towards the judgment seat of Degei.' Viti,v- 399. 1 The Hindu belief is that the passage of the wicked after death to the place of judgment is through dark and dismal paths; sometimes over burning sand, sometimes over stones that cut their feet at every step : they travel naked, parched with thirst, covered with dirt and blood, amidst showers of hot ashes and burning coals ; they are terrified with frequent and horrible apparitions, and fill the air with their shrieks and wailing.' Ward on the Hindoos, vol. iii. p. 374, cited in Elphinstone's History of India, vol. i. p. 190. 1 ' The religious belief of the New Zealanders was that which belongs to the infancy of a race. It was a religion dictated by wants and fears. To their gods they prayed for food, to their deified ancestors for the removal or the prevention of evils. They believed in a future state of existence, and that there were spirits within their bodies which never died. There were two distinct abodes for departed spirits : one was in the sky, and called Rangi ; the other, denominated the Reinga, was in the midst of the sea, and its entrance was through a cavern in a precipitous rock.' Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i p. 112. 94 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. species of earthly suffering, bodily and mental. Of these penalties it may be observed, that, amongst diseases, epilepsy is the most dreaded ; that poverty is peculiarly feared by a people among whom reduction to dependence involves the loss of many social rights and honours, even tainting the blood so as to exclude descendants from suc- ceeding to the office of chief ; that the want or the death of male offspring is regarded as a punishment of the heaviest kind ; and that the being born with a bodily defect is a calamity exceedingly felt by people whose first prayer for their offspring is that they may be brave and beautiful. But no punishment is considered so terrible as the curse of base moral qualities, such as cowardice or falsehood, which bring public infamy upon their possessor and his tribe. From the following catalogue of Khond virtues and vices, the general spirit of the justice administered by the judge of the dead may be inferred. The chief sins are 1. To refuse hospitality, or to abandon a guest. 2. To break an oath or promise, or to deny a gift. 3. To speak falsely, except to save a guest. 4. To break a solemn pledge of friendship. 5. To break an old law or custom. 6. To commit incest. 7. To contract debts, the payment of which is ruinous to a man's tribe, which is responsible for the engagements of all its members. 8. To skulk in time of war. 9. To betray a public secret. Whoever commits any of these sins will be born again afflicted with disease, with poverty, and probably with mental qualities which will make him infamous. The chief virtues, on the other hand, are the opposites of these sins, and amongst them are besides : 1. To kill a foe in public battle. CHAP. VI.] KHOND VIRTUES AND VICES. 95 2. To fall in public battle. 3. To be a priest. And, amongst the sacrificing tribes, 4. To be a victim to the earth goddess. To the soul of any one who shall observe strictly any one of the great virtues, while he shall not be guilty of any one of the great sins, it is considered that the judge of the dead will award a place amongst the beatified. The beatified souls of men enjoy immediate communion with all the gods ; they are in rank little inferior to the minor gods, live with them, and much after their fashion. Every tribe invokes the souls of deceased ancestors in endless array at every ceremonial, after invoking the minor gods ; and they especially remember those of men re- nowned for good or great actions, as for reclaiming waste lands, for extraordinary bravery, for wisdom in council, or for remarkable integrity of life. They believe that beatified souls, although wholly without power, may act as intercessors with some of the gods, as with Dinga Pennu, on the one point of inducing him to restore lost relatives speedily to their homes. Such are the chief doctrines which are held by the sect which worship Boora Pennu in chief and are shared, with differences which will be explained, by the followers of Tari. Boora is worshipped, with the ceremonies which will be detailed hereafter, at social festivals held periodi- cally by tribes, branches of tribes, and villages ; his fol- lowers, while they assign to him the highest precedence as the omnipotent god, never failing to invoke Tari with deep awe and reverence as the second power. Doctrines of the Sect of Tari. Origin of Human Sacrifice. The sect of Tari share, generally, all the doctrines of that of Boora respecting his purpose of providing a partial remedy for the consequences of the introduction of evil, and the creation of an inferior divine agency to effect that 96 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. purpose. But, whereas the sect of Boora conceive that he perfectly accomplished his intentions, that of Tari hold that her opposition prevented his doing so with respect to the earthly lot of man, while, however, they believe that he carried out his purpose respecting the destiny of his soul after death. The sect of Tari ascribe to her, exactly as that of Boora do to him, the elevation of man from the state of barbarous degradation into which he fell upon the intro- duction of evil, by making the disordered earth fit for cultivation, and by teaching the arts of agriculture, the chace, and war ; conceiving that she did this through revelations made to mankind directly by herself under a feminine form called Umbally Bylee, and through her priests, while she also permitted men, at her will, to re- ceive instruction and every other form of good which constantly flows from Boora through the inferior gods ; and hence, her sect worship all those gods with the ceremonies they require, exactly as that of Boora do, but, with the difference of view and feeling necessaiily arising from their opposite opinions on the point of the relative power of the two chief deities. Lastly, the sect of Tari believe that she gave those blessings to mankind, and con- tinues to permit their enjoyment, on the express condition of receiving worship with human sacrifices, which are her food. A legend, which will be found at length in the description of that worship, gives this account of its origin and of the first benefits that followed upon it. The earth was in a state of soft barren mud, utterly unfit for the use of man. Umbally Bylee, the name of the feminine form which Tari always assumed when she communicated with men, appeared cutting vegetables with a hook. She cut her finger, and as the blood drops fell upon the earth, it became dry and firm. Umbally Bylee said, ' Behold the good change ! cut up my body to complete it.' The Khonds declined to do so, ap- CHAP. VI.] ORIGIN OF HUMAN SACRIFICE. 97 parently believing that Umbally Bylee was one of them- selves, and resolving that they would not sacrifice one another, lest their race should become extinct, but would obtain victims by purchase from other peoples. They procured and offered a sacrifice, and, says the legend, 6 now society with its relations of father and mother, and wife and child, and the ties between ruler and sub- ject, arose ; ' and the knowledge of ah 1 that relates to agriculture was imparted to men. ' Then, also,' says the legend, ' hunting began. A man brought ' (apparently to a priest) ' a rat, a snake, and a lizard, and inquired if they were fit to eat. Tari rested on the priest and said to him, " Give names to all the wild animals, distinguishing those that are fit and those that are unfit for use, and let men go to the jungles and the hills, and kill the sambur * and all other game with arrows and with poison." : And men went to hunt. In like manner, a legend, given at length in the wor- ship of the god of war by the sect of Tari, narrates how she taught men the art of fighting. ' Boora Pennu, in the beginning,' it is said, ' created the world and all that it contains, including the iron of weapons, but men did not know the use of weapons, fighting in wo- manish fashion, and wounding one another with sword grass and spear grass, unable to inflict death.' It then teUs how Tari taught men to make bows and arrows and axes ; and how ' so cruel ' was the iron in which ' the terrible goddess,' when she introduced cruelty with other evils into the world, ' had mingled no drop of pity,' that none who were wounded lived ; but Tari, on the prayer of her children, taught men how to moderate the 4 cruelty of the first iron,' and how to make war. Thus, say the sect of Tari, did men rise from a state of degradation, and obtain all the benefits they enjoy, through worshipping Tari, at her express invitation and 1 A species of deer. H 98 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. command, with human sacrifices, upon her demonstrating the efficacy of the pouring out of human blood upon the earth. And they believe that the rite and its virtue were afterwards enlarged by a new revelation and decree. Men complained to Tari that the benefits she bestowed on them were insufficient, that there was ' little wealth, much fear, but few children, deadly snakes and tigers, and thorns piercing the feet ;' whereupon, she expressly prescribed the extension of her situal, with new ceremo- nies and new arrangements for the provision of victims, and ordained that its efficacy, which was previously li- mited to those who practised it, should thenceforth em- brace all mankind. And from that time, the sect of Tari believe that the responsibility for the well-being of the whole world has rested upon them. Thus, while they admit the theoretical supremacy of Boora, her sect make Tari practically the chief object of their adoration, and believe themselves to enjoy her special favour. She is worshipped, like Boora, at great social festivals held periodically by tribes, branches of tribes, and villages, while individuals also frequently pro- pitiate her with her great offering. On the other hand, the opinions and feelings of the sect of Boora on the subject of human sacrifice are ex- ceedingly strong, and always expressed with great warmth and force. They regard it with the utmost abhorrence as the consummation of human guilt, and believe it to ' have been adopted under monstrous delusions devised by Tari, as the mother of falsehood, with a view solely to the final destruction of her followers. From the legends which will be given at length in describing the worship of Boora, it appears that they believe that Tari was enabled to in- duce a portion of mankind to adopt the rite only through addressing to them a series of temptations and threats, whilst the remaining portion were preserved from the great sin through special interpositions by Boora, One legend narrates, that Umbally Bylee appeared in CHAP. VI.] CHARACTERISTICS OF KHOND DIVINITIES. 99 the form of a tiger amongst certain tribes which were at war in the time before the arts of taking life and of pub- lic battle were known. She first killed game daily, to the delight of all who partook of it. She then offered to one of the parties to kill any one of their enemies they should designate, and having killed him, all regarded her with unlimited faith, and prayed her to teach them the art of assuming the forms of beasts (called the art of Mleepa) and the art of killing in war. She consented, and taught the art of Mleepa to a few persons, upon the condition that they, in return, would do one thing which she should require. This proved to be, that they should worship her with human sacrifices, the goddess threaten- ing instant destruction if they hesitated. They brought out a man for sacrifice, but Boora interposed, as narrated in the legend, and then taught to men both the art of Mleepa and that of war. On another occasion, Umbally Bylee tempted men to offer the desired sacrifice, by promising to convert the waste and barren earth into cultivated plains covered with population and wealth, ' there being no higher temptation to hold out.' They yielded, and a human victim was prepared, when Boora again interfered, routing Umbally and her crew. Tari afterwards made a way through the mountains for the waters of a lake, and said, ' Behold the power of my divinity! Worship me with the blood I require.' Boora now left men to take their course, and a human victim was sacrificed ; and thus, say his sect, did the sect of worshippers of Tari with human blood arise. General Characteristics of the Khond Divinities. Legends. The gods of the Khonds have bodies of human form, but of ethereal texture. In size they are generally super- human, 1 of various colours, and variously attired and 1 We read in Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i. p. 119, that in some cases the H 2 100 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. equipped after the fashion of men ; and the higher are generally larger in stature than the lower gods. They can assume any form at pleasure. They all, with the excep- tion of Boora, Tari, and Dinga Pennu, live exclusively upon the earth, moving at the height of about two cubits above its surface, invisibly to human eyes, but seen by the lower animals. They all have human feelings, passions, and affections ; quarrel, and are reconciled ; fall in love, marry, and have children ; while the minor gods, at least, grow old, and are subject to sickness, and even to a species of dissolution, which a god of superior strength can inflict, and which differs from the death of men in this, that a god on dying is instantly reborn as a child, without loss of consciousness or recollection. The gods live upon flavours and essences drawn from the offerings of their votaries, from the flesh of animals which they kill, generally by disease, for their food, and from corn, the abstraction of which is notified by empty ears in the field, or by a deficiency in the garner. All the gods worship Boora and Tari ; and those of each grade wor- ship those above them with supplications, and with offer- ings of the lives of victims and the essences of other oblations. They take from men the materials for such offerings ; and the demand on this score is such that the priest has often to reply to inquiries respecting the cause of death of a favourite bullock or pig, that some god or beatified soul required it for a sacrifice to Boora Pennu. A couple of legends, selected from the endless number current in the country, will give some idea of the mode of life of the gods : ' A lofty hill, called Bogah-Soro, is a kind of local Olympus on which the gods of a large district hold their councils. The god of the hill, named Bogah Pennu, had, spirits of their deified ancestors became invisible human beings called Patupaiarehe. These spirits, which correspond to our fairies, imps, ghosts and goblins, were supposed to have larger frames and fairer complexions than men, and the}' amused themselves by singing and playing on flutes. CHAP. VI.] HORSE AND ELEPHANT ROCKS. 101 long ago, a son of strange habits and wayward and sullen mood, who lived entirely apart from his family, and cared for nothing but two pet animals, a horse and an elephant, upon which he lavished his affections, never quitting them day or night, and himself providing for all their wants. The god of the hill was in despair at the unnatural fancies of his son. He one day managed to persuade him to leave his favourite creatures, in order to carry an invita- tion to a sister married to a neighbouring god some forty miles off, and, during his absence, transformed the horse and the elephant into two rocks, which are still to be seen on the broad flank of Bogah-Soro. The youth, on returning home, hastened straight to his beloved animals, and, when he discovered the metamorphosis, fell into a paroxysm of grief and rage. When, on demanding who had played him the trick, he learned that it was his father, he rushed into his presence frantic with sorrow and indignation, solemnly renounced his family, and pre- pared to depart for ever. His father, at length, with infinite difficulty, contrived to pacify him and prevent the execution of his threat, by the solemn promise that he would give him the first horse and elephant that passed that way. The young god, accordingly, went to the road which winds by the mountain, to watch for travellers ; and there he has ever since sat, sometimes on a clump of bamboos, the top of which is seen flattened and depressed by his weight ; sometimes upon the branch of an old Uddah tree, which is bent like a chair. In the hope of bringing by that road travellers who might be attended by the desired animals, he has, moreover, created around the spot he haunts a most inviting shade, and has con- verted a clump of common wild mango trees into trees bearing fruit of delicious flavour ; while upon that road travellers are always safe, both from robbers and wild beasts. A horse and an elephant, however, have never yet appeared in that wild mountain-pass ; but when the Eajah of Purlah Kimedy was, some years ago, flying 102 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. through the hills in rebellion, attended by both the ani- mals, and meant to go by it, the presence of the young god was opportunely remembered by the Khonds, and the rajah was preserved from destruction by changing his route.' By the side of the road from Souradah to Guddapore, under a shady mango-tree, is a bright and sparkling fountain which gushes from a basin of golden sand. It is called the ' Brazen fountain,' and this is the accepted story of its origin and name : 6 The daughter of the god of an overhanging hill, one day, when carrying home a brass pitcher of water from a rivulet which runs in the dell close by, chanced to meet the young son of a god of the neighbourhood. A few words of courtesy were first exchanged, and then con- versation sprang up between them ; when the goddess relieved herself of the weight of her pitcher by setting it down at the foot of the tree. The conversation passed insensibly into lovemaking, which ended, in the old lyrical way, amid the flowered jungle. There the divine pair have ever since dwelt. The brass vessel of water was naturally forgotten, and became the brazen foun- tain/ SECTION II. THE KHOND WORSHIP. General Views as to Worship. The Priesthood. THE Khonds use neither temples nor images in their worship. 1 They cannot comprehend, and regard as ab- surd, the idea of building a house in honour of a deity, or in the expectation that he will be peculiarly present in any place resembling a human habitation. Groves kept sacred from the axe, hoar rocks, the tops of hills, foun- 1 ' The gods of the New Zealanders were never worshipped in the shap e of images.'- Thomson's New Zealand, vol. i. p. 109. CHAP. VI.] THE KHOND PRIESTHOOD. 103 tains, and the banks of streams, are, in their eyes, the fittest places for worship. They regard the making, setting-up, and worshipping of images of the gods, as the most signal proof of conscious removal to a hopeless distance from communion with them ; a confession of utter despair of being permitted to make any direct ap- proach to the deity, a sense of debarment which they themselves have never felt. The Khonds, however, at one or two places where they are much mixed up with Hindus, preserve with reverence, in a house set apart for the purpose, pieces of stone or iron symbolical of some of their gods. The Khond priesthood, like every other priesthood, lays claim to divine institution. After the primal inter- course between man and his maker ceased, and the in- ferior gods were created, these were, for a time, the only mediators between man and Boora and Tari ; but it then became necessary that there should be some men in more intimate communion with the gods, and better in- structed in their will and rites than the mass of mankind could be ; and, accordingly, each deity appointed a set of ministers for himself, by calling into his presence the third or moveable souls of the persons selected, and instructing them in their duties. The first priests taught to their sons, or other pupils, the mysteries of the gods they served, and the deities have since kept up their priest- hoods by selecting for them either persons so initiated, or others at pleasure. Thus, the priesthood may be assumed by any one who chooses to assert a call to the ministry of any god, such call needing to be authenticated only by the claimant's remaining for a period varying from one night to ten or fourteen days in a languid, dreamy, con- fused state, the consequence of the absence of his third soul in the divine presence. And the ministry which may be thus assumed, may, with few exceptions, be laid aside at pleasure. The Khond priests, or Jannis, affect division into two 104 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. classes, one which has given up the world and devotes itself exclusively to religious offices ; and one which may still engage in every occupation excepting war. The former class are disposed to hold that they alone are qualified to perform the rites of the greater deities ; but the two classes pass insensibly into one another, and many of both are seen who perform every ceremonial, with two excep- tions, namely, the rite of human sacrifice at which a great and fully instructed priest alone can officiate, and the worship of the god of war, which his own priesthood alone can conduct. And this god, it is to be observed, requires that his priest shall serve him only, while all the other deities accept divided service from their ministers. The great Janni who gives up the world does so absolutely, and after a somewhat striking fashion. He can possess no property of any kind, nor marry, nor, according to his rules, even look upon a woman ; and he must generally appear and act as unlike other men as possible. He must live in a filthy hut, a wonder of abomination. He must not wash but with spittle ; nor leave his door, save when sent for ; except, perhaps, when he wanders to draw liquor from some neglected palm-tree in his neighbourhood, at the foot of which he may be found, if required, lying half drunk. He scarcely ever wears a decent cloth or blanket. He commonly carries in his hand a broken axe or bow, and has an ex- cited, sottish, sleepy look ; but his ready wit never fails him in his office. He eats such choice morsels as a piece of the grilled skin and the feet of the sacrificed buffaloes, and the heads of the sacrificed fowls ; and when a deer is cut up he gets for his share, perhaps, half the skin of the head with an ear on, and some of the hairy skimmings of the pot. The priest who has not given up the world looks and lives like other men. He has a wife and family, and often accumulates wealth. He eats apart from laymen, but may drink with them. The Khond priesthood have CHAP. VI.] KHOND WORSHIP. 105 no endowments of any kind, nor is their land tilled by public labour. Their only perquisites are some of the offerings, the vessels used at certain ceremonies, and occa- sional harvest offerings of good will, when the deity whom they serve has proved propitious. They have places at all public and private festivals. The responsibilities of the public worship are generally thus divided, between the priest and the secular chief. The chief, after he and the elders have duly consulted the priest respecting the will of the god, is held exclusively responsible for the due performance of the rites indicated, the test being their result. The chief has, accordingly, full dictatorial powers in everything relating to the re- ligious ceremonies. He can order any one to perform any act connected with them, and, in case of disobedience, the assembly of elders will inflict the instant penalty of the fine of a goat, a buffalo, or a hog. If any important ceremonial is not followed by the desired result, the disappointed people generally demand of the chief the cause of failure, and he is without an answer. If he attempts to blame the incompetence of the Janni to divine the will of the deity, it is replied by the tribe, that the chief is alone responsible for failing to provide a competent priest ; while the Janni himself casts back the blame upon the chief with much effect. He will say, for example, that he is convinced that, at the moment of sacrificing to the god of the chace, or, as the hunters left the village, the wife or child of the chief wept a weak- ness abhorrent to the hilarious god of hunting when his favour is invoked, or his bands rush joyously to the forest ; or he may say he conceives the god necessarily expected a better buffalo than the wretched beast which the chief provided ; or, that he fears the chief must have grudged even that beast in his heart. If there is to be a compromise, the priest and chief may declare together that they see no explanation but that some one who assisted at the ceremonial must have been wanting in 106 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. faith in the gods. The end of such contests, however, very often is the summary decree of a fine by the as- sembly, when a party immediately proceeds to seize a beast, pig, or sheep from the chiefs farmyard, to be forth- with eaten at a common feast. One of the chief offices of a priest is to discover the cause of sickness, which is held to arise, either from the decree of Dinga, from the especial displeasure of some god, or from the magical arts of an enemy. To ascertain which god is displeased, the inquiring Janni seats himself by the afflicted person, and taking some rice, divides it into small heaps, each of which he dedicates to some deity. He then hangs up a sickle balanced by a silk thread, place a few grains of rice upon each end of it, and calls upon all the gods by name. If the sickle is slightly agitated as a name is pronounced, that is an indi- cation that a god has come and rested upon the heap dedicated to him. The priest, having declared the name of the god, lays down the sickle, and counts the grains in the heap ; if the number be odd, the deity is offended ; if it be even, he is pleased. In the former case the priest becomes full of the god, shakes his head wildly with dis- hevelled hair, and pours forth a torrent of incoherent words. The patient humbly inquires the cause of the god's displeasure, learns which of his laws has been broken or rites neglected, and instantly makes the offerings pre- scribed. 1 1 We are told by Mouhot, who passed some time among the Stiens, the wild mountaineers of Siam, that these people 'have neither priests nor temples, yet they recognise the existence of a supreme being, to whom they refer everything, good or evil ; they call him Bra, and invoke him in all cases. They believe also in an evil genius, and attribute all diseases to him. If any one be suffering from illness they say it is the demon tormenting him, and with this idea make, night and day, an insupportable noise round the patient, which they keep up until one of the party falls in a kind of fit, crying out " He has passed unto my body ; he is stifling me." They then question the new patient, asking him, first, what remedies to give the sick man, and how the demon can be made to abandon his prey. Sometimes the sacrifice of a pig or an ox is required, often a human victim ; in this latter case they pitilessly seize upon a slave, and offer him up to the evil CHAP. VI.] WORSHIP OF THE GOD OF LIGHT. 107 Individuals of the Khond priesthood occasionally pos- sess considerable influence, but its power, as a body, is certainly by no means great. The Worship of Boora Pennu, the God of Light, or Bella Pennu, God of the Sun. The chief* worship paid to Boora Pennu by his sect is at his great yearly festival, called ' salo kallo,' from the Khond word ' salo,' a cattle pen, and ' kallo,' spirituous liquor, that drunk at this feast being prepared in the cattle pen. This festival, like that of human sacrifice among the worshippers of Tari, is held about the time of the rice harvest, and is celebrated by every tribe, by each branch of a tribe, and by every village, as a great social rite, in which every one takes a part. To the tribal feasts representatives are sent from every village to that of the chief of the tribe. A fully instructed priest alone may conduct the ceremonial, and the festival generally lasts five days. During that period every one eats freely of fermented rice, called ' kenna,' which has a half intoxi- cating effect ; wild dances, accompanied by bursts of stunning music, are kept up day and night, and every kind of unrestrained and licentious enjoyment is indulged in. The story of the creation of the world and of man, is recited, as in the legend already given, and with it the narrative of the contest between Boora and his rebel con- sort ; of the acceptance of evil by all mankind save the few who were deified ; the fall into a state of brutish de- gradation, and the creation of the inferior deities. In the worship of Boora Pennu alone of the gods, an offering is not absolutely required, although it is never omitted ; genius.' Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos, by M. Mouhot. London, 1864, vol. i. p. 250. ' The revelations of the Fijian priests are made by means of the spirit of the god entering the body of the priest, who having become possessed, begins to tremble most violently, and in this excited state utters disjointed sentences, supposed to be the revelations which the god wishes to make by the mouth of his servants.' Seeman's Viti, p. 394. 108 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. and at the salo kallo, a hog, considered the most valuable victim, is sacrificed. It is hung up by the hind legs in the cattle-pen selected for the performance of the worship, and when stabbed in the neck its blood is scattered widely around. The priest then prays to Boora to confer every kind of benefit, while each individual prays for the good which he especially desires. Another great festival of Boora Pennu is called the feast of 'jakri,' or the 'dragging.' It is held to com- memorate the interference of Boora, by the agency of a minor god, who dragged forth a buffalo to be sacrificed instead of a man as an oblation to Tari. The victim at this festival is a bull buffalo, which has been consecrated at its birth, and allowed to range at will over all fields and pastures until five or six years old. Upon the day of the ceremonial several ropes are fastened to its neck and its hind legs, about fifty men seize them, and rush about with the animal until it is brought up exhausted to the tree of sacrifice, when the priest declares its submission to be a miracle. The priest then recites the following legend of the origin of the rite, to understand which it is necessary to observe that natural tigers are believed by these Khonds to kill game only to benefit men, who generally find it but partially devoured, and share it ; while the tigers which kill men are either Tari, who has assumed the form of a tiger for purposes of wrath, or men who, by the aid of a god, have assumed the form of tigers, and are called ' Mleepa tigers ' : ' The woman, Umbally By lee, appeared as a tiger, and killed game every other day, and all ate of it. There was at that time a fight between the people of Kotrika and those of Mundika. But it was private strife, carried on in womanish fashion, before the art of taking life, and that of public battle, were known. Umbally Bylee said, " I will kill any one of your enemies you please." They said to her, " Kill so and so," and she went as a Mleepa CHAP. VI.] LEGEND OF THE FEAST OF JAKRI. 109 tiger, and killed him. Then the people placed unbounded faith in her, and said to her, " Teach us this new know- ledge, and show us the art of killing." She replied, " I will teach you, but thenceforward you must do one thing." And she accordingly taught the art of Mleepa to a few, so that they practised it; and she then said, " Now you must worship me by the sacrifice of men, or the earth shall sink beneath your feet, and water shall rise in its place, and I will abandon you." The earth heaved ter- ribly, as some think, from the wrath of Boora Pennu ; some, in obedience to the power of the earth goddess. Fear filled the minds of all, and as directed, they set up a pole beyond the village, and brought human victims, and all was prepared for the sacrifice. But now the god of light sent a god bearing a mountain, who straightway buried Umbally By lee therewith, and dragged forth a buffalo from the jungle, and said, " Liberate the man, and sacrifice the buffalo. I will teach you the art of Mleepa in every form." And he taught that art, and the art of public war.' The priest at the jakri festival, amongst the numerous recitals in honour of the god of light, gives this account of another interposition of Boora, by the agency of the deified sinless men, gods of tribes : ' The earth goddess, taking on herself the shape of a woman, and calling to herself a number of attendants of a like nature, came to the hill country, and said to the people, " See what hills and waste lands and jungles are here ; worship me with human blood, and the whole shall become a cultivated plain, and you shall have vast increase of numbers and of wealth." She thus tempted the people, there being no greater temptation to hold out. Then the god of light, beholding her proceedings, sent Ma hang Meru and Kopung Meru, Adi Ponga, and Boru Ponga, gods of tribes, to counteract her. We had prepared everything for the sacrifice of a man, when the agents of Boora wounded with the forked axe two of the attendants 110 .MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. of Tari. The woman Umbally Bylee, seeing the hand of the god of light, fled instantly with the wounded towards Kourmingia. In that tract there was a great lake, and an island in the midst, where they settled, and there they fed on greens and other mud produce. We followed to attack them, but could not on account of the water, and returned.' Then is related the fall into the great sin of human sacrifice. ' Now Tari made a way for the waters of the lake through the hills, and it became dry ; and Tari said to the people, " See the power of my divinity ! Worship me with the blood I require ; " and the people believed in her power, and performed the required wor- ship, and they became savage like beasts, until by in- tercourse with us, as in receiving wives, they became civilised.' The priest also generally recites at the feast of ' jakri,' as at that of ' salo kallo,' the history of the conquest of the earth goddess by Boora. He then offers up prayers for every benefit, and finally slaughters the buffalo at the sacrificial tree, while every form of wild festivity, eating, drinking, frantic dancing, and loud music, is kept up for at least two days. At the commencement of the ploughing season, the following worship is performed to Boora. The repre- sentative of the first ancestor of the tribe, whether he occupies the position of its actual chief or not, goes out into a field with the priest, who invokes Boora and all the other gods, offers to Boora a fowl with rice and arrack, and utters the following prayer : ; Boora Pennu ! and Tari Pennu, and all other gods ! (naming them). You, Boora Pennu ! created us, giving us the attribute of hunger ; thence corn food was necessary to us, and thence were necessary producing fields. You gave us every seed, and ordered us to use bullocks, and to make ploughs, and to plough. Had we not received this art, we might still indeed have existed upon the natural fruits of the jungle and the plain, but, CHAP. VI.] STORY OF A RELIGIOUS WAR. Ill in our destitution, we could not have performed your wor- ship. Do you, remembering this, the connexion betwixt our wealth and your honour, grant the prayers which we now offer. In the morning, we rise before the light to our labour, carrying the seed. Save us from the tiger, and the snake, and from stumbling blocks. Let the seed appear earth to the eating birds, and stones to the eating animals of the earth. Let the grain spring up suddenly like a dry stream that is swelled in a night. Let the earth yield to our ploughshares as wax melts before hot iron. Let the baked clods melt like hailstones. Let our ploughs spring through the furrows with a force like the recoil of a bent tree. Let there be such a return from our seed, that so much shall fall and be neglected in the fields, and so much on the roads in carrying it home, that, when we shall go out next year to sow, the paths and the fields shall look like a young cornfield. From the first times we have lived by your favour. Let us continue to receive it. Eemember that the increase of our produce is the increase of your worship, and that its diminution must be the diminution of your rites.' The following story of a religious war undertaken by the sect of Boora against that of Tari is a specimen of a large class of Khond legends recited at the festivals in honour of Boora : 6 Long ago the people of Boora Pennu resolved, for his honour, to make war upon the tribes which worship Tari with human sacrifices. The followers of Boora chose for their enterprise the month of the year in which human victims are chiefly offered, and their army moved into Deegee, in the country of the people of Tari. Difficulties, however, arose in another quarter, which obliged them first to break up their force, and eventually to postpone their undertaking until the corresponding month of the next year ; but they resolved to maintain their ground in Deegee, by leaving there the two great leaders named Dorgoma and Kitchima, with a small party. The tribes 112 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. which offer human sacrifices then took counsel together, and determined that it was absolutely necessary to destroy that detachment with its leaders ; for, said they, " If they shall be permitted to remain, ere the return of the invading army they will have learned all our secret plans, and become perfectly acquainted with our country." The people of the earth goddess accordingly assembled a vast host, every man of which carried a load of ashes, while the women attended with provisions, and they appeared like a swarm of bees upon the hills above the small party of the people of the god of light. The two leaders of that party then said to their men, " We two are here for the glory of the god of light, and by the order of the tribes who are parties to this enterprise, and we must live or die. But no such obligation lies upon you. You are at perfect liberty to save your lives." Of their men a few then returned home, and a part retired to some distance, while the rest declared that they would die with their chiefs. These then prayed thus to their god : " god of light! You prevailed in the contest with the earth goddess, this is our first ground of hope. Again, when the earth goddess and her ministers came to delude us into her worship, you sent the divine four, who drove her from our country ; this is our second ground of hope. We have come here to establish your power, and if we shall perish, your authority will be diminished, your past superiority will be forgotten. Oh give us arms ! " As they prayed a great wind rushed from a cavern in the side of the hill called Oldura, and scattered to the four quarters of the earth the ashes which the host of the earth goddess had brought to overwhelm the band of Boora Pennu. In evidence of these events the wind roars from that cavern to this day ; while the brave chiefs and the brave men who stood by them obtained possession of Deegee, and that rich tract is now divided amongst five or six tribes, their descendants. 6 With respect to the projected invasion, it was deter- CHAP. VI] WORSHIP OF THE EARTH GODDESS. 113 mined by the triumphant people of the god of light, after mature deliberation, to forego it. It was consid- ered, that no good could possibly arise from attacking the people of the earth goddess, for they are like the red ants however much you may cherish them, they will continue to sting you, while, if you kill them, what is gained ? ' I may observe here, that the Khond tribes of the sect of Boora Pennu which practise female infanticide allege his permissive sanction for that custom, given on the last occasion on which he communicated directly with man- kind. They say that Boora then said to men 'Behold ! from making one feminine being, what have I and the whole world suffered ! You are at liberty to bring up only as many women as you can manage.' The Worship of Tari Pennu, or Bera Pennu, the Earth Goddess. In the worship paid to Tari Pennu by her sect, the chief rite is human sacrifice. It is celebrated as a public oblation by tribes, branches of tribes, or villages, both at social festivals held periodically, and when special oc- casions demand extraordinary propitiations. And besides these social offerings, the rite is performed by individuals to avert the wrath of Tari from themselves and their families. The periodical common sacrifices are generally so arranged by tribes and divisions of tribes, that each head of a family is enabled, at least once a year, to procure a shred of flesh for his fields, and usually about the time when his chief crop is laid down. When a tribe is composed of several branches, the victims for the fixed offerings are provided by the branches in turn, the cost being defrayed by contributions borne by each person according to his means. And such contributions are imperative not only upon members of the tribe, but also upon persons of every 114 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. race and creed that may be permanently associated with it, as, through receiving its protection, or by employment in it, or by possessing land within its boundaries, the ex- press tenure of which is the discharge of a share of the public religious burdens. Special common offerings by a tribe are considered necessary upon the occurrence of an extraordinary number of deaths by disease, or by tigers ; or should very many die in childbirth ; or should the flocks or herds suffer largely from disease, or from wild beasts ; or should the greater crops threaten to fail : while the occurrence of any marked calamity to the families of the chiefs, whose fortunes are regarded as the principal index to the dis- position of Tari towards their tribes, is held to be a token of wrath which cannot be too speedily averted. And that victims may be readily forthcoming when such special occasions for sacrifice arise, whoever then gives one for public use receives its value, and is, besides, exempted from contribution to the three next public offerings. Individuals make the great oblation when signal cala- mities fall upon themselves or their families. Should, for example, a child, when watching his father's flock, be carried off by a tiger, supposed to be Tari, the parents fly to the priest, bring him to their house, dash vessels of water over him, seat him in his wet garments, and set a cup of water before him. Into it he dips his fingers thrice, smells them, sneezes, is filled with the deity, and speaks wildly in her name. Should he then declare that Tari had inflicted the blow, offended by her neglected worship, he will doubtless add that an immediate victim is de- manded ; and the father of the house will make a vow of sacrifice, to be redeemed, at whatever cost, within the year. Victims are called ' Meriah ' by the Oriyas ; in the Khond language, ' Tokki,' or ' Keddi.' Persons of any race or age, and of either sex, are acceptable victims, except, I believe, Brahmins, who have been invested with CHAP. VI.] REQUISITES IN A VICTIM. 115 the thread, and are thence, perhaps, considered already devoted to the gods. A victim is acceptable to Tari only if he has been acquired by the Khonds by purchase ; or was born a victim, that is, the son of a victim father ; or if he was devoted as a child to the gods by his father or natural guardian. The principle is, that the victim must be, either naturally or by purchase, the full property of the person who devotes him ; and thence, should the full right of that person be interrupted or weakened in any way as, for example, by the escape of a victim to an asylum amongst the sect of Boora, or by his being carried off by force, or his being delivered up to a British magis- trate his acceptableness is at an end, and it cannot be renewed unless full property in him be re-acquired, and he be again dedicated by a Khond. Victims are generally supplied to the Khonds by men of the two races called 'Panwa,' or 'Dombango,' and 'Gahinga,' apparently aborigines like themselves, and attached in small numbers to almost every Khond village for the discharge of this and other peculiar offices. The Panwas purchase the victims without difficulty, or kidnap them in the low country from the poorer classes of Hindus, procuring them either to the order of the Khonds, or on speculation ; and they, moreover, constantly sell as victims their own children, and children of whom, as relatives, they are the guardians. Khonds when in distress, as in times of famine, also frequently sell their children for victims, considering the beatification of their souls certain, and their death for the benefit of mankind the most honourable possible. An intelligent, witness informed me that he once chanced to see a Panwa load another with execrations, and finally spit in his face, because he had sold for a victim his own child, whom the former wished to have married. A party of Khonds who saw the proceeding immediately pressed forward to console the seller of the child, saying, ' Your child has died that i 2 11G MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. all the world may live, and the earth goddess herself will wipe that spittle from your face.' The Meriah is brought blindfolded to the village by the procurer, and is lodged in the house of the mullicko or chief in fetters if grown up, at liberty if a child. He is regarded during life as a consecrated being, and, if at large, is eagerly welcomed at every threshold. Victims are not unfrequently permitted to attain to years of ma- turity, and should one then have intercourse with the wife or daughter of a Khond, thankfulness is expressed to the deity for the distinction. To a Meriah youth who has thus grown up, a wife is generally given, herself also usually a victim, and a portion of land and of farm-stock is presented with her. The family which springs from their union is held to be born to the condition of the father; and although the sacrifice of lives so bound to ex- istence is often postponed, and sometimes foregone, yet, should propitiations be required not easy to be afforded, the whole household is immolated without hesitation. And when the victim parents of a family who have been spared happen to belong to different tribes, as soon as they cease to have offspring they are separated and sent to their respective tribes, each accompanied by half of the children. The escape of victims from their fate is comparatively rare, for several reasons. Except when under distinct apprehensions of death, victims are naturally loth to leave persons who treat them with extreme affection, mingled with deference ; moreover, each victim is easily persuaded that where there are so many, and he is so much loved, his turn to die is not at hand. Every victim knows, also, that if he flies and is retaken, he will hence- forth be kept in fetters, and will certainly be the first offering ; and that his recapture is exceedingly probable, because, while every other person must be received as a sacred guest, a victim is necessarily restored to his owner by all the tribes of the sect of the earth goddess. It is, CHAP. VI.] OBSERVANCES BEFORE SACRIFICE. 117 besides, assiduously impressed upon and believed by victims, that, should they escape from their proper fate, they must perish miserably by disease ; while, at the same time, they are convinced that they will be beatified im- mediately after death by sacrifice. When a sacrifice is to be celebrated by a tribe, or a portion of one, the following preliminary observances are gone through. Ten or twelve days before the time ap- pointed for the rite the victim is devoted by cutting off his hair, which until then is kept unshorn. When a village receives notice of the day fixed for the sacrifice, all who intend to take part in it immediately perform the following ceremony, called ' Bringa,' by which they vow flesh to Tari. All wash their clothes, and go out of the village with the Janni, who invokes all the deities, and thus addresses Tari Pennu : 6 Tari Pennu ! you may have thought that we for- got your commands after sacrificing such a one (naming the last victim), but we forgot you not. We shall now leave our homes in your service, regardless of our enemies, of the good or the ill will of the gods beyond our boundary, of danger from those who by magical arts become Mleepa tigers, and of danger to our women from other men. We shall go forth on your service. Do you save us from suffering evil while engaged in it. We go to perform your rites ; and if anything shall befall us, men will here- after distrust you, and say you care not for your votaries. We are not satisfied with our wealth ; but what we do possess we owe to you, and for the future we hope for the fulfilment of our desires. We intend to go on 'such a day to such a village, to bring human flesh for you. We trust to attain our desires through this service. Forget not the oblation.' No one may be excluded from the festivals of human sacrifice, which are declared to be held ' for all mankind.' They are generally attended by a large concourse of people of both sexes, and continue for three days, which are passed 118 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. VL in the indulgence of every form of wild riot, and gene- rally of gross excess. The first day and night are spent in drunken feasting and frantic dances, under excitement which the goddess is believed to inspire, and which it would be impious to resist. Upon the second morning, the victim, who has been kept fasting from the preceding evening, is carefully washed, dressed in a new garment, and led forth from the village in solemn procession, with music and dancing. The Meriah grove, a clump of deep and shadowy forest trees, in which the mango, the bur, the dammar, and the peepul generally prevail, usually stands at a short distance from the village by a rivulet which is called the Meriah stream. It is kept sacred from the axe, and is avoided by the Khond as haunted ground. Upon the second day a post is fixed in the centre of the grove, and in some places between two plants of the san- kissar shrub. The victim is seated at the foot of the post, bound back to it by the priest. He is then anointed with oil, ghee, and turmeric, and adorned with flowers ; and a species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to him throughout the day. Infinite contention now arises to obtain the slightest relic of his person ; a particle of the turmeric paste with which he is smeared, or a drop of his spittle, being esteemed, espe- cially by the women, of sovereign virtue. In some dis- tricts, instead of being thus bound in a grove, the victim is exposed in or near the village upon a couch, after being led in procession round the place of sacrifice. And in some parts of Goomsur, where this practice prevails, small rude images of beasts and birds, in clay and wood, are made in great numbers for this festival, and stuck on poles, a practice the origin or meaning of which is not at all clear. Upon the third morning the victim is refreshed with a little milk and palm-sago, while the licen- tious feast which has been carried on with little intermis- sion during the night is loudly renewed. About noon the orgies terminate, and the assemblage proceeds with CHAP. VI.] ESCAPE OF A VICTIM. 119 stunning shouts and pealing music to consummate the sacrifice. As the victim must not suffer bound, nor, on the other hand, make any show of resistance, the bones of his arms, and, if necessary, those of his legs, are sometimes broken ; but in every case of which I have heard the details, all such cruelty has been avoided by producing stupefaction with opium. Instances are related of the escape of the victim at the moment of immolation from the omission of such pre- cautions. About fifty years ago a victim who had been permitted to grow up to manhood in the district of Eodungiah was there led out to sacrifice. The pre- liminary ceremonies had been gone through, and an intoxicated crowd expected their completion, when the youth said to the chief, ' In suffering this death I become a god, and I do not resist my fate ; let me, then, partake with you in the joy of the festival.' The chief assented, and the young man called for a bowl and drank, when the crowd contended fiercely for the remains of the liquor which his lips had consecrated. He then danced and sang amidst the throng until the sacrifice could be no longer delayed, when he requested the chief to lend him his axe and his bow, that he might once more join his companions armed like a free man in the dance. He received the weapons, and when the chief was busied with the priest in preparing for the last rite, the youth approached him in the dance and clove his skull. He then dashed across the Salki, a deep and foaming torrent, and fled down the ghaut to the keep of Kuli Bissye, of Goomsur. A furious crowd of worshippers followed and demanded his surrender ; but the Bissye contrived to parley with them until he could collect a small party of followers, who secretly bore away the fugitive, whose descendants still live. After the preparations which have been described, the following remarkable invocations, legends, and dialogues 120 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI- are gone through, the part of the victim in the latter, and occasionally also the parts of the chief and the priest, being sustained in a semi-dramatic way by the best im- personators of the characters that may be found. The form of words in this long ritual, as in all other Khond rituals, it need scarcely be repeated, is not fixed, but admits of endless variation. I give the fullest one in my possession, exactly as it was told to me. The Priest, having called upon the earth goddess, and upon all the other deities by name, first recites this invo- cation : ' Tari Pennu ! when we omitted to gratify you with your desired food, you forgot kindness to us. We possess but little and uncertain wealth. Increase it and we shall be able often to repeat this rite. We do not excuse our fault. Do you forgive it and prevent it in future by giving us increased wealth. We here present to you your food. Let our houses be so filled with the noise of chil- dren that our voices cannot be heard by those without. Let our cattle be so numerous that neither fish, frog, nor worm may live in the drinking-ponds beneath their trampling feet. Let our cattle so crowd our pastures that no vacant spot shah 1 be visible to those who look at them from afar. Let our folds be so filled with the soil of our sheep that we may dig in them as deep as a man's height without meeting a stone. Let our swine so abound that our home fields shall need no ploughs but their rooting snouts. Let our poultry be so numerous as to hide the thatch of our houses. Let the stones at our foun- tains be worn hollow by the multitude of our brass vessels. Let our children have it but for a tradition that in the days of their forefathers there were tigers and snakes. Let us have but one care, the yearly enlargement of our houses to store our increasing wealth. Then we shall multiply your rites. We know that this is your desire. Give us in- crease of wealth, and we will give you increase of worship.' CHAP. VI] SACRIFICIAL RITUAL. 121 Now every man and woman asks for what each wishes. One asks for a good husband, 'another for a good wife, another that his arrows may be made sure, &c. Then the Janni says ' Umbally Bylee went to cut vegetables with a hook. She cut her finger. The earth was then soft mud, but when the blood-drops fell it became firm. She said, " Behold the good change ! cut up my body to com- plete it." The people answered, " If we spill our own blood we shall have no descendants. We will obtain victims elsewhere. Will not the Dombo and the Grahi sell their children when in distress ? and shall we not give our wealth for them ? " And they prayed thus : ' " May the gods send the exhausted Dombo, his feet pierced with thorns, to our door ! May the gods give us wealth ! " ' Their prayer was answered. They procured and sacrificed a victim. The whole earth became firm, and they obtained increase of wealth. The next year many victims came for sale, and the people thanked the gods, saying " You have sent us victims, and have given us wealth." Thenceforward the world has been happy and rich, both in the portion which belongs to the Khonds, and the portion which belongs to rajahs. ' And society, with its relations of father and mother, and wife and child, and the bonds between ruler and subject, arose. And there came into use cows, bullocks, and buffaloes, sheep, and poultry. Then also came into use the trees and the hills, and the pastures and grass, and irrigated and dry fields, and the seeds suitable to the hills and to the valleys, and iron and ploughshares, and arrows and axes, and the juice of the palm-tree, and love between the sons and daughters of the people, making new households. In this manner did the necessity for the .rite of sacrifice arise. ' Then, also, did hunting begin. A man brought in 122 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. a rat, a snake, and a lizard, and enquired if they were fit to eat. Then the earth goddess came and rested on the Janni, and said to him, " Give names to all the wild ani- mals, distinguishing those that are fit and those that are unfit for use, and let men go to the jungles and the hills, and kill the sambur and spotted deer, and all other game, with arrows and with poison." And men went to hunt. ' While hunting, they one day found the people of Darungabadi and Laddabarri (tribes of the Souradah zemindary, adjacent to Goomsur, which do not offer human sacrifice) offering sacrifice. Their many-curved axes opened the bowels of the victims, which flowed out. They who went to the hunt said, " This ceremony is ill performed. The goddess will not remain with you." And the goddess left these awkward sacrificers and came with our ancestors. These people now cut trees only. The deity preferred the sacrifice at the hands of our fore- fathers, and thenceforth the whole burden of the worship of the world has lain upon us, and we now discharge it. 4 Tari Pennu in this way came with our ancestors. But they at first knew only the form of worship necessary for themselves, not that necessary for the whole world. And there was still much fear ; and there were but few children, and there were deadly snakes and tigers, and thorns piercing the feet. They then called upon the Janni, to enquire the will of the goddess, by the suspended sickle. He said, " We practise the rite as it was first instituted, worshipping the first gods. What fault, what sin is ours ? " The goddess replied " In a certain month wash your garments with ashes or with stones ; make kenna ; purchase a child ; feed him in every house ; pour oil on him and on his garments, and ask for his spittle ; take him into the plain, when the earth goddess demands him ; let the Janni set him up ; call all the world ; let friendship reign ; call upon the names of the first people ; cut the victim in pieces : let each man place a shred of CHAP. VI.] SACRIFICIAL RITUAL. * 123 the flesh in his fields, in his grain-store, and in his yard, and then kill a buffalo for food, and give a feast, with drinking and dancing to all. Then see how many child- ren will be born to you, how much game will be yours, what crops, how few shall die. All things will become right." 4 We obeyed the goddess, and assembled the people. Then the victim child wept, and reviled, and uttered curses. All the people rejoiced, except those with whom the child had dwelt, and the Janni. They were over- whelmed with grief ; their sorrows prevailed entirely over their expectations of benefit, and they did not give either their minds or their faith to the gods. " The world," said they, " rejoices we are filled with despair ;" and they de- manded of the deity, " Why have you instituted this miserable heartrending rite?" Then the earth goddess came again and rested upon the Janni, and said, " Away with this grief ! Your answer is this : when the victim shall weep, say to him, Blame not us, blame your pa- rents who sold you. What fault is ours ? The earth goddess demands a sacrifice. It is necessary to the world. The tiger begins to rage, the snake to poison, fevers and every pain afflict the people shall you alone be exempt from evil ? When you shall have given repose to the world, you will become a god, by the will of the gods.'" Then the Victim answers ' Have you no enemies, no vile and useless child, no debtor to another tribe, who compels you for his debts to sell your lands ; no coward, who in time of battle skulks with another tribe ? Have you none of these to seek out and sacrifice ? ' The Janni replies 'We have acted upon quite dif- ferent views. We did not kidnap you on the road, nor while gathering sticks in the jungle, nor when at play. The souls of those whom you would have us sacrifice can never become gods. They are only fit to perish by epi- lepsy, falling in the fire, or by ulcers, or other dread dis- 124 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. eases. Such sacrifices would be of no avail. To obtain you, we cleared the hill and the jungle, fearless of the tiger and the snake. We stinted ourselves to fill your parents, and gave them our brass vessels ; and they gave to us as freely as one gives light from a fire ! Blame them ! Blame them ! ' The Victim. ' And did I share the price which my parents received ? Did I agree to the sale ? You now tell me this. No one remembers his mother's womb, nor the taste of his mother's milk ; and I considered you my parents. Where there was delicate food in the vil- lage, I was fed. When the child of any one suffered, he grieved ; but if I suffered, the whole village grieved. When did you conceive this fraud, this wickedness to de- stroy me ? You, my father, and you, and you, and you, my fathers ! do not destroy me ! ' The Mullicko, or chief of the village in which the victim was kept, or his representative, now says ' This usage is delivered down to us from the first people of the first time. They practised it. The people of the middle time omitted it. The earth became soft. An order re- established the rite. child ! we must destroy you. Forgive us. You will become a god.' * The Victim. ' Of this your intention I knew nothing ; I thought I was to pass my life with you. I assisted to build houses, and to clear fields for my children. See ! there are the palm-trees I planted there is the mohwa- tree I planted there is the public building on which I laboured its palings still white in your sight. I planted the tobacco which you are now eating. Look behind you ! The cows and the sheep which I have tended look lovingly at me. All this time you gave me no hint of my intended fate. I toiled with you at every work with my whole mind. Had I known of this doom, I had still toiled, but with different feelings. Let the whole burden of my soul's grief, as I remember the past, lie upon you.' The Chief. ' You are about to become a god. We CHAP. VI.] SACRIFICIAL RITUAL. 125 shall profit by your fate. We cannot argue with you. Do you not recollect that, when your father came to claim your uncompleted price, you snatched up a shining brass vessel : that we said, " That is your father's," and you threw it at him, and ran away amongst the sheep ? Do you not recollect the day on which we cut your hair, devot- ing you to sacrifice? And do you not recollect that when many were sick, and the Janni brought the divining sickle, he declared " The earth demands a victim " ? ' 1 Then several persons around say ' I should have told you, and I, and I ; ' and several give answers such as ' I thought of our hard labour to acquire you, which had been wasted, had you escaped from us ;' and, ' You might have known all well.' The Victim. c It is true I did observe something of this ; but your aged mothers, and your wives, and your beautiful children, my brothers and sisters, assured me that you were humane, and would never kill one so useful and so beautiful as I. " They will rather," said your mothers and your children, " remembering your acts and your ways, sell these fields, and these trees, and that tobacco, to procure a substitute." This I believed, and I was happy and laboured with you.' The Chief. ' We cannot satisfy you. Ask your father, who is present. I satisfied him with my favourite cattle, my valuable brass vessels, and my sheep, and with silken and woollen cloths, and axes. A bow and arrows, not four days old, I gave to his fancy. Your parents, for- getting your beauty, forgetting the pleasure of cherishing you, turned their hearts to my cattle, and my brass vessels, and gave you away. Upbraid them. Heap imprecations upon them. We will curse them with you, imprecating upon them that all their children may be similarly sacri- ficed that they may lose, within the year, the price for which they sold you that they may have a miserable and forlorn old age, lingering childless and unfed that 1 See above, p. 106. 126 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN 1STDIA. [CHAP. VI when they die in their empty house, there may be no one to inform the village for two days, so that, when they are carried out to be burned, all shall hold their nostrils that their own souls may afterwards animate victims given to hardhearted men, who will not even answer their death-plaints consolingly. Curse them thus, and we will curse them with you.' The Victim will now turn to the Janni, saying ' And why did you conceal my fate ? When I dwelt with the Mullicko, like a flower, were you blind, or dumb, or how were you possessed, that you never said, " Why do you cherish, so lovingly, this child this child who must die for the world ? " Then had I known my doom and leapt from a precipice and died. Your reason for con- cealment living as you do apart from men, is that you thought of yourself, " I am great. The whole world attends on my ministrations." But, world, look upon him ! What miscreant eyes ! What a villanous head, with hair like a sumbully tree ! And see how enraged he is ! What a jabber he makes ! What a body he has got, starved upon worship which depends upon men's griefs ! A body anointed with spittle for oil ! Look, world look, and tell ! See, how he comes at me, leaping like a toad ! " The Janni replies ' Child ! why speak thus ? I am the friend of the gods ; the first in their sight. Listen to me. I did not persuade your father or your mother to sell you. I did not desire the Mullickos to sell their fields to acquire your price. Your parents sold you. These Mullickos bought you. They consulted me, in- quiring, " How may this child become blessed ? " The hour is not yet over. When it is past, how grateful will you be to me ! You, as a god, will gratefully approve and honour me.' The Victim. ' My father begot me ; the Mullickos bought me, my life is devoted, and all will profit by my death. But you, Janni ! who make nothing of my CHAP. VI.] CONSUMMATION OF THE SACRIFICE. 127 sufferings, take to yourself all the virtue of my sacrifice. You shall, however, in no respect profit by it.' The Janni. ' The deity created the world, and everything that lives ; and I am his minister and repre- sentative. God made you, the Mullicko bought you, and I sacrifice you. The virtue of your death is not yours, but mine ; but it will be attributed to you through me.' The Victim ' My curse be upon the man who, while he did not share in my price, is first at my death. Let the world ever be upon one side while he is on the other. Let him, destitute and without stored food, hope to live only through the distresses of others. Let him be the poorest wretch alive. Let his wife and children think him foul. I am dying. I call upon all upon those who bought me, on those whose food I have eaten, on those who are strangers here, on all who will now share my flesh let all curse the Janni to the gods ! ' The Janni. 'Dying creature, do you contend with me ? I shall not allow you a place among the gods.' The Victim. ' In dying I shall become a god, then will you know whom you serve. Now do your will on me.' The acceptable place of sacrifice is discovered the previous night, by persons who are sent to probe the ground about the village with sticks in the dark, and mark the first deep chink as the spot indicated by the earth goddess. There, in the morning, a short post is inserted ; around it four larger posts are usually set up, and in the midst of these the victim is placed. The priest, assisted by the chief and one or two of the elders of the village, now takes the branch of a green tree cleft several feet down the centre. They insert the victim between the rift, fitting it, in some districts to his chest, in others to his throat. Cords are then twisted round the open extremity of the stake, which the priest, aided by his assistants, strives with his whole force to close ; he 128 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN' INDIA. [CHAP. VI. then wounds the victim slightly with his axe, when the crowd throws itself upon the sacrifice and strips the flesh from the bones, leaving untouched the head and intestines. The most careful precautions are taken lest the offer- ing should suffer desecration by the touch or even the near approach of any persons save the worshippers of the earth goddess, or by that of any animal. During the night after the sacrifice, strong parties watch over the remains of the victim ; and next day, the priest and the Mullickos consume them, together with a whole sheep, on a funeral pile, when the ashes are scattered over the fields, or are laid as paste over the houses and granaries. And then two formalities are observed, which are held indispensable to the virtue of the sacrifice. The first is that of presenting to the father of the victim, or to the person who sold or made him over to the Khonds for sacrifice, or the representative of such person, a bullock, called the ' dhuly,' in final satisfaction of all demands. The second formality is the sacrifice of a bullock for a feast, at which the following prayer is offered up. After invoking all the gods, the priest says : c Tari Pennu ! You have afflicted us greatly ; have brought death to our children and our bullocks, and failure to our corn ; have afflicted us in every way. But we do not complain of this. It is your desire only to compel us to perform your due rites, and then to raise up and enrich us. We were anciently enriched by this rite ; all around us are great from it ; therefore, by our cattle, our flocks, our pigs, and our grain we procured a victim and offered a sacrifice. Do you now enrich us. Let our herds be so numerous that they cannot be housed ; let children so abound that the care of them shall overcome their parents as shall be seen by their burned hands ; let our heads ever strike against brass pots innumerable hanging from our roofs ; let the rats form their nests of shreds of scarlet cloth and silk ; let all the kites in the country be seen in CHAP. VI.] BURIAL OF THE FLESH. 129 the trees of our village, from beasts being killed there every day. We are ignorant of what it is good to ask for. You know what is good for us. Give it to us ! ' When the victim is cut to pieces, the persons who have been deputed by each village to bring its share of the flesh instantly return home. There the village priest and everyone else who has stayed at home fast rigidly until their arrival. The bearer of the flesh carries it rolled up in leaves of the googlut tree, and when he approaches the village, lays it out on a cushion formed of a handful of grass, and then deposits it in the place of public meeting, to give assurance to all of its arrival. The fasting heads of families then go with their priest to receive the flesh. He takes and divides it into two portions, and subdivides one of these into as many shares as there are heads of families present. He then says to the earth goddess c Tari Pennu ! our village offered such a person as a sacrifice, and divided the flesh among all the people in honour of the gods. Now, such a village has offered such a one, and has sent us flesh for you. Be not displeased with the quantity, we could only give them as much. If you will give us wealth, we will repeat the rite.' The Jan- ni then seats himself on the ground, scrapes a hole in it, and taking one of the two portions into which he divided the flesh, places it in the hole, but with his back turned, and without looking. Then each man adds a little earth to bury it, and the Janni pours water on the spot from a hill gourd. Each head of a house now rolls his shred of flesh in leaves, and all raise a shout of exultation at the work done. Then a wild excited battle takes place with stones and mud, in the course of which a consider- able number of heads are broken, and all go to the house in which the young men of the village sleep, and there renew the fight and knock down the whole or part of the house. Finally, each man goes and buries his particle of flesh in his favourite field, placing it in the earth behind his back without looking. And here may be noticed the K 130 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. idea which secures the distribution of the flesh of every victim to the greatest possible extent, that, instead of advantage arising to any one from the possession of a large share of the flesh, all are benefited by a sacrifice in proportion to the number of shares into which the flesh is subdivided. After burying the flesh, all return home and eat and drink, in some places holding a common feast, while in others each family eats apart. For three days thereafter no house is swept, and, in one district, strict silence is observed, while fire may riot be given, nor wood cut, nor strangers be received. Upon the fourth day the people reassemble at the place of sacrifice, slaughter and feast on a buffalo, and leave its inedible portions as a gratification to the spirit of the Meriah. The ceremonial of human sacrifice is finally completed by the offering of a hog to the earth goddess, a year after its performance, by the village which sacrificed. This offering is called the ' Valka,' and the invocation to Tari is simply this c Tari Pennu up to this time we have been engaged in your worship, which we commenced a year ago. Now the rites are completed. Let us receive the benefit.' Such are the rites and observances which, in some dis- tricts, make up the worship of the earth goddess. But they are subject to many variations. Thus, in one tract the victim is put to death slowly by fire. A low stage is formed, sloping on either side like a roof; upon it the victim is placed, his limbs wound round with cords, so as to confine but not prevent his struggles. Fires are lighted, and hot brands are applied, so as to make the victim roll alternately up and down the slopes of the stage. He is thus tortured as long as he is capable of moving or uttering cries ; it being believed that the favour of the earth goddess, especially in respect of the supply of rain, will be in proportion to the quantity of tears which may be extracted. The victim is next day cut to pieces. CHAP. VI.] HORROR OF THE OTHER SECT. 131 The sect of the earth goddess often attempt to introduce secretly fragments of the flesh of human victims into the tracts inhabited by the sect of Boora. One object in so doing is, to excite the wrath of Boora towards his followers for their failure to prevent the pollution ; but some of the sect of Tari, at least, hoped also by depositing the flesh at the shrines of some of the local deities, to induce in them a taste for the horrid food, and, by its gratification, to seduce them from their rivals. Whatever may be the true theory, both sects are agreed as to the result effected in the following case. In Cattingia, the people of which are of the sect of Boora, there are spots where certain salts efflorescing upon the soil attract the deer and other wild animals in great numbers, so that they become an easy prey to the huntsman. The people of the neighbouring tract of Guddapore, who offer human sacrifices, placed in one of the most valuable of those spots a shred of human flesh for the guardian deity. Since that time, no man of Cattingia has ever seen game there, while no huntsman of Guddapore has ever failed to find it. The people of Boora Pennu regard with horror the im- purity of the country which is polluted with human blood. When they visit it, between the seasons of sowing and reaping, they may not use its fire, but must obtain pure fire by friction ; nor may they use the waters of its pools or fountains until they have first fixed their arrows in them, symbolising their conquest. In like manner, they may not sleep in a house until they have snatched and burnt a few straws from its thatch, to symbolise its con- quest with conflagration. Death is believed to be often the penalty of the neglect of these precautions. 1 1 The account of the worship of the inferior gods the gods of rain, of increase, of the chace, of war, of boundaries, the house god, the village god, the god of fountains, the goddess of smallpox, has been transferred to the Appendix, as having no direct bearing on tl\e present narrative, although deeply interesting to all who desire to study the natural history of supersti- tion or the mind of this singular people. See Appendix A. K 2 132 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI SECTION III. FEMALE INFANTICIDE. The practice of female infanticide is, I believe, not wholly unknown amongst any portion of the Khond people, while it exists in some of the tribes of the sect of Boora to such an extent, that no female infant is spared, except when a woman's first child is a female, and that villages containing a hundred houses may be seen without a female child. The custom has its origin in the ideas and usages which regulate the relations of the sexes, and especially the con- ditions of marriage amongst these tribes ; while, more- over, it is expressly sanctioned and promoted by their religious doctrines. I can here but very briefly advert to the customs and feelings which the practice of infanticide alternately springs from and produces. The influence and privileges of women are exceedingly great amongst the Khonds, and are, I believe, greatest amongst the tribes which prac- tise infanticide. Their opinions have great weight in all public and private affairs, and their direct agency is often considered essential in the former. Thus, the presence of the sisters and daughters of a tribe is indispensable at its battles, to afford aid and encouragement ; and the inter- vention of its wives, who are neutral between the tribes of their fathers and those of their husbands, is necessary to make peace. The Khond women frequently settle difficult questions between their tribes and the rajahs, through the ladies of these, with whom they are always in communication ; while these ladies, it may be observed, are employed on critical occasions as irresistible instru- ments to sway the Khond chiefs. But the ascendency of Khond women in these tribes is completed by their extraordinary matrimonial privileges ; with respect to which, however, it is to be borne in mind, that intermarriage between persons of the same CHAP. VI.] CAUSES OF INFANTICIDE. 133 however large or scattered, is considered incestuous, and punishable by death. So far is constancy to her husband from being required in a .wife, that her pretensions do not, at least, suffer diminution in the eyes of either sex when fines are levied on her convicted lovers ; while, on the other hand, infi- delity on the part of a married man is held to be highly dishonourable, and is often punished by deprivation of many social privileges. A wife, moreover, may quit her husband at any time, except within a year of her marriage, or when she expects offspring, or within a year after the birth of a child ; and she may then return to her father's house, or contract a new marriage ; while no man who is without a wife may, without entailing disgrace on him- self and his tribe, refuse to receive any woman who may choose to enter his house and establish herself as its mistress. Now, a bridegroom gives for a wife of these tribes in which so few women are brought up, a large considera- tion in cattle and money. The sum is chiefly subscribed by his near relatives and his branch of his tribe, and is paid to his wife's father, who again distributes it amongst the heads of families of his own branch. But, when a wife quits her husband, he has a right to reclaim immediately from her father the whole sum paid for her ; while the father, at the same time, becomes entitled to levy a like sum from any new husband to whom she may attach herself. And, it being observed that every man's tribe is at once answerable for ah 1 his debts, and bound in honour to enforce his claims, it will be understood that these restitutions and exactions, whether to be made betwixt persons belonging to different tribes or to diffe- rent branches of the same tribe, must be, even in the simplest cases, productive of infinite difficulty and vexa- tion ; while they have given rise to three-fourths of the sanguinary quarrels and hereditary feuds which distract the Khond country. Thence, say the Khonds, c To any 134 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. man but a rich and powerful chief, who desires to form connexions, and is able to make large and sudden restitutions, and to his tribe a married daughter is a curse. By the death of our female infants before they see the light, the lives of men without number are saved, and we live in comparative peace.' With respect to the religious sanction of this practice, these tribes believe, as I have already observed, that Boora, contemplating the deplorable consequences of the creation of the first feminine being, his consort, charged men, or gave them express permission, to bring up only as many females as they should find consistent with the good of society. Now, while they believe that souls condemned by Dinga to pass successive lives upon earth are ever reborn in the tribes in which they were first born and received, they conceive that the reception of a soul into a tribe, when it is first sent to animate a human form, is completed only on the performance of the ceremony of naming the infant on the seventh day after its birth ; and they hold the curious doctrine, moreover, that Boora sets apart a certain quantity of soul to be distributed amongst each generation of mankind. Thence they be- lieve that should an infant die before it is named, its soul does not enter into the circle of tribal spirits, to be reborn as often as Dinga wills, but rejoins the mass of spirit set apart for the generation to which it belongs. And thus, by the destruction of a female infant, either the addition of a new female soul to the number of spirits attached to a tribe is prevented, and the chance of getting a new male spirit in its place is gained, or the return of a female soul by rebirth in that tribe is postponed. But the exclusion of new female spirits from a tribe is believed by these Khonds to be of high importance upon another ground. They believe that, of the quantity of soul allotted by Boora to each generation, the less that is assigned to the women, the more will remain for the men, whose mental powers will be proportionately im- CHAP. VI.] SUMMARY OF THE KHOND RELIGION. 135 proved. And the first prayer of every Khond being for many and highly endowed male children, the belief that the mental qualities of these may be raised by the destruc- tion of the female infants, is no slight incentive to the practice, superadded to the motives afforded by the belief tli at the number of the males may be increased by it, that it is expressly permitted by Boora, and that it averts much of the strife and bloodshed arising from the capricious dis- solution of marriage-ties by women. The religion of the Khonds, then, is a distinct theism, with a subordinate demonology ; and the sum of its chief doctrines is briefly as follows : The supreme being and sole source of good, who is styled the god of light, created for himself a consort who became the earth goddess, and the source of evil ; and thereafter he created the earth, with all it contains, and man. The earth goddess, prompted by jealousy of the love borne to man by his creator, rebelled against the god of light, and introduced moral and physical evil into the world. The god of light arrested the action of physical evil while he left man perfectly free to receive or to reject moral evil defined to be ' disobedience towards God, and strife amongst men.' A few of mankind entirely rejected moral evil, the remainder received it. The former portion were immediately deified ; the latter were condemned to endure every form of physical suffering, with death, depri- vation of the immediate care of the creator, and the deepest moral degradation. Meanwhile, the god of light and his rebel consort contended for superiority, until the elements of good and evil became thoroughly commingled in man and throughout nature. Up to this point the Khonds hold the same general belief, but from it they divide into two sects directly opposed upon the question of the issue of the contest between the two antagonistic powers. One sect holds, that the god of light completely con- quered the earth goddess, and employs her still the 136 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VI. active principle of evil as the instrument of his moral rule : that he resolved to provide a partial remedy for the consequences of the introduction of evil, by enabling man to attain to a state of moderate enjoyment upon earth, and to partial restoration to communion with his creator after death : and that, to effect this purpose, he created three classes of subordinate deities, and assigned to them the office first, of instructing man in the arts of life, and regulating the powers of nature for his use, upon the con- dition of his paying to them due worship ; secondly, of administering a system of retributive justice, through sub- jection to which, and through the practice of virtue during successive lives upon earth, the soul of man might attain to beatification. The other sect hold, upon the other hand, that the earth goddess remains unconquered ; that the god of light could not, in opposition to her will, carry out his purpose with respect to man's temporal lot ; and that man, therefore, owes his elevation from the state of physical suffering into which he fell through the reception of evil, to the direct exercise of her power to confer blessings, or to her permitting him to receive the good which flows from the god of light, through the inferior gods, to all who worship them. With respect to man's destiny after death, they believe that the god of light carried out his purpose : and they believe that the worship of the earth goddess by human sacrifice is the indispensable condition on which these blessings have been granted, and their continuance may be hoped for the virtue of the rite availing not only for those who practise it, but for all mankind. 1 1 For some remarks on this chapter, see Appendix B. CHAP. VII.] RETURN TO NELLOKE. 137 CHAPTEE VII. RETURN TO NELLORE AND VISIT TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. From January 1838 to January 1841. ABOUT the end of 1837 Lieutenant Macpherson left Ganjam and after a short visit to Madras, where Lord Elphinstone had succeeded Sir Frederick Adam as gover- nor, returned to his duties at Nellore. His health, how- ever, was still very feeble, and in the hope of acquiring a little vigour he ' broke away,' as he writes on the 28th April 1838, 'some eighty miles inland to a hill zemindary, which has been rarely visited, to see all that was to be seen of the present, and to inquire into the obscure past. Oodiagherry was the seat of a Hindu principality during many dynasties, until the Mussulman put his foot on its neck, when it passed to a family of the Arcot race whose descendants hold it now. I found a town in which Ma- homedan sloth and vice had succeeded to Hindu industry, and a hill about 1,000 feet in height crested by an ancient and long-ruined fort. Oppressed by the intolerable heat I climbed the hill, and discovering a small, well-lighted, half- ruinous chamber, detached from an old mosque, placed on the verge of a bastion that overhung the scarped rock ; finding also my thermometer full 10 lower than on the plain, and the air cool and light, I there established myself, and have remained for a fortnight, busy during the day, in the morning and evening wandering over the rocky hill and admiring its superb Salvator scenes from the base to its summit. I told or should have told you in my last, that I had not all this time been for eight 138 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VII. days in a fit state to do justice, to the materials for an interesting paper collected with so much hazard and cost in Goomsur, and I really thought the spoil was to escape from my mere inability to stretch out my hand to grasp it. But this little change has set me up so well for these few clays that I have completed the topogra- phical part of my report. By the very first ship, probably six weeks or eight at the most from this time, I certainly sail colony-wards. It is a hard but inevitable fate. I have ample and pleasant employment in the statistics of this district, which I have just begun comprehensively to investigate but all must yield to the grand consideration. I have touched the verge of discretion, says Cadenhead, my oracle. My sole hope, then, is that in this eagle's nest, where I have recovered a trifling amount of nerve for a time, I may manage to live out these weeks in solitude, and complete my picture of Khond nature. The Khond council are in arrangement identical to the letter with that of the shield of Achilles, and the spirit and manner of their public assemblies is that of those portrayed by the old bard ; 1 and when I looked for the passage, was not my Homer gone with all my most valuable books ! plundered in my absence at the wars. ' There is a book expressly " de sacrifices humanis," 1 The following passage is alluded to : ' Meanwhile a busy throng the foruin fill'd : There between two a fierce contention rose About a death-fine ; to the public one Appeal'd, asserting to have paid the whole j While one denied that he had aught received. Both were desirous that before the judge The issue should be tried ; with noisy shouts Their several partizans encouraged each. The heralds still'd the tumult of the crowd : On polish'd chairs, in solemn circle, sate The rev'rend elders ; in their hands they held The loud-voic'd heralds' sceptres ; waving these, They heard th' alternate pleadings ; in the midst Two talents lay of gold, which he should take Who should before them prove his righteous cause.' Iliad, b. x\iii. 1 497. Lord Derby's Translation, CHAP. VII.] POLITICS OF CENTRAL ASIA. 139 quoted in Pasliley's Crete Geusius is I think the name ; you might as well ask, in India, for Domesday book ; also Voss de Superstitione, &c. 'A little sooner or later the country between the Indus and the Persian frontier will be the stage of important events. Persia is already thrown away, I fear ; Russia has acknowledged agents on our frontier, and men's minds are unsettled, to a great extent, throughout the whole of Upper India. Still you are strong enough in Europe and we in Asia, and I foresee no combination of events from which anything is to be dreaded. 'I am constantly thinking whether I could not take my sick-leave up to Egypt and the Black Sea, doing all those countries, and home to Bengal by the Caucasus and some new route from the shore of the Caspian. I am so per- fectly orientalised, and get on so easily with wild men, that I am convinced I could go anywhere, and that is the most promising field I know in the present aspect of things.' ' Nellore, 9th January 1839. ' It has been a most interesting and instructive crisis. We have, for the first time, come sensibly in contact with Russia in the East, where, unless new and improbable combinations shall arise, we must continue to be "at war" with her, India was penetrated by the belief that the Shah, supported by the Czar, was advancing with an irre- sistible host, arid, from the Himalaya to Comorin, thrilled with the expectation of change. Mussulman, Mahratta, Rajpoot, Seik, the discontented heads of every nation, rank, and class, laid the foundation of a league to aid in our overthrow. With the retreat from Herat all passed like vapour, and the dream is already half forgotten. Some movements have been made, or are intended on our part, which have told or which promise well. A fine army has been assembled in Bengal, and a small one at Bom- bay, showing that we are ready. Karak, in the Gulf, has been occupied, and must be maintained as if it were Gib- 140 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CnAP. Vll. raltar. We render Herat impregnable to Persian engi- neers ; and we put a puppet on the throne of Cabul, on whose conduct much depends. But the real question is, who shall be paramount in Persia ? and to me nothing appears to be done while it remains doubtful. I expect bolder action on this side of the isthmus than on yours.' 1 Madras, 17th March 1839. 4 My tendency to fever not having left me, I am here waiting for a ship to sail away,in the first instance, to the Cape. ' A good deal of anxiety exists throughout Southern India respecting the feelings of the Mussulman popu- lation, which, being necessarily hostile to our rule, indulges largely in hopes of change from the contest in which we are engaged in the north-west. The only real ground for uneasiness, however, which I can discern, lies in our ignorance how far their sentiments have extended to the troops. It is not even considered respectable in an officer to be on such terms witlvany of the men whom he commands, whatever rank or distinction they may have attained, as would make it possible for him to know what they are thinking about ; and the temper of the men has been severely tried in this quarter by very unfortunately timed changes in their pay.' < 17th March 1839. ' I take with me a Mussulman lad of fine spirit, who has been the companion of ah 1 my wanderings in capa- city of valet for several years. Poor boy, he got this vile fever in Goomsur as badly as myself, and though it is very expensive, I cannot but afford him the same means of cure. He will, however, be useful at the Cape, where servants are, I believe, greater and dirtier villains than any in the world. I wish you had seen the battle he had to get away from his newly-married wife, his father-in-law, and all his relations. They look on him as lost for ever. The day of his departure they took CHAP. VII.] THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 141 him to the mosque, and, I believe, read the funeral service over him, or something like it. I asked him if he knew what the natives of the Cape were like ; " yes," he answered, " they have horses' heads ! " He also consulted me on the propriety of shaving his black moustaches, which he understood the intense cold of that region would turn red. He has been of infinite use to me by his intelligence and presence of mind, and tact in ma- naging the various races of natives among whom I have been thrown.' 1 Madras, 2nd March 1839. ' I have given Lord Elphinstone, at his particular request, my unfinished paper to read ; and they say that he has never been seen to take so much interest in anything. It is my intention very strongly to enforce the view that in precipitation lies the sole danger to be apprehended in conducting the people to new habits of life.' < Cape of Good Hope, 12th June 1839. ' I reached the Cape, after a long and pleasant voyage of nine weeks, some three or four days. ago. The change of climate and of scene has done all for me that could yet be expected, and the complexions of my brother Indians who haye preceded me give the best earnest for the future. I can give you no idea of the delight experi- enced by a half-carbonised animal when he finds him- self again in a temperate climate; and though there is here but a town within the arms of a fine mountain, a tract of bare Scotch scenery upon the one hand, and a pretty vine-growing valley upon the other, we are all half distracted with enjoyment. We have cold air and cold water, and a white, good-looking, half-Dutch, half-English population, with complexions of which I had lost even the memory. It were worth while to come but to see the children; the women, compared to our Indian wives and spinsters, are beings of another class. This seems to be a grand place for what I want animal life. 142 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VII. There is but one drawback, that, having come so much nearer you, and seeing so much that recalls to mind all that is alone really dear to me, I absolutely languish for the better country and you all ; yet I must hold by India for a time. Peace soldiering is a poor profession any- where ; in India it is no profession at all.' 1 < Cape Town, 9th July 1839. c This is the Cape winter season, when there is rain under and upon Table Mountain, and a sprinkling of snow upon a range of hills of the same height (between 3,000 and 4,000 feet) 60 miles inland. All the trees, save the firs, are leafless ; but the heaths are in rich bloom with shrubs of infinite beauty, and, with the exception of a couple of rainy days now and then, the climate is divine. The town is one of the handsomest of its size in the world, built with perfect regularity between the mountain and the bay. The houses are much above the pretensions of the people, and like, I presume, handsome Dutch houses in Europe. In the recently liberated slave population the features of the Malay, Hottentot, and Dutch people are cu- riously and inextricably blended a firm, good-humoured, drinking, hard-working race being the result. < Cape of Good Hope, 20th August 1839. 'Since I last wrote, I have moved out of the pretty Dutch town, the metropolis of the colony, to a lovely village eight miles distant, and three from Constantia, whose vineyards grow that sweet wine. This Wynberg is a lovely hamlet, like the most beautiful English village you may have ever seen. It is situated near the base of a long slope of Table Mountain, covered with fir and oak woods, vines, and flowers which enamel the ground like a Turkey carpet. Most of the cottages are inhabited by 1 The rules then in force prevented him from visiting Europe without vacating his staff' appointment a step which might have consigned him to regimental duty and pay for the remainder of his life. CHAP. VII.] RESIDENCE IN FEEEZELAND. 143 sick Indians ; I ana living with half-a-dozen Bengalees in a boarding-house.' After various wanderings, not devoid of interest, though there is not room here to record them, the traveller writes from ' Worcester, South Africa, 8th July 1840. ' I started in the old fashion which I may have told you of a stout horse to myself, a second for my servant, and a third for my pack-saddle and baggage, and all alone saving the presence of half-a-dozen volumes, to whose companionship I would have willingly added that of a friend, but that I was to depend entirely upon the hospitality of the country, which is much more readily extended to a party of five than to one of ten. I have been for the last ten days upon the upper mountain, and more gratified, and more improved in health, than I can tell you. It is delicious, clear, cold, mild winter ; I mean in so far as the air is concerned, and the water ; for with the earth it is spring. The scenery is perfectly bare of wood a few oak-trees, pines, and alders about the farmhouses, but nothing more ; and the whole sur- face is heathy, with bright stripes of greensward mark- ing the course of the streams, and here arid there a tract of bushy hillocks sprinkled with your garden mari- gold and anemones, and many heaths even already in bloom. This general surface is grandly divided into basin-shaped valleys by circles of mountains of the most wild, beautiful, and various forms, composed of mingled sandstone, quartz-rock, and hornblende schist, and now running into bare, bleak, blasted ridges, spiry and castel- lated, or toothed like saws, now waving smoothly and green to their summit. But the climate ! I am living at a farm called ' Te Knur ' that is, ' The Chosen ' in a district called 'Freezeland ' by the inhabitants, though nearly as well known by the name of 'Scotland.' It freezes every night just enough to coat thickly the standing ponds, and 144 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VII. to make the grass crisp under foot. All day it is clear without a cloud, and even my sensitive head feels little or no inconvenience from the sun. I take a glorious run of two hours before breakfast, make a dash on horseback to a neighbouring farm in the middle of the day, and take a long evening stroll in the bracing wind. In a week I have gained a hundred per cent., eyes included ; although everything is against me save the climate and the scene. I should add, save the diet which is mutton and dry bread, and milkless tea and coffee, and occasionally an ostrich egg ; and of which I have my share from common dishes with mine host the boor and his frow and his dirty children, and relish it infinitely. I had no idea there was a climate in the world like this although our own is, I believe, what it was, and not much worse nor that people existed with the complexions or the vigour of those around me ; although cheeks must be red and noses sometimes blue, and farmers like mountain-bulls, and farmers' daughters' faces like peony roses, and farmers' sons like stirks, in the old fatherland ; and I may add, that it never occurred to me that India was so far removed in point of climate from what is natural to the pale race which is there dominant. This part of the country being liable to heavy falls of snow, the inhabi- tants nearly all leave it, with their flocks and herds, in those months, for the vast African plain called the Karoo ; and thither goes my host with his family in a few days, or I would stay longer at Te Knur. 4 Since writing the above, I have made a long day's march, mostly on foot, both my riding-horses being dead lame before and behind ; but I can now walk almost any distance with pleasure. I, however, happened to light on a quantity of delicious apples as I was leaving Freeze- land, and, eating of them, my tongue is slightly furred to-day, and my eyes are as bad as ever. This exactly indicates my state of health. The slightest trifle throws out of tone my whole nervous system.' CHAP. VII.] VISIT TO THE KAFFIRS. 146 ' Grahamstown, 3rd September 1840. ' After a ride of some eight hundred miles, I find myself at Grahamstown, the capital of the eastern division of this colony bordering upon Kafir-aria. I have gone over a great deal of country, turning my horses' heads wherever there was anything to be looked at now loitering by the way, now rattling along. Upon the whole, I have been pleased with what I have seen, although it would be very difficult to traverse a like extent of territory pre- senting so few objects to which interest of any kind can be imagined to attach. With the exception of a few valleys which bear the vine, and a few tracts which produce corn, the country is a vast cattle and sheep walk, and divided amongst Dutch boors in farms of the average extent of 10,000 acres. The surface is either an unbroken heathy waste, or an undiversified expanse covered with low bushes ; or it is a bright greensward- covered country, with forests amongst the foldings of the hills, for the most part stiff and formal, but occasionally broken and picturesque. ' I have returned from a delightful ride along the frontier of Kaffirland, under the kind and able guidance of Edward Gordon of the 75th Eegiment, who placed his services quite at my disposal. I have been at the kraals of several of the leading chiefs, seen the missionaries and the political agents, and have been infinitely amused and gratified with the glimpse at a new variety of our species. I start from hence to-morrow for Port Elizabeth, where I hope to find a ship going down the coast to Table Bay.' Lieutenant Macpherson returned to Madras in the steamer ' India,' commanded by Captain Andrew Hender- son. He had improved considerably, but he never, to the end of his days, recovered the health he enjoyed before his visit to Goomsur. 146 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VIII. CHAPTEE VIII. MEASURES FOR THE ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE AMONG THE KHONDS FROM 1837 TO 1842. LIEUTENANT MACPHERSON, upon his return to Madras, entered into communication with the Governor, Lord Elphinstone, whose interest in the Khonds continued un- abated, and who required that he should remain at Madras and complete the Eeport which was to contain the results of his inquiries, along with practical suggestions on the subject of our policy towards the hill-tribes. It is necessary here to refer to the measures which had been adopted with a view to reclaim the Khonds from the practice of human sacrifice. The immediate suppression of the rite by main force was of course, from a natural impulse, urged upon the Government by most of those who had any opportunity of addressing it. But the experience of two campaigns had not been wholly thrown away. Mr. Eussell, in laying before the Madras Government 1 all the information which could be obtained upon this subject, had strongly expressed the opinion that it was vain to attempt to put down by mere coercion a practice which extended into so large a territory, hitherto for the most part independent. ' Setting aside,' he said, ' all considerations of policy and expediency, and regarding the question as one of humanity only, would it be consistent with that principle to pursue a course towards a wild race, ignorant of our manners and character and unable to appreciate our 1 llth May 1837. CHAP. VIII.] MR. RUSSELL AGAINST COERCION. 147 motives, which would leave them no choice but the im- mediate abandonment of ceremonies interwoven with their religion, or an appeal to arms against our autho- rity ? From all I have seen of them, and know of their country, I feel convinced that no system of coercion can succeed. Our aim should be to improve to the utmost our intercourse with the tribes nearest us, with the view to civilise and enlighten them, and to reclaim them from the savage practice using our moral influence rather than our power.' These wise and statesmanlike opinions were fully sanc- tioned and adopted by the Government of Madras. After the termination of hostilities in 1837, the domi- nions of the late Eajah of Goomsur became subject to the authority of a high local officer, known as the ' Collector and Magistrate and Agent to the Governor of Fort St. George in Ganjam,' who was also placed in charge of our relations with the connected tribes. It was upon this officer, and upon Captain Campbell, his assistant in the discharge of these multifarious func- tions, who had also been Mr. Russell's secretary and assistant during the military operations, that the duty of dealing with human sacrifice naturally devolved. In order to show what results had been obtained through the measures adopted by these gentlemen for the aboli- tion of the practice, and what was the exact position of the Khonds with reference to their ancient rite when Captain Macpherson approached them with a view to effect its suppression, it is proposed to lay before the reader a few extracts from public documents, and in par- ticular from the Eeports which Captain (now General) Campbell officially submitted to the Government. It appears that about the end of the year 1837 Captain Campbell paid a visit to the Khonds of Goomsur. Having called together the heads of the different Mootahs, he ' in- formed them that the sacrifice of human victims would no *i,2 148 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VIII. longer be suffered among them, and peremptorily ordered them to bring to him all persons whom they might have purchased as Meriahs.' He likewise ' demanded a decla- ration that the Meriah Poojah should henceforth be at an end among them, and that anyone performing it would subject himself to severe retribution.' 1 The Khonds submitted to these requisitions ; for (as we learn from the same officer 2 ) 'as the war had not long terminated, and as the measures then adopted by Mr. Eussell had been most rigorous, the old chief [Sam Bissye, through whom Captain Campbell explained his wishes] was able to illustrate and enforce his arguments by the terrible alternative of another display of the overwhelm- ing power of the Anglo-Indian Government, should they obstinately refuse obedience on this important point.' While Captain Campbell a year later was paying a second visit to the tribes who had given up their victims, his official superior, Mr. Bannerman, the Agent in Ganjam, having obtained information that a sacrifice was to take place at a village to the southward, on the borders of Goomsur and Purla Kiniedy, suddenly made his way to the appointed spot, supported by a force of upwards of 360 men. He succeeded in rescuing the intended victim, a young woman ; but the Khonds made very light of his exhortations to humanity, replying, ' that they paid no tribute and owed no allegiance to us; that the Meriah had always been practised from time immemorial ; that if the usual ceremonies were omitted, their fields would be unproductive ; that the victims had been fairly pur- chased for a price, and, finally, that they had a right to do what seemed to them fit in the matter.' Mr. Bannerman deemed it expedient, after his men had refreshed themselves a little, to retrace his steps ; bringing along with him several of the elders of the tribes, as hostages that the Khonds would not obstruct 1 Captain Campbell's Report of 17th January 1838. 3 < Personal Narrative/ p. 68. CHAP. VIII.] MR. BANNERMAN VISITS THE KHONDS. 149 his return, and with the view of availing himself of ' their influence in obtaining the release of the Meriahs detained in other parts of the Mootah, as well as more fully impressing on them the arguments, which they did not appear to be then in a state of mind duly to appreciate.' Having extorted the surrender of eight other destined victims, he made the best of his way home, ' sanguine that these measures would have a favourable effect throughout the southern parts of the Womunniah Maliahs.' 1 The actual effect of his interference, as stated two years later, 2 was this : ' Within three or four days after my departure they sacrificed another victim, at the same place, in lieu of the young woman who was delivered up to me. 6 Being impressed, from what I saw of the temper of the Khonds of the southern portion of these Maliahs, with a conviction of the necessity of exercising great discretion in my communications with them, in furtherance of the wishes of the Government, I have been particularly care- ful to avoid again prematurely agitating the matter, and, in fact, have had no direct communication with the Womunniah Khonds since the time of the visit in January 1839.' Major Campbell's report of January 1841, telling of a recent visit to the Hills, was most discouraging. 4 1 could not discover,' he says, ' that any sacrifices had been performed in the Goomsur Maliahs, but I have reason to believe that some of the inhabitants provided victims and sacrificed them in the neighbouring Mootahs,' &c. * * * * ' The number of victims purchased within the last year would lead to the conclusion that the intention to continue the sacrifice of human victims exists with undiminished force, and that persuasion and remonstrance have not had the effect anticipated. * * * * 1 Maliahs, i. e. hill districts. 2 fith February 1841. 150 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP, VIII. ' I still continue of opinion, that unless more decided measures are adopted, the Meriah sacrifice will not cease, though it may not be performed openly. 6 1 most respectfully suggest, for your 1 consideration and recommendation to Government, that the seller and pur- chaser of a human being for sacrifice should be held equally guilty, and summarily punished with imprisonment and hard labour or stripes (the latter punishment alone, in- flicted with discretion on both parties in the odious traffic, would I think be effectual, more especially if administered at the time and place of detection) and that a similar punishment, though more severe, should follow conviction in every instance of a human victim having been sacri- ficed.' 2 After the perusal of the report just cited, Lord Elphin- stone recorded a minute 3 in which he reviewed the whole subject, certainly not in a very hopeful spirit, his expe- rience having been so unsatisfactory. There had been, his Lordship said, various cases of forcible interference, but no good had come of them. 4 These examples prove' (he continues) 'that it is not by violent measures that we can hope to succeed. Violent measures must necessarily be partial ones. We cannot coerce the whole of this wide tract of country and the wild tribes that inhabit it at the same moment, and all isolated efforts must end in failure. The delusiveness of partial success, even when obtained by conciliation, is demonstrated in Major Campbell's last report. In the Goomsur Maliahs which differed essentially from the neighbouring ones, inasmuch 1 The report was addressed to Mr. Bannerman. 2 The report goes on to say : ' I beg to bring to your notice the great difficulties, delays, and exposure attending a march through the Maliahs with bullock-carriage, owing to which I have on each occasion of visiting the Hills returned with fever; and my followers, less accustomed to cold, have suffered still more severely. With four elephants every Mootah, every village, could be visited, and in a comparatively short space of time ; and I need scarcely point out that the more remote and more difficult of access, the more im- portant that they should be visited by the government officers.' 3 16th March 1841. CHAP. VIII.] POLICY OF LORD ELPIHNSTONE. 151 as British power was there acknowledged, and intercourse prevailed to a great extent between the Khonds and their neighbours of the low country the Moohkoos or priests promised Major Campbell that they would abstain from human sacrifice for ever ; but it now appeared that the inhabitants had been in the habit of sacrificing victims in the neighbouring Mootahs, and that since this promise was made not less than twenty-four victims had been pur- chased in Goomsur, the greater part within the last twelve months. From Lieutenant Hill's 1 rough calculation, in his letter of the 18th December 1840, I estimated the number of victims who are to be put to death in the forty Mootahs of Ganjam alone, at the New Moon feast (Tunkoo) on the 5th of January last, at 240 ; but these Mootahs are but a small part of the wide region over which we know that this practice prevails.' After adverting to the intercourse which Major Camp- bell had, to his great credit, already attempted to pro- mote between the people of the hills and those of the plains, and the establishment of fairs and marts for that purpose, ' We have seen,' Lord Elphinstone proceeded, 'that in Goomsur, which is so differently situated from any other part of the range of country in which it prevails, after a solemn promise given to abstain from the sacrifices, by their Moolikoos and Elders, the Khonds have relapsed into the practice, if indeed they ever discontinued it. However strenuously therefore I would advocate the opening of roads, and the encouragement of intercourse with the hill-tribes, I am not inclined to rely exclusively on these means.' His Lordship therefore recommended that efforts should be made to acquire influence among the hill-chiefs, to im- press their tribes with a just and at the same time a favour- able idea of our power, and to raise a semi-military force from among the hillmen. He also desired the appointment 1 An officer in the Survey Department, who wrote several valuable reports on the Khond country. 152 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VIII. of an officer who should devote his whole attention to the management of the hill-tracts, whether connected with Madras, Bengal, or Nagpore ; 1 and he proposed to begin with a petty expedition, chiefly intended to obtain information. The officer who was to be sent should proceed ostensibly to procure a certain Eajah's assent to the making of a road to pass through his capital. The Supreme Government at Calcutta believed with Lord Elphinstone 2 'that the best hope of success was in cautious and gradual measures, by which, without any direct attack upon national customs or religious pre- judices, the natural onward march of civilisation might be securely facilitated. The deputed officer should cau- tiously approach any inquisition into human sacrifices, and confine himself very closely to the immediate purpose of his mission ;' yet he was to be at liberty to discuss the subject with friendly chiefs of influence, and declare the extreme abhorrence with which this custom is regarded by the British Government, and its right and determina- tion unrelentingly to punish every attempt to entrap or to steal British subjects for the purpose of immolation. This policy can only be accounted for by the failure which, in the opinion both of Lord Elphinstone and of Lord Auckland, had attended the efforts hitherto made. Had these statesmen thought that any progress had been made towards the abolition of the sacrifice, is it conceiv- able that a new agent would have been instructed so cautiously to approach any inquisition into the subject? The subject of human sacrifice having been thus con- sidered by the two Governments, Lieutenant Macpherson was appointed (as will be more fully stated below) to carry out their views. Meanwhile Major Campbell con- tinued in charge of the Goomsur Khonds ; and after a visit to the Hills in December 1841, he submitted a re- 1 Lord Elphinstone had recommended this measure before, but had been overruled by the Supreme Government. 2 3rd May 1841. CHAP. VIII.] MAJOR CAMPBELL'S FINAL REPORT. 153 port, dated the 5th January 1842, which possesses much interest as containing his own account of the position of the Khonds in respect of human sacrifice at the close of his first service in Goomsur ; for. as it happened, he went to China soon after with his regiment, and did not see the Khonds again for five years. This report contains the following passage : ' After the experience of five years, I regret that I have had no cause to change my opinion of the correctness of the principles expressed in my letter of the 16th December 1837, 1 for suppressing the Meriah Poojah, 2 and which were carried [out] by me so successfully, as reported on the 17th January 1838. To these measures alone are attributable the subsequent cessation of the sacrifice in Goomsur, and the fear and secrecy with which it is still performed in the bordering Mootahs ; but the impressions so created are, I regret to say, rapidly fading away, of which I have just had painful proof, having now to report that two children have been sacrificed at the horrid shrine of the Meriah within the past year one by Jundoo Moleky of Coomeracoopa, and the other by Kama Moleko of Coormingiah. Of the first there is no doubt, and of the latter there are strong suspicions, amounting to a moral conviction. Such having occurred in Mootahs so near to us, what may we not apprehend regarding places more distant and less under our observation ? The seller of the first-mentioned murdered child has been appre- hended, and shall be forwarded to you as soon as the proceedings are prepared, as well as others who have been apprehended. I have been fortunate in rescuing eleven victims, male and female, from 13 to 3 years old, making in all 125 rescued by me from the Khonds of Goomsur since 1838 ; 3 and no efforts shall be spared to discover the persons by whom they were sold. I used my utmost endeavours, in accordance with the instructions 1 See below, p. 155. 2 Sacrifice. 3 This must include all the victims rescued in 1837 and 1838. 154 MEMORIALS OF SEEVICE IN INDIA. [CiO*. VIH. I have received, to impress upon all the horror with which the Meriah sacrifice is viewed by Government, and to per- suade them to discontinue it ; but this it is hopeless to expect they will do, unless to persuasion and conciliation is joined the power of inflicting punishment, by removal or otherwise of the purchaser and the sacrificer as well as of the seller of a child, as already remarked in my letter of the 22nd January 1841.' It appears therefore that the utmost that Major Camp- bell claimed to have effected was not the abolition of the rite of sacrifice among the people of Goomsur, but only a cessation of the performance of the sacrifice on the soil of Goomsur, coupled with secret performance of the sacrifice by inhabitants of Goomsur on places beyond their own borders ; and that the impressions which he believed to have been created by his measures were rapidly fading away, inasmuch as two sacrifices had oc- curred in districts of Goomsur near to us, and there was reason to apprehend worse in places more remote that is, more distant places within the territory of Goomsur, for it was only to Goomsur that any measures had been addressed. He considered it hopeless to expect that the Khonds of Goomsur would discontinue the sacrifice, un- less to persuasion and conciliation were joined the power to be stringently exercised of punishing the purchaser and the sacrificer as well as the seller. Major Campbell's Eeport of 5th January 1842 was noticed in the following terms in a minute of the Madras Government (10th December 1842), from which an ex- tract is subjoined : ' The Agent to the Governor in Ganjam, in forward- ing the report of his principal assistant, Major Campbell, expresses his apprehension that the practice [of human sacrifice] has been revived in the tracts more immediately under his authority ; and this is attributed by both officers to the stop that has been put to the employment of the means adopted by Major Campbell in 1837. CHAP, VIIL} MINUTE ON MAJOR CAMPBELL'S REPORT. 155 ' The Most Honorable the Governor in Council 1 is at a loss to understand to what the Agent refers. No prohibi- tion to the prosecution of any general plan for effecting the great object in view has ever been expressed. Major Campbell's plan consisted in " entering the Maliahs with an armed force, calling together the most influential men among the Khonds, and endeavouring to convince them of the barbarity and inutility of the sacrifice explaining to them our abhorrence and utter detestation of the prac- tice, at the same time ordering them to bring to me all the victims in their possession ; and if I cannot otherwise obtain them, I request permission to purchase them at the prices they cost the Khonds (from 15 to 25 rupees each), and at the same time to use such threats as I may consi- sider advisable to gain the objects in view," 2 &c. to which are added the gaining over the priests by presents of money. ' The Government observed that experience had shown the employment of an armed force to be impracti- cable, and that the use of threats which could not be enforced should be avoided. They counselled concilia- tion, and deprecated whatever might lead to irritation and distrust. The purchase of victims was forbidden, for obvious reasons ; but the other suggestions of Major Campbell were approved. It is doubtful, however, whether the practice ever received a serious check. A passage in Captain Macpherson's last report leads to the belief that it never was discontinued, and Captain Hill has shown that the victims rescued on a former occasion were immediately replaced by others.' Such, then, was the minute of the Madras Government, recognising the fact of the existence of human sacrifice among the Khonds of Goomsur in January 1842, as shown 1 The Marquis of Tweeddale, who had succeeded Lord Elphinstone as Governor of Madras. 2 This is an extract from Major Campbell's letter of 16th December 1837, referred to above, p. 153. 156 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. VIII. by the express official representation which lay before them, though rebutting the attempt of Major Campbell and his superior, the Agent in Ganjam (Mr. Bannerman), to throw upon the Government the responsibility for that admitted fact. 1 On the other hand, General Campbell now asserts that ' In January 1842 the Meriah sacrifice was at an end among the Khonds of Goomsur, although I did not pre- tend to have eradicated all inclination for the rite from the minds of these wild people.' 2 1 Lord Elphinstone had already remarked, with Major Campbell's Report of 5th January 1842 before him, that ' having constantly acted upon the conviction that we might at any time have done infinitely more harm by taking a step in the wrong direction than by waiting to gain information, and then setting to work systematically upon a carefully and maturely considered plan, and having always felt that it was rather the province of the Government to restrain the misdirected efforts of the local officers than to quicken the natural impulse from which they proceeded, it was not surprising that the intentions of the Government had been sometimes mis- understood, and that its conduct had been frequently arraigned.' His Lord- ship also observed that, ' Looking back upon all the statements and reports laid before Government, apart from those of Captain Macpherson, he could not find any proposal that amounted to anything like a connected, fixed, or definite plan. Indeed, there was a total lack of such information as might enable the Government or any of its Agents to lay down a settled plan of operations.' [Minute of 24th September 1842.] 2 'Narrative by Major General John Campbell, C. B., of his Operations in the Hill Tracts of Orissa, for the Suppression of Human Sacrifices and Female Infanticide.' Printed for private circulation : London, 1861. P. 47. / tribes. One was on account of a sick man, one on account of the ravages of a tiger, and three as general propitiations ; but out of the twenty-one branches of tribes in that country, I command already the chiefs of fifteen, while the rest are beginning to waver. Sam Bissye, by whose permission the sacrifices were performed, is our great man, set up by Eussell, 1 and hitherto supposed to be engaged in putting them down. Bannerman, who knows nothing of the matter, is afraid to do any- thing, and looks on the whole Khond subject merely as a nuisance of the first magnitude : and what I am to do with Government, him, and this Sam the Khonds being in this state, the balance quivering upon the knife's edge is far from an easy question. I have with in- finite difficulty rallied my poor broken people to advance again, most carefully organised and instructed ; while things have developed themselves so that I can now see my way, and commence the lines of a system which pro- mises success : and I have no powers to act, not a single monosyllable of any sort whatsoever. 2 It is a part of the only instructions I ever received, that I am not to speak of the human sacrifice as a Khond rite ! ' 3 1 January 1843. ' The history of the change is most curious. I took infinite pains to act upon the minds of the leading men, and of all others last year ; and did all that was possible to maintain the impression then given by my emissaries viz., an invaluable Sirdar 4 (Panda Naick) and many Panwa digalos 5 in my service. Abstinence was comparatively easy to all, save the Mootahs of Cour- ! minghia and Calingia, whose turn it was to make the! public offering; and to them I bent the most anxious 1 See above, p. 47. 2 The Minute of December 10, such as it was, had not at this time been communicated to him. 3 See above, p. 159. 4 Chief. 5 Interpreters. 186 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. efforts. No people could have been nearer falling ; but they stood, although I believe that Sam Bissye sent his chief man to persuade one of them to sacrifice. I trust I may say that they have relinquished the rite for ever. I have had them down, and looked into all their minds, and I think that with right future management they are safe ; but they are in a most extraordinary state of mind. They have yielded, they say, to the pressure of the opinion of all wise and good and great men that the rite is wrong, and the belief that it has been proved by the experience of all (who had used it, and given it up) to be unnecessary, and to the pressure of the authority of the Circar, 1 from which they desire jus- tice. They say that their eyes are now opened to the fact that all men, save themselves (a section of the Khonds, who can neither boast of richer fields nor of sharper axes than those of the non-sacrificing section), abhor this rite, and are convinced, after a long period of experience, that no god requires it. And as the Circar offers them the great advantage of protection and peace, they will give it up, trusting that their gods will acknowledge the weight of the constraining influences under which they act. Their feelings have taken a turn, the true origin and course of which I am not certain that I have yet traced. Having given up the vital point of their religion in fact, its sum they are necessarily ut- terly lost, bewildered, and confused, turning everywhere to seek a resting-point, and finding none. When I told them how my forefathers sacrificed, and ceased to sacri- fice when instructed, and that they have ever since grown great, 2 they asked, " What gods were adopted 1 The Government. 2 The efficacy of this argument is frequently mentioned by Captain Mac- pherson. General Campbell states, in his Narratives of 1861 and 1864, that he used the same argument successfully in 1837, and that the people then also demanded permission to sacrifice monkeys, &c. These circumstances are not mentioned in his Report of January 1838, printed at p. 14 of the Selections from the Records of the Government of India (Home Depart- ment), No. 5, Calcutta 1854. CHAP. XIL] THE KHONDS ASK FOR A DOCTOR. 187 by them upon the relinquishment of the sacrifice ? " Then their idea was to have sacrifices of bullocks, &c. to Bera 1 Pennoo vice human victims, save that the Moo- tahs whose turn it was to sacrifice publicly should sacrifice the monkey ; and endless modifications of this plan have been discussed, but in vain : no satisfactory form could of course be devised when the necessary ineffaced idea was excluded. The exact spirit of the part which the priests have taken I do not yet know: no priest has come down to me. But the latest tendency of the Bara Mootah people is to throw off the priesthood bodily, if one difficulty could be got over. " We can ourselves," say they, " conduct with perfect efficiency every indis- pensable ceremony of our religion except the .great rite which we have given up ; but the priests alone can enable us to cure our diseases and those of our wives and children, by informing us, when attacked, which god is offended, and what is the expiation. Now, had we a doctor who could cure us without reference to the gods, as we learn that your doctors cure you, all would be well. If we remain dependent on the priests for cure, they will refer all our diseases to the Earth God unpropitiated by human blood, and we must sacrifice or die." " Send us a doctor," cried all the poor creatures, at a conference of the whole Bara Mootah, " and we will make him a god." I have, of course, been most anxiously on the lookout for a doctor, and I am in hopes that I have secured one in an Oriyah Brahmin, who Baba tells me once doctored the Eajah of Chinna-Kimedy with success, and who has read many doctorial books, which he inherited, with doctorial wisdom, from his father, and who will, I hope, do in a way.' Early in January 1843, Captain Macpherson ascended the Ghauts, accompanied by Captain Mackenzie, of his own regiment, as an amateur. He had now heard of the approval of his measures by the Government, and he was enabled to act with some confidence, though sadly 1 Bera or Tari, the Earth Goddess. See above, p. 113. 188 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. hampered by his divided and imperfect powers ; and, though beyond the immediate range of his influence, sacrifices were proceeding daily. Between thirty and forty, out of his party of a hundred people, suffered from fever. This, indeed, was better than the preceding year, when the sufferers were 90 per cent. ' I settled,' he writes, 'above one hundred disputes which vexed society everything which their tribunals could not dispose of, from a dubious claim to a bullock to feuds a century old a long account of abduction, spoliation, and bloodshed; and no single instance occurred of bad faith in the parties, or of falsehood in the witnesses. So far as I could go, the people are conquered by the sense of practical benefit conferred, and strongly desire to be within our pale. While I gave justice upon one hand, I of course laboured to confirm and extend the pledge of non-sacrifice upon the other and I trust successfully. I have brought away 113 victims, all (except one who was rescued from under the knife in Chokapaud) l volun- tarily surrendered. Nearly two-thirds of these came from Athara Mootah, about a dozen from Bara Mootah the rest from Chokapaud and Tentilghor.' 2 Of the four sacrifices which took place this year in Athara Mootah, old Sam had expressly authorised three ; it was 1 ' But,' lie says, in his Report of 22nd April 1843, f with very doubtful advantage, as the disappointed god was immediately gratified by flesh brought from Boad. Many of these victims, instead of being grateful for their deliverance, have to be hunted like monkeys by the Khonds before they can be caught ; so that the prospect of sacrifice cannot be so disagreeable a thing as some people imagine, after all.' In like manner the late Captain Speke tells us, in his ' Journal,' that in a certain African kingdom which he visited, the king's brothers were, according to immemo- rial constitutional usage, to be burnt alive on a certain day, and the prospect of this event did not appear to affect their spirits. 2 In another letter, written a little later, he says : ' One hundred and twenty-five victims were voluntarily surrendered to me, and had the collec- tion of victims been iny object, I could have brought away three or four times as many as I did. At a place not far from me, in Kimedy, I knew of seventy under the control of one man, who soon after sold thirty of them for between 100 and 200 rupees apiece. But it were mere folly to attempt to operate upon a larger field than we can command.' CHAP. XII.] PRINCIPLES OF ACTION. 189 matter of great difficulty to determine what to do with the sacrificers in any of the four cases. It appeared that they had acted without any connection with their tribes that the sacrifices had been purely private and secret - the body being buried unshared. I found that I was so strong, that after evoking a universal expression of public condemnation of the breaches of faith, hateful alike to gods and men, and to the Circar, I could add to my strength by leaving them otherwise unpunished. So, although quite prepared to use coercion if expedient, I have found coercion unnecessary in aid of the powers derived from justice and from persuasion ; and I am, thank God, gratified and satisfied with this commence- ment of my work. I have proved that the means which I suggested, and which alone are available here, are sufficient to the end. I saw that justice was the master- key to the minds of this people, and I have applied it so as to obtain possession of them. Its application was indeed a task of the highest difficulty, and my anxiety has been great. But I think that I have escaped im- portant error.' His plan was not so much to introduce new laws as to aid the working of the existing institutions among the Khonds ; giving them his counsel and guidance, but making their tribal heads his assessors, and parties to every decree. He turned his influence, as it grew, to the question of sacrifice, and in the end was able to form in every branch of these two tribes a strong anti-sacri- ficing party, which included about two-thirds of the men of influence. The following extract from his Eeport of 22nd April 1843, may serve to show the delicacy of the task in which he was engaged, and the patience with which he overcame the many obstacles which it presented : 4 1 passed gradually and cautiously from the less to the more difficult questions, and finally dealt with those which seriously engaged the passions of the tribes ; 190 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. carrying out the change everywhere, and I believe to the satisfaction of the people. I shall state, by way of example, a single case which long resisted settlement. A woman of Athara Mootah who had been some time betrothed, and for whom the consideration agreed on had been paid, eloped with a lover of Bara Mootah. Her branch of a tribe demanded her surrender, but it was indignantly refused. The established course then was to have required her price from the branch of her seducer, when its refusal would have justified war. But, without making that demand, a party of the woman's branch slew treacherously a kinsman of the lover, who had assisted at the elopement. The kindred of the deceased immediately demanded of me permission to revenge their wrong, or a promise that the Government would avenge it. The heads of the hostile branch ad- mitted the facts to be as alleged, and simply said, that " should the Government resolve to avenge the life taken, they submitted the slayers were in my camp." But the idea of composition, as in the case of a life taken within a tribe, did not enter into any mind ; and when suggested, it was instantly rejected by both parties. ' I may observe, in passing, that our criminal law, even if it had been applicable here, would neither have been thought just, nor could have settled this feud. By it at least six persons were guilty of murder, but the punish- ment of more than one of those persons would have been held to be iniquitous by the Khonds, and that so clearly, that a claim for compensation, for any punishment by us in excess of the natural equivalent, would have lain, in the opinion of all, against Bara Mootah. Moreover, the law of compensation, combining tribal with indi- vidual responsibility, is to judge from the rarity of murders here, from the apparent effects of capital punishment upon the Khonds in the years 1835 and 1836, and from all the ideas which I now heard ex- pressed most probably by far the most effectual law that CHAP. XII.] COMPENSATION FOR BLOOD. 191 could be devised for the prevention of murder from private or from public motives. Through persuasion and instruction addressed to each branch separately, and to individuals, during nearly two months, the minds of almost all were at length gained a party of the youth alone being left for retaliation and war. The two hostile branches finding that they stood alone, that which had lost the life first agreed to accept compensation ; the other, after a struggle, during which I pitched my tents amongst its villages, consented to pay it. The burden c was so allotted that the family of the murderers, in the first instance at least, lost all their property ; while two- thirds of the balance fell upon the branch, and the tribe made up what remained. All acknowledged that the precedent established was a triumph for peace. The hostile feelings of the disputants seemed soon to subside. The elders of both parties feasted on a portion of the compensatory buffaloes and swine ; while the young men of the branch which had paid them drove and carried the remainder good-humouredly over the border, and several marriages sprang up between the tribes.' He had now allied himself directly with the chiefs and men of influence in each tribe, so as to identify their authority and that of the Government, and confer the substantial benefits of justice and peace upon the mass of the people. He was exceedingly anxious to secure the co-operation of Sam Bissye ; but that wily chief perceived that this was incompatible with the con- tinuance of the peculiar influence and the gains which he derived from standing completely between the Go- vernment and the Khonds. He considered his person and his office beyond Captain Macpherson's power, and he assumed decidedly the part, which he had held his ground with the Khonds chiefly by affecting, of champion of the sacrifice. While Captain Macpherson was above the Ghauts, Sam was below, in communication with Mr. Bannerman, who not only disbelieved the accusations 192 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. against him, but showed him that he disbelieved them, after Sam and his eldest son had confessed the whole to Captain Macpherson. On that officers return to the plains, Sam Bissye went up to the Hills, and pretending that Mr. Bannerman had given him authority to sacri- fice six victims, sacrificed one at his own place, and induced the Khonds of one tribe to sacrifice two more. Many remained faithful to the pledge ; but, in general, the anti- sacrificing party could not prevent the sacrificers from bringing and burying the flesh. In April 1843 Captain Macpherson duly placed in Mr. Bannerman's hands, for transmission to the Ma- dras Government, his report of what he had done, and of what had occurred from his want of power; and urged the necessity which existed for Sam Bissye's immediate deprivation of office, and his permanent removal, and the temporary removal of his three eldest sons from the country. To his surprise and dis- appointment his urgent application elicited no reply from the Government. The truth was that Mr. Bannerman was piqued at Captain Macpherson's holding this opinion regarding Sam Bissye, which necessarily implied some re- flection on his own penetration ; and unhappily, too, he conceived the notion that Captain Macpherson desired the restoration of Dora Bissye to power. A single question would have satisfied him that he was mistaken ; but, instead of making the inquiry, he simply kept this despatch in his desk, along with a second official re- presentation, written in September by Captain Mac- pherson, who was in despair at the silence of the Government at so critical a time, and who, of course, never suspected until the month of October, when an explanation took place, and Mr. Bannerman, who had been sick in body and in mind, expressed much regret for what had occurred that his most important official despatches had been suppressed in this unwarrantable manner. Already, in the spring, when he had exhorted the CHAP. XII.J STATE OF FEELING AMONG THE KHONDS. 103 Khonds to adhere to their pledge, and had strongly de- nounced the violators of it, the Khonds had perceived his defect of power or of judgment with respect to Sam Bissye ; and a chief had remarked, ' Instead of cutting down the lofty tamarind tree in his path, he beats the shrubs which bend before him ! ' Now, those who had pledged themselves to him, braving the antipathy of their race, and daring their gods, in confidence in his opinions and support, were crushed by their opponents, and by the belief that he had abandoned them ; but he had still a party left, for the people of two tribes had had distinct experience of the practical benefits of the system which he proposed to establish, and had pledged themselves to relinquish the sacrifice on the express condition of the maintenance of that system. There were but two sacrifices in Athara Mootah one public and one private and none in Bara Mootah. But in the public sacrifice some people of almost every branch shared. 1 The following letter may serve to illustrate the extreme difficulty of maintaining the British authority in the Hills during the unhealthy season : ' I sent up Gopee Singh with a party of Sebundies to Coorminghia in the depth of the rains, and some forty low-country paiks 2 besides, to make it plain that my civil decrees were not to be trifled with. Gopee and his men were .obliged to come away in eight days, 1 An occurrence of this summer is thus chronicled by Baba Khan : t On * the 2nd June, while my master was examining a case of smuggling arrack, and at that moment drinking his broth, the prisoner at the bar, a mean female, had her eyes fixed on the broth and my master. Myself and several Brahmins who were there suspected that something would happen to my master, on account of the bad-looking eye of the woman. About one o'clock next morning he was attacked with illness. I ran instantly over to my master, where I found Dr. : and a native dresser were pre- scribing their remedies. The natives of the town came to me, and insisted that Dr. had killed two gentlemen before, and he would do the same to my master. I pacified them gradually, saying that these two gentlemen died of disease, but not by medicines. By the help of Providence my master got well very soon.' 2 A sort of militia holding land on condition of military service. O 194 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. overwhelmed by fever ; but I keep the paiks in separate parties up still, relieving them regularly. But for this measure the authority of Government in the Hills would have been at an end. I am getting up a connection with the infant-killing tribes, which I trust will prove bene- ficial, by giving them Meriah girls in marriage. 1 I am acquiring quite a volume of Khond songs : I have a very pretty lament of some widows over husbands slain in battle, which I wish I had some one more apt at rhyming than I am to make a ballad of.' 1 Berhampore, 14th September 1843. c You ask what has been done about Dora Bissye ? He is still on the apex of his fort. His recall was, of course, to Bannerman, a monstrous idea, and not hav- ing been done at first it could not be done now. His nephew, a very fine intelligent young man, visited me the other day from the zemindary in Bengal where the family took refuge. I am very sorry to say that I could do nothing for him or them. I could not employ him among the Khorids as anything but first, and this would not suit existing arrangements. I sent the poor fellow to Bannerman with his petition for employment and sub- sistence for the family, amounting to seventy persons, and living on charity a disgrace to the Government! He was, of course, infinitely disgusted with his reception and dismissal a mere cold order to return whence he came.' 2 { Goomsur, 13th November 1843. ' I write to you again from my tent in my noble old grove of Goomsur, by my old stream the country an illimitable sea of corn, broken by rich, deep, many-leaved 1 Some time before this letter was written, he had received a sort of round-robin from his female Meriah wards, to the effect that if he did not get them husbands forthwith, they would hang themselves from the trees ! 2 The person spoken of was Chokro Bissye, afterwards head of the insur- rection of 1846-47. CHAP. XII.] ORDERS OF GOVERNMENT. 195 woods, and by hills of rarest beauty in form and clothing. To-morrow I shall have all the ryots of its teeming villages around me to make the revenue settlement for the year ; and in a few days more the grove of the Khonds will be thronged by them. The settlement this year is a very heavy business. From a fall in the price of grain to the extent of two-thirds, not above half the last year's revenue (though much lowered by me) has been realised, and that amid much distress ; and the difficulty of settling accounts, and arranging for the year with 600 or 700 villages, will be great. It is a melancholy thing, indeed, to deal with a true, honest, hardworking popu- lation under such circumstances.' 1 Ganjam, 14th December 1843. ' I see that at home you consider me to be engaged wholly or mainly in the Khond work. People here con- sider that work a very small matter, incidental, and of little account compared with my revenue, magisterial, and other business. Mr. Bannerman sailed for the Cape on the 1st instant, leaving me in charge of the district till his successor should come, which he did yesterday. Before Bannerman went we received the resolutions of Government with reference to my last reports. The reso- lutions seem to amount to this : 1. That, with reference to my representations, the Agent shall suspend Sam Bissye from his office, the Government thinking that it is certain that he has abetted and engaged in the sacrifice ; but that I should make fresh researches for evidence, and report especially upon them! 2. That I am to proceed imme- diately to assure the tribes that the Government means to do everything to induce them to give up the sacrifice, &c., &c. ; with an instruction to establish fairs, while no notice is taken of my request respecting the most necessary road. 3. The Government declares that it intends to submit to the Supreme Government a plan for the effectual prevention of the sacrifice. This is the whole. o 2 196 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XII. ' The real state of things you will understand best from this. I told a party of the most friendly of the Khonds the other day, that " I meant immediately to proceed to the Hills and put matters right." They replied, in their simple, just, and fearless way, " What reason have we to believe you now more than before ? " And I am told to go and give more assurances to such people ! While in charge of the district, and expecting every hour to be relieved, I struck at Sam, converting the faineant order of Government into a reality. Sam was called down from the mountains as usual, and approached, as usual, with his fattest sheep, and large following, to laugh and do homage to me in the old way. I had assembled a large number of the people, whose minds I wished to impress. Sam bowed to the ground in the circle, arose, and was told that his authority had ceased. He could not utter a word. I stated the case fully, for the understanding of all present. The Brahmin officials were not less dumb- foundered than Sam, and looked fearfully in one another's faces, wondering who was to be stricken next. I did not allow the opportunity to pass unimproved with respect to them. For the present, however, I arrested only Sam's henchman, chief villain, or what you like- a fellow who, from great projecting tusks, bears the name of Tusker ; he is chief robber in a hill-pass. There will be a great movement now in the minds of the Khonds ; I expect to regain command of them.' The result was that Sam Bissye's removal from office and from the country demonstrated signally to all the justice of the Government, and its resolution to carry out its measures ; while the downfall of the champion of the sacrifice bore a religious significance, the importance of which cannot easily be imagined. The rite ceased in Goomsur, as will be related in the next chapter. CHAP. XIII.] FOURTH VISIT TO THE HILLS. 197 CHAPTER XIII. FOURTH VISIT TO THE HILLS ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE IN GOOMSUR. JANUARY TO MAY 1844. < Khondland, 15th January 1844. ' I ARRIVED above the Ghauts on the 7th instant, and have been since engaged in a very trying contest. 1 The Government have permitted only the suspension of Sam as a public officer, from an office the duties of which have long been merely nominal. I have, by pushing him out of Goomsur, given the suspension some degree of significance ; but I am left to fight against his five full- grown sons, two old brothers, with grandsons and nephews by the dozen. The old chief of the country, from whom Sam Bissye has wrested all he has got, is strongly on my side, having given me up his victims last year. Had the Government let me turn out Sam and his brood, all the tribes under him would have necessarily returned to their old allegiance to this man, when the sanguinary superstition would have received a blow the value of \ 1 In a letter written in this year, Captain Macpherson says : ' I first do all that I can of my Khond work below the hills, at a safe place. I then go up the hills and complete the work. When it is ploughing- time, or sowing- time, or reaping- time, or any other time in particular, I might as well call upon spirits as upon the Khonds to come to me, or even to talk to me if I went to them ; so that it requires very nice arrangement indeed to do lousiness with them.' 198 MEMORIALS CF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. which cannot be estimated. I could then have said, decisively, that the battle was won. The people would have sought my justice, like the people of my two tribes [Bara Mootah and Athara Mootah], and would have been, like them, subdued by it. These Khonds [i.e. the Khonds of the Mootah of Hodzoghor] now say that Sam Bissye is a martyr for their religion ; that the Government may remove him, but that his seed remain, and that any one of his family will do for them ; that my two tribes having no heads, received justice from me, and thus be- came my slaves, and then abandoned their gods ; that they, on the other hand, will maintain a chief of the stock which has hitherto ruled them ; that they decline my justice, and that they will maintain the ancient faith. Thus at present, you see, there is no opening in the surface of society for my wedge. The people are strong in their faith, and true to its champions. These champions have plundered and tormented them to an incredible extent, and if the Government had let me act as I desired, the recollection of their sufferings would have aided our object in a most important degree. But every wrong is forgotten. " We do not want your justice," they say, " and we will maintain our religion, and will have for our chief one of the race of its great defender." This I allow and I am sure that you will allow is a very unpromising state of things. All these Khonds. have come and done homage, and have been told our minds ; and the people of my two tribes (whom I have brought here en masse to show them how justice is given and how it has been received) have told them, in a way which more than rewards me for all my labour : " That the country had been torn to pieces by bloody feuds and private quarrels was full of violence and 'confusion ; that valleys had become hills, and hills had become valleys, and all were distracted ; that I had come and settled every contest, and given every man his right ; and that they now followed me wherever I went, to seek more justice, and to show gratitude." But for this CHAP. XI1L] CONDUCT OF SAM BISSYE'S SONS. 199 testimony, given in a large assembly, these new Khonds would not have been even tolerably well-inclined towards me. But the impression it produced was prodigious, and it will yet bear due fruit. My plans for managing this people, now hard as stone arid deaf as adders, are not fully matured. But I do not despair of managing them, if Heaven will let us live here for a little while. My work of the last two years has stood the trial to which it has been subjected for the last two months far better than I could have hoped : I think I can now pronounce my two dis- tricts to be safe.' ( Berhampore, 15th February 1844. ' My last letter to you was from Khondland. I re- turned here from thence about a fortnight ago, having completely accomplished my objects. I had a hard battle of it, but all my labour is now more than rewarded. The whole of the Groomsur Khond country a region thirty miles long by twelve broad, and including four great tribes, divided into nearly a hundred distinct branches is completely conquered, and by the use of moral influences alone. Sam Bissye's sons opposed me with deep art, convincing the Khonds that my authority was very small ; that I could but require a few victims, and go off when they were given to me ; that Sam's influence and money would procure the reversal by the Agent of all my acts ; and that they, the sons, were absolutely de- voted to the religion and interests of the Khonds. The Khonds and the sons were thus firmly leagued together, and acted as one man. My first plan was to attempt to convince the sons that their and their father's sole hope of ultimate safety lay in devoting themselves, and gaining the devotion of the Khonds, to my objects, the proof being the delivery of all the victims. This plan failed entirely. The sons brought in just as many victims as they could persuade the Khonds to give up as neces- sary to my departure, and no more. They would not run 200 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. the slightest risk of breaking with the Khonds, or of falsi- fying any one of their own pretences or delusions. I then entirely changed the ground and the order of battle my objects being, first to expose the falsehood of the sons as to the extent of my authority, and to the mode in which I would exert it ; and secondly, to transfer the religious authority of the office of high-priest of the tribe from Sam to the tribe's ancient Hindu civil and religious head, who was my tried partisan. But here I must tell you that Sam's ancestor, four generations ago, was a victim- child whom the Hindu head of the tribe rescued, and made his assistant in the ministry of the guardian- deity of the tribe. The descendant of that Hindu head having opposed the late Eajah of Goomsur, the Eajah made Sam's father Hindu head or Bissye of half the tribe. 1 Sam saw that he could not hope permanently to supersede the old family with the Khonds, unless he could become sacerdos as well as rex\ and, about six years ago, sensibly and simply stole the divinity from his ancient shrine, and made himself his sole minister, and thence acquired a vast accession of influence. Now I resolved to restore this deity a lump of stone to the shrine and the keeping of its ancient minister, my partisan. The Khonds stood so determinedly aloof from me that I could not be quite cer- tain of their feelings as to the act. I had had slight fever at the foot of the Ghauts, and again above the Ghauts ; and I could not be sure of remaining for an hour to deal with its possible consequences. But if the move succeeded, it was checkmate ; and I had acquired great faith in War- burg's fever-drops. My plan was to call the sons and all the Khonds to a council at my tents ; then to declare my resolution to the sons only, and to send them in charge of Baba to make over the god, his sanctum being quietly 1 The manner in which Hindus and Khonds are mixed up together in the Hills is very difficult to explain. Here were two Hindu families con- tending for the headship of a Khond tribe. The divinity was the local or village god. CHAP. XIII.] RESTITUTION OF A STOLEN GOD. 201 surrounded by a few men-at-arms ; while I detained the Khonds in council, and poured into their ears an oration suited to the occasion. All was fully prepared : I began to state my resolution to the sons : a fit of fever came on, but providentially, as it was to come, before the critical words passed my lips. I now indeed began to fear that I must quit the unwon field. But my head was up next day, and I made the move. It was perfectly successful : Baba and my other chief instruments acted their parts in a masterly way. No difficulty occurred save to Baba, who found it no easy matter to persuade the sons to make delivery with anything like a pleasant grace, even lijfcler a torrent of consoling reflections, most logically deduced from the doctrines of faith and necessity. 1 After aa 1 Baba's narrative of these proceedings is as follows : f On the 22nd of January my master proved better. We sent again for Borjo and the brothers of Sam Bissye, and said to them, " We trusted that you would pursue the counsels of the Government, but you did not; and our pur- poses are become useless, through you and your peryerseness. What do you say of the accusation of the Dulbehra against you, that your father stole his deity ? " They replied : " It is true the deity belongs to the Dulbehra, and the Circar may do as they choose." Then Borjo, son and heir to Sam Bissye, was ordered to deliver the stolen god to the Dul- behra. A warrant was issued. Gopee Singh, the Sirdar of the Sebundies, proceeded to the village of Sam Bissye, where the deity was deposited, and surrounded it with his guard, who walked thither quite unsuspiciously and wanderingly, as if they were only going for water to the river. I proceeded, by my master's orders, with some Sebundies, and the Dulbehra with some of his Khonds, and Borjo, the son of Sam Bissye, together with an elephant to impart respect and fear, to see the deity restored. All this while the Sirdar was on his horse, moving to and fro from, the house of Sam Bissye and the raised shed of the deity. Borjo walked slowly and crookedly behind, as a buffalo some one was dragging against his will, he pulling back- wa,rds. Then the Dulbehra, the Sirdar, and myself entered the god's shed, and asked Borjo, son of Sam Bissye, what deity was placed there. He answered : " Bodo Ravallo, the god that was stolen from the Dulbehra." At that instant Borjo's countenance looked like a cat when it misses its prey, deeply distracted and angry, and foolish also. I ordered to excavate the deity, who was half-buried in the earth While digging the Dulbehra said to Borjo, "This god is not mine; you have concealed it somewhere else, and substituted another stone here, staining it with the blood of goats." I told the Dulbehra that {f Eight or ten years has expired since the deity was brought away, and probably you were too young then to be able to recognise the deity now. Your grandfather is here send him to see." The 202 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. hour's explanations with the council, the poor Khonds were gained ; the falsehood of the denial of my authority was fully established to their minds by its exertion in the matter of the great god of the land. The old Hindu head (called the Dulbehra) was exalted to the skies. No food was eaten in the house of Sam that day. The Khonds gradually became mine under the application of my jus- tice. They pledged themselves to give up the sacrifice, and are still sending in their victims through the Dulbehra : his authority is re-established over the whole tribe. The old man dug up the deity, and examined it, and said, tl It is ours." After identifying the deity, who was without shape, and weighing about 75 Ibs., the Dulbehra's servant for worshipping it rolled it round with a new wet garment, and placed it on the head of his son, a young man. Borjo stood like a stone, and highly angry, but remembering that his father was in con- finement. We all slowly brought the deity to my master, who was then sitting before his tent, under a large mango-tree, with Soondera Singh and all the Khonds of Hodzoghor and Tentilghor in a council, relating to them, "That in former times all nations sacrificed, and lived very poorly; but gradually, by their own experience or that of others, they relinquished the practice, and became prosperous. When we came to Bara and Athara Mootahs, we intended to come to you also ; but there existed a barrier between us (meaning Sam Bissye), which we have, by the determination of Government, demolished, and our objects are become known to you. The Khonds of Bara Mootah and Athara Mootah are here, who are well aware of our views. This restoration of the god to the Dulbehra, is it just or un- just?" They answered, "A very just proceeding!" Since which day the Khonds turned their minds entirely to ours, and believed our power to be highest ; attended in crowds, gradually growing larger, to our tents, and not only in the day, but by night also, to hearken to our wise counsels, and they believed all that we said to be the truth. Before all this happened viz., on the 13th of January 1844 the Khond women of the village of Lennapadra, of Tentilghor in Athara Mootah, came to my master, who gave beads and looking-glasses, to the young ones especially, and told them that they must positively prevent their husbands from sacrifices ; and, pleasingly for them, declared their children all beautifullest, and sent them away to their homes with gladness.' On this restoration of the deity to its owner, it may be observed that the proceeding was in the fullest accordance with usage. A suit may be brought, in the courts of British India, to recover possession of a religious oifice, or of a Hindu temple ; to establish an exclusive right to conduct the religious duties of the temple, and to receive the offerings made by any who may choose to resort to it: nor, in truth, would the functions of government be adequately discharged if, while effect is given to ordinary civil rights, claims which the people regard as peculiarly sacred were left to be enforced by the sword or the war-axe. CHAP. XIII.] COUNCIL OF TENTILGHOR. 203 other tribes of Goomsur, already partially gained, became entirely mine after this consummation, the conquest of Sam's proper domain.' As a specimen of the manner in which Captain Macpherson communicated with the Khonds, it may be worth while to insert here his memorandum of the pro- ceedings of a council held at Tentilghor, during this visit to the Hills: 6 Asked the assembled chiefs of Hodzoghor, " Well, have you communicated with ah 1 the people, and what is the result ? " 4 " We have told it to all, and most of the small people are here present : let them hear the proposal from your lips, lest they suspect us of having framed it, in any degree, from the desire to become great with the Govern- ment, or the desire for dress, for cloth, and for money." ' Then said I : " Formerly all the world, English, Hin- dus, Mussulmans, sacrificed men. To some knowledge came, and they taught others, and by degrees the rite has been abolished, save amongst you. Bullocks are one with bullocks, horses with horses, deer with deer so all men have the same interests. We seek merely to com- municate to you a good which we have learnt, and to save you from a sin. We know the history of the world from reading and writing, and the state of it from tra- velling ; you know nothing of this. But we ask you Look at Bara Mootah and Athara Mootah, which have given up their victims and the sacrifice ; look at them, and see whether our acts have not been purely beneficial, and whether they have suffered from giving up the rite ? " ' A principal Mullicko then said to the assembly : " All are here present, from the oldest Panwa to his youngest son, from the oldest Sittra to his youngest son, from the oldest Mullicko to his youngest son. This counsel of the Circar appeared good to us. We communicated it to you you hear it again. Let it not be said in future times, ' Those old men received this advice, and made us 204 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. act upon it, and we have been ruined.' We are the old and passing you are the young, who will remain. Do you form your judgment and declare it." ' Ootan Sing Dulbehra : " Mullickos of all Mootahs, hear ! I have received the counsel of the Circar : I am convinced that it is good ; I am prepared to devote my life to carry it out. Again, Sam Bissye has long concealed this counsel from you, and upheld opposite ideas by every art. You see what the Circar and the gods have wrought on him. On both these considerations this new counsel is embraced by me. In carrying it out, I know neither friend nor enemy, nor great man nor small man. I am for carrying it out, and I wiU execute all wishes of the Government with respect to it. Now, unless you are at present fully resolved to adopt this counsel, you may hereafter say, ' The injury to our religion has arisen from the Keout 1 whom we established to save and protect us from the Circar.' I declare that I will expend my life to carry out this design. If you object to this course on my part, say it at once, and express your desire for my removal before the Circar." ' Then the most ancient white-headed dim- eyed Mul- licko, after consultation, answered : " You have desired me, Mullickos, to give the answer. My strength is gone, my mind is gone all my faculties are weakened. But I will answer. Let those who are disposed assist me. A Meriah child is not a buffalo's calf, that in time will plough ; nor a cow's calf, good to eat ; nor a sheep, to drop lambs ; nor a brass pot, of which, when broken, ornaments may be made; nor the iron of an axe, which, when worn, may yet barb arrows : and after what we have heard, and after our discussions respecting it, what part is there for us to take what is the use of keeping them? We have got none." ' At this point murmuring and confusion of face arose 1 The family of the Dulbehra belongs to the caste of Keouts, or river- fishermen. CHAP. XIII. ] DISCUSSION ON SACRIFICE. 205 among the Khonds, and our people immediately said, " If you really mean to say you have no victims, say so at once." All the Khonds said, " That was not our meaning ; " and the old speaker said that he had for- gotten. The old man was then neglected, and two old Mullickos came forward and said, " Our meaning was this. At present towards our victim-children, whom we mean to kill, we feel little affection, and do not fear the sin of their death. When we shall give up the - sacrifice, we shall regard them with affection, and look on the sin of their death with fear. Again, in deliver- ing up the children to us Mullickos, people will think, 6 As this child was not to be sacrificed, I have lost a valuable herdsman, or a woodcutter, or a ploughman, or a child on whom my affections were set,' and he will feel angry with the Mullicko who informs and takes the child ; so to prevent informing and taking, let every man declare at once what victims he has." ' Then a number cried out, " I have one," " 1 have * two," &c., and all told their victims except two. We told them, " Say, if you will, that you have none ; but should it be proved that you have, you cannot again show your face in the council." Then they confessed they had certain victims. Then we said, " We trust that no evil counsel will hereafter induce you to sacrifice, and that no ignorant people in the jungle will do so, acting separately, as has been the case in Athara Mootah." They replied, " You establish your house here ; the offenders, will they not be known to you ? " ' 1 1 Baba Khan says, that a little later 'We sent for the Khonds of Athara Mootah and Bara Mootah, who assembled the following day, and held a public council on the affair of Jeetto Mullicko, Lengo Mullicko, and Gotta Mullicko, who were Sam Bissye's three chief accomplices in sacrificing. My master, Soondera Singh, and myself were present. My master questioned Jeetto Mullicko : " Why did you sacrifice ? " He V answered : " My f mily were sick ; a barn broke and fell unawares on my wife, and she died ; a tiger devoured my buifalo ; and another woman died in childbirth; and I also was dangerously ill. Then Gund a Mul- licko told me, ' What are all these sufferings ? Why not sacrifice a victim? I will go and take Sam Bissye's permission to offer one, as I 206 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. Captain Macpherson, soon after his return to the plains, was enabled to report as follows : c I have the high satisfaction to state that the great season of sacrifice is past, and that there has been no apparent tendency to sacrifice in any part of the Khond country of Goomsur. The stage of progress attained by each tribe in the religious change has, however, been distinctly marked in this period. The tribes of Bara Mootah and Athar# Mootah, most advanced, have not received from the festivals held around them a particle of the flesh into their soil. Five men of the latter (of whom one was a priest) attended a sacrifice within the Bengal frontier, brought away flesh, and buried it secretly in their village- fields. When the act was known the people instantly compelled them to dig it up, and sent them with it to my chief agent, demanding their punishment by the Govern- ment, as false to it and to them, and deeply criminal in the sight of the gods. I have detained the priest, but hope that it may be possible to release him soon. The J Khcnds of Hodzoghor, as was to be expected, have brought flesh to many of their villages. The districts of Tentilghor and Chokapaud, as I am at present informed, have heard that he has got permission from the Circar to sacrifice victims.' Then I told Gunda Mullicko that 1 1 have no victims to sacrifice, and am unable to go just now; you had better go for me.' Upon which Gunda Mullicko said, ( You have a piece of land in Hodzoghor, and I will procure you a victim for it ; then sacrifice, and get better of your sick- ness.' Then Gunda Mullicko went to Sam Bissye, and related of Jeetto's ailment. SamBissye stated to him that 'Although the Circar prevents you from sacrifice, do not you relinquish it ; as that is the most precious medi- cine, and none other medicine is worth. I have got permission from the Circar to sacrifice six victims, and I have already sacrificed three.' " Jeetto and the rest also said : " "We believed Sam Bissye's report to be true, for when he returned into this country from Nowgaum, he came publishing most notoriously that he had Government liberty to sacrifice six victims, and we believed it ; and as the Circar did not in the least punish him for his former sacrifices, we imagined what he published was the truth j otherwise we should not have committed this sacrifice." Then my master asked the council what was their decision. The principal Khonds answered, that "they are entirely guilty, and the Circar must certainly punish them severely." Then we placed Jeetto Mullicko, Lengo Mullicko, and Gotta Mullicko in arrest, also the negotiator Gunda Mullicko j and my master gave the Khonds their usual presents, and dismissed them.' CHAP. XIII.] SUCCESS IN GOOMSUR. 207 have remained almost but not perfectly pure. The whole number of victims rescued this year is 142, and all are Khonds or Pan was, or of the other castes permanently resident on the Hills, except two Hindu children from the low country bordering on the Ghauts. The experience of this and of last year proves that the practice of kid- napping children from the low country has nearly ceased in this part of the district. c With respect to the future, I conceive that it is esta- blished that if the climate of the southern tracts shall be found endurable for one or two months in the year, the abolition of the sacrifice throughout the Khond country may be accomplished. The great difficulty has neces- sarily been in the first step ; in the acquisition of the necessary knowledge the formation of efficient instru- ments the completion of an experimental operation upon a scale sufficiently large to test the principles applied. The great moral and intellectual aptitude of the Khonds to receive the ideas which it is desired to com- municate to them sanctions the expectation that their progress in improvement will fully correspond to the opportunities which shall be afforded to them that they will make a noble return for wise tutelage.' The following is dated 'Aska, 14th March 1844 ' : ' Great has been my need all this time of an assistant in this work. I am now out in the district, my tents pitched in a delightful wood, near my old village of Aska. I am drawing in revenue and doing civil justice, besides Bow-street and Lord Mayor's cases without num- ber ; and I have Khonds 1 down daily, and the sacrificers 1 The Khond witnesses who came to give their evidence against cer- tain prisoners were living in 'Lunjapilly, a village of Soondera Sing, granted to him by Government. One morning, on a sunshiny day, while Soondera Sing was coming on his palanquin to see my master with these Khonds, one of them remarked, with astonishment and laughter, " See ! that palanquin was made in the low-country ; it is very beautiful, painted with colours, fixed with boards, lined with cloth, and iron fixed to it ; how well it looks ! " Another said : t( The senses of the low-country people are not worth a cowry. How many men must have taken how 208 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CnAP. XIII. in my pledged tribes last year, as fixed companions, learning and giving wisdom. I have also Sam and his sons prisoners at large, under a very sharp look-out by Baba and his establishment.' Captain Macpherson's health had now quite given way, and having provided against the repetition of the obstinate and preposterous resistance offered to the work of aboli- tion, by obtaining the sanction of the Government to the re- moval of Sam Bissye and three members of his family from the district, he recommended Mr. John Cadenhead as the fittest person to take charge of the Khonds in his absence. That gentleman had attended him in the long and severe illness caused by his first visit to the Hills, and had kindly written for him when the state of his eyes made it im- possible for him to use a pen. After removing to a distant part of the country, he had still kept up a close cor- respondence with Captain Macpherson, and was intimately acquainted with everything that had been done for the abolition of human sacrifice and infanticide. He was not only a man of much skill in his profession, and in the collateral sciences, but one who had a mind capable of dealing with political and social questions, as well as a ready and energetic character, combining great benevolence with a high and independent spirit. Accordingly, Mr. Cadenhead was suddenly and with- out even the form of consulting him as to his in- mncli trouble in making 1 this palanquin ! They felled wood, sawed it into planks, placed them together, and formed them into a palanquin j and then it is only comfortable for one individual, and great wastage of money, while on account of one person many suffer much labour. If that man was to walk and go, he would save his money, and not give trouble to others. Is not this a wise business ? If one-quarter part of the n;oney expended by Soondera Sing on that palanquin was spent in purchasing good meat and the marrowbones of buffaloes for himself, and all was so consumed by him, it would give vast strength to his limbs, be palatable to his mouth, and fill his stomach for a long time to his heart's content. The low-country people have, I think, little sense." Baba Khan's Letters. CHAP. XIII.] APPOINTMENT OF MR. CADENHEAD. 209 clinations ordered to relinquish his medical charge in the pleasant district of Salem, and to undertake the laborious duties of Principal Assistant to the Agent in Ganjam; while Captain Macpherson prepared to visit Calcutta and Madras, with a view to explain the state of Khond affairs, and to obtain authority to act against the sacrifice not only in the Madras territory, but in all the districts round about. t Goomsur, 3rd June 1844. ' From the whole Khond work not being under me, but partly under me, partly under the Agent, partly under Bengal, the obstacles in the way of its completion are multiplied to the greatest possible extent. It is a great thing that my strength endured just to this point. I really do not think I could have carried on the war much longer, whatever the stake. Had the Government be- haved with the least shadow of reason, I should by this time have accomplished at least six times as much.' < Gopalpore, 4th July 1844. 'The Government has entirely approved of and con- firmed all that has been done. They perused my report with "the highest satisfaction;" and "such success having attended the measures employed, they desire to record the sense they entertain of the merits and exertions of the First Assistant Agent, the chief instrument in effecting this im- portant change in the Khond habits and religious princi- ples." But now, it ought to be recollected that the Government has done all it could to prevent this success ; that my only instructions have been first, in 1841, to visit the Khond country, but not to allude to the sacrifice as a Khond rite ; secondly, in 1842, to wait for a plan of operation to be framed by the Government ; and thirdly, in end of 1843, to suspend Sam and do nothing more whatever on my peril the Government being convinced 210 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIII. that I could not succeed, while poor Bannerman was apparently determined that I should not. The Go- vernment has ordered everything I have asked for in the fullest and most cordial way, only asking if I wish " to have a more condign punishment than perpetual exile inflicted on the old villain Sam. The best thing they have done, an act for which I am thankful indeed, is their most ready decree, according to my desire, of gold medals to Baba and Soonderah, u in testimony of the appre- ciation by the Government of their meritorious and im- portant services." It will greatly help the service.' < Gopalpore, 17th July 1844. 4 If I had proper assistance and authority, and but a , gleam of health and, if it were possible, but a little use of my arm, which I have thrown back grievously in writing this report, I could now conquer a great extent of that terrible country in a short space of time, making the conquest of the rest comparatively easy. I now see my way dimly to a beginning of schools amongst the Khonds, and am deeply engaged in getting up an Oriyah Spelling-book, and a First Book of universal religion and morals for them.' The course of events, then, had been this : A single cluster of the tribes 1 of Goomsur, moved by the promise, and by the experience of practical benefits conferred, and by to use the expression officially employed at a later pe- riod 'the admirable power of individual character' 2 which Captain Macpherson brought to bear upon them, had unani- mously agreed upon his requisition to give up its human sacrifice, provided that like terms were imposed upon its neighbours. There was no general sickness or failure of crops during the early and critical period, and that cluster of tribes stood firm and true to its compact. 1 Those of the district of Bara Mootah. 2 See the ' Memorandum (prepared at the India House) of the Improve- ment of the Administration of India during the last Thirty Years : ' ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 12th February 1858. CHAP. XIIL] RESUME OF MEASURES. 211 A second cluster of tribes 1 had entered into a similar convention, not at first unanimously ; but all had been won over, by delicate and firm treatment, to a perfect adop- tion of the new system. The tribes of the two remaining districts 2 of Goomsur stood out for a time, while the native local agent of the Government was suffered to employ, for the maintenance of the sacrifice, the influence which he derived from that situation. But upon his removal they gave way, moved by the zealous persuasion of the reclaimed tribes, and by their own experience of Captain Macpherson's adminis- tration of justice. Thus the whole of the Khonds of Goomsur were gained. 1 Those of Athara Mootah. 2 Hodzoghor and Chokapaud. 212 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIV. CHAPTEE XIV. EESULTS OF CAPTAIN MACPHERSON'S MANAGEMENT OF THE SACRIFICING KHONDS. 1842-1844. IT has been shown that when Captain Macpherson as- sumed charge of our relations with the Khonds, early in 1842, the sacrificing tribes, notwithstanding Major Camp- bell's praiseworthy efforts during upwards of four years, retained undiminished their determination to continue the sacrifice of human victims. We have now arrived at the summer of 1844. The whole of the tribes of Goomsur had entirely abandoned human sacrifice. 1 The exact religious significance of 1 General Campbell tells us, that when he returned to Goomsur in 1847, after an absence of five years, he learnt with unfeigned pleasure that no public performance of the Meriah rite had taken place since he had left the Khonds, and he could not discover that there had been any private one. He believed they had remained faithful to their pledge, and he marked his approval of their steadfastness by bestowing upon them some pieces of red cloth, a decoration which it seems was in request among these barbarians. (' Personal Narrative,' p. 93.) The statement attributed to the Khond chiefs by General Campbell is not literally true, as we have seen; for many cases of sacrifice occurred, and some were punished, in Goomsur after his departure in March 1842, which are stated in the records of the Agency (a fact which he had probably forgotten when he wrote the passage in question) ; and he is certainly in error when he attributes to the pledge exacted by himself in December 1837 to which his own reports show that the Khonds paid little regard while he remained in Ganjam their alleged abstinence from the sacrifice during the five years which succeeded his departure. But as the sacrifice had been given up soon after March 1842 by the tribe of Bara Mootah, and had been CHAP. XIV.] CHANGE IN THE BELIEF OF THE KHONDS. 213 the change, so far as regards the sacrificing Khonds, was not fully developed until a later period. Meanwhile, it may be observed, that though proselytism was forbidden by the policy of the British Government, and by the nature of the instruments employed, yet all events were interpreted by the Khonds in their own way, and trans- lated into their own forms of thought and expression. The supreme purely beneficent Creator, whom the Circar (or Government) was known to worship, was identified by the Khonds with their god of light, the source of all good ; and they believed that his power was pre- vailing over that of the earth-goddess, whose malignity they had hitherto endeavoured to disarm by human sacrifice. 'The Circar' (said they) 'is a present power, and can visibly do more for our good than the earth- goddess can do to our injury : therefore the God which it serves must be more powerful. The pressure of the Government must excuse us to the earth-goddess : it is irresistible, for it is beneficent, but to be irresistible it must be beneficent.' As a mere coercive power the Khonds had defied the Government to the end. They had laid down their lives cheerfully rather than infringe the duties of hospitality, and they feared the vengeance of their gods more than they feared our severities. But the pressure of the Government, when allied with the tribal authority to which they had always looked up, with the free play of their own institutions, and with measures of practical beneficence, was irresistible ; and they rightly referred the abolition to its orders, both as an excuse to the earth-goddess, and as a merit of their own with the Government. To go into a country and find every man convinced afterwards entirely abandoned, the Khonds, whose notions of time are very rude, and who had discontinued the rite for a considerable time, might, without intentional falsehood, have somewhat antedated the disconti- nuance. 214 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIV. of the necessity of human sacrifice to leave them, in little more than two years, abhorring human sacrifice, and eager to cooperate in the prevention of it among others ; to find every man believing firmly in the supre- macy of the evil principle to leave all convinced, and acting upon the conviction, that the Supreme Being is purely beneficent ; to effect, in a country all but inacces- sible, more than had ever been effected in India by those who were able to take up their residence among the people, and had full scope for unremitted action; to effect this without (indeed against) instructions, under severe and dangerous sickness, paralysing the Agent's own strength, and causing his followers to fail him continually, while he was frequently thwarted by his immediate su- perior, and coldly supported by the Government : all this was very remarkable service. It was effected not by accident, nor by knack, nor by hysterical humanity, rushing in and seizing one victim to be saved at the expense of another : Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. * The result was obtained by making the abolition a Khond movement ; by sapping the religious conviction of the necessity of human sacrifice, and showing that all the material interests of the tribes, and those which had most weight with the best men, would be promoted by abolition. No doubt it would have been easy to pro- claim easier than to execute a crusade against these devil- worshippers and murderers : but (besides being in- 1 Captain Macpherson -wrote from Calcutta, 22nd April 1845: l A con- quest of force is no conquest at all. Whenever I heard that any man of consequence was spreading opinions opposed to mine, I called a council, and prayed him to state his views there. He did so j and I could always either convince him, or make him confess himself silenced, a great triumph for my partisans.' CHAP. XIV.] HOW THE SACRIFICERS WERE RECLAIMED. 215 accessible) they were men, and had human reasons and motives for their conduct. The question was, by what inducement could they be led to desist ? and to solve this, of course it was necessary, in the first place, to learn what were the reasons and motives which were to be overcome. In the meantime, the rescue, whether by force or by ransom, of any particular victim, or number of victims, could not affect the disposition to sacrifice, any more than the shaking the ripe fruit from a tree prevents it from bearing a similar crop next season. To discover the real causes of the practice was ex- tremely difficult. But by continued and patient obser- vation of the people in the forests, in the prisons, under circumstances the most various some knowledge of their inner life was at length painfully won. Had their thoughts soared above the idea of temporal good and evil, it might have been difficult indeed to turn them in a new direction. But it was found that they looked upon famine, disease, and worldly misfortune and death as the inevitable and the main consequences of any intermission of the rite. The object was to hold out to them the absolute denial of this, to prove it by the experience of a season, and to present to them some counterbalancing advantage. The countervailing benefit was the redress of their chief want the settlement of feuds and disputes which their institutions could not cope with : and this, not by superseding them in the management of their own affairs, which would have wounded the pride of a free and inde- pendent people, but by associating the Government with them in the administration of justice, supplying a mode- rating and an executive power. The effect was produced not by introducing any new theory, but by building on the old foundation ; by calling into healthy action the principles already recognised among 216 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIV. them, and suited to their character ; by making them feel that the change was their own experiment for their own interest not the experiment of the Government for ends of its own. The result was that they looked to the good actually ex- perienced, and they inferred that the evil deity, which they had braved in strong faith and reliance on the Govern- ment, could no longer hurt them ; not merely because they expected the Government to protect them, but be- cause in the Deity which the Government professed to serve (the purely beneficent Deity) they recognised a Being whom they already dimly knew, but had not regarded as omnipotent. They had themselves always worshipped the principle of Good, which they called the god of light, though they had believed its power to be less than it now appeared. Its real power being now ascertained, the earth-goddess ceased to be regarded as the dominant power, and was at last (as we shall see a little later) renounced as an object of adoration, and the higher religious belief in a Beneficent Omnipotence was established ; or, in other words, instead of worshipping the devil they came to worship God, though their con- ceptions were still very rude and imperfect. But unless the acts of the Government were consistent and systematic, the faith which the Khonds placed in it could not be maintained. We know how the chosen people of God in whose sight He had wrought such wonders as the earth had never before witnessed, and whose daily life was a miracle lapsed into disobedience and idolatry upon the slightest discouragement ; and it is not surprising if the poor barbarians of the Orissan hills were not very firm in their new opinions. While the Goomsur chiefs, therefore, avowed their conviction of the needlessness of human sacrifice, they loudly declared that they could not prevent their people from reverting to the rite if they saw it continued by the inhabitants of the adjoining districts : such continuance being in CHAP. XIV.] PARTIAL ABOLITION IMPOSSIBLE. 217 their eyes a proof that the Government was indifferent on the subject, as they could not understand how the sacrifice could be forbidden on one side, and permitted on the other side, of an imaginary boundary-line, which they had seen the same Government wholly disregard in the Goomsur war. 218 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XV. CHAPTEE XV. MEASURES FOR THE ABOLITION OF INFANTICIDE- 1842-1844. THE general features of Khond infanticide have been al- ready 1 set forth. Captain Macpherson was the first officer who made any attempt to reclaim the Khonds from this practice ; and his efforts in this field were as successful as his other labours, though he said nothing about what he was doing until he had some results to show. Here, as in the other branches of his work, the right principles of operation were discovered, and applied by him on a large scale. The nature of the measures devised and adopted by him will appear from the following statement, submitted to the Government on the 10th July 1844 : ' The portion of the Khond country in which the prac- tice of female infanticide is known to prevail is included in the zemindaries of Souradah, Coradah, and Chinna- Kimedy, in the Ganjam district. Its area is roughly estimated at 2,400 square miles ; its population at 60,000 ; and the number of infants destroyed annually at from 1,200 to 1,500. It is divided into five districts viz., Pondacole, Gooldi, Deegee, Boori, and Cundami and is possessed by a few tribes, which are subdivided into numerous branches. . . . ' These are the chief causes of female infanticide in these tribes viz., 1st, a belief in its conditional injunc- tion by the Deity; 2ndly, the belief that the practice con- 1 See above, p. 132. CHAP. XV.] PREVALENCE OF INFANTICIDE. 219 duces to the birth of male offspring ; 3rdly, the opinion that the distraction arid bloodshed which spring from the capricious dissolution of marriage-ties by women make the usage the least of two evils. The extent to which the practice is carried varies materially in the five dis- tricts which I have enumerated. In Boori I have seen many villages of above 100 houses in which there was not a single female child. In Pondacole, in villages of that size, one or perhaps two may be found. In Gooldi female infants are very rarely reared. In Deegee the practice of destroying them is limited to a few tracts on its border next to Gooldi. I have no exact information respecting the usage in Cundami. I proceed to state the measures which have been adopted for its abolition, and their results. ' The main elements in the situation of these two divisions of the Khonds that which observes the rite of human sacrifice, and that which practises female in- fanticide being obviously the same, the same general principles have governed the measures w^hich I have ap- plied to each. In each division, equally, the peculiar genius of the people, the form and the spirit of its insti- tutions, and its physical situation, precluding the general application of the forces by which civilized power can act directly upon barbarism, have appeared to indicate this general course of procedure : 1st. To establish the au- thority of Government over each cluster of tribes, by supplying their chief social wants beneficially and ac- ceptably to them giving them, in the first place, justice and peace ; and 2ndly. To attempt to obtain the complete dominion over them, which is necessary to sway them to the changes desired in their religion and their manners, by combining, with the direct authority so acquired, every form of influence which can be created by acting upon their reason, their feelings, their prejudices, their affec- tions, and on the whole circle of their minor interests. 4 I have partially executed this plan in three of the five 220 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XV. districts in which infanticide exists those of Pondacole, Gooldi, and Deegee, in the zeinindaries of Souradah arid Coradali : and in effecting its first step the establish- ment of authority through the dispensation of justice I have employed, generally, the same methods of detail, and, in part, the same agency which I used in accomplish- ing the like work in Goomsur. ' My first objects, necessarily, were the acquisition of exact knowledge of this division of the Khond people, and the formation of fit instruments to act upon it. When these ends were in part attained, and a spirit of confidence had succeeded to the feelings of deep appre- hension and distrust which necessarily prevailed in these districts, I proceeded to settle questions of importance in them, where it was quite certain that I could act with dis- tinct and lasting benefit ; it being certain that partial and temporary measures of interference with any portion of the Khond people can produce but unmixed evil, by weaken- ing or breaking down the existing guarantees for order, without establishing others in their stead. These opera- tions have included, within the last eighteen months, the settlement of a large number of questions of every class, in every part of the nearer tract of Pondacole, and have affected, to a considerable extent, the whole population of Gooldi and of Deegee. Their general result has been, that the authority of the Government has been completely established in Pondacole and in Deegee, and that the people of these districts anxiously desire the complete extension to them of its justice and protection, as they are afforded to the tribes of Goomsur. ' The tribe of Gooldi is reputed to be superior in courage, in physical strength, and in most Khond virtues, as it is in wealth, in proportion to its numbers and ter- ritory, to any other tribe with which we are acquainted. It has never suffered a serious defeat, and not having felt our power in the Goomsur rebellion, it entertains very exaggerated ideas of its prowess and importance. It is CHAP. XV.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST INFANTICIDE. 221 divided into two hostile parties, of unequal strength. The weaker of these has sought and obtained our friendship, and is disposed to obedience, although it is not yet brought under authority. The stronger has availed itself, in some instances, of our mediation ; but it is averse to the idea of subordination, and to that of the relinquish- rnent of the practice of infanticide, as its sign. Upon the conduct of this fine tribe, the minds of the whole Khond population in this quarter both the portion which practises infanticide, and that which sacrifices is fixed ; and upon its complete subjection to the will of the Government very much depends. ' Next in importance to the dispensation of justice, amongst the means employed in this work, has been the use of arguments opposed to the opinions and the reasonings by which the practice of infanticide is supported. With respect to these, I have held ' 1. That the alleged injunction of the Deity, by which the usage is justified, is plainly but a conditional permis- sion, authorising it, at the utmost, only in so far and for so long as the men of any tribe shall find themselves unequal to maintain the peace of society undisturbed through their women unequal, that is, to the first duties of manhood : the admission of the necessity of the practice by these tribes necessarily placing them in a position of inferiority to all of mankind who are not compelled, by their incapacity to do justice in questions of property arising out of the marriages of their daughters, to destroy them in infancy. ' 2. I have simply asserted that enquiry will prove the second alleged cause of the usage the opinion that male births are increased by the destruction of female infants to be unfounded. ' 3. With respect to the justification, which is laid on the ground that the destruction of infants is a less evil than that which must arise from the contests atten- dant on the capricious dissolution of their marriages, I have held it to be obvious that the practice of infanti- 222 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XV. cide, and the cause of those contests, react upon each other alternately as cause and effect. Infanticide produces a scarcity of women, which raises marriage-payments so high, that tribes are easily induced to contest their ad- justment when dissolutions of the tie occur; while these dissolutions are plainly promoted by that scarcity, which prevents every man from having a wife. On the cessation of infanticide women would become abundant, and the marriage-payment would become small. Every man would have a wife in these districts, as elsewhere ; women would have less power to change, and when they did there would be no difficulty in making the requisite adjustment of property. ' But, lastly, the Government is now about to remove entirely this ground for the practice, by preventing con- tests about property involved in marriage-contracts, by adjudicating all questions respecting it in these districts, as it does in Goomsur. Thus the evil which infanticide is held to avert will finally cease, and with it all pretence of justification founded on the permissive sanction of the Deity. 4 These arguments and considerations have been ad- dressed to these Khonds in the same spirit as those which have been adduced to the tribes of Goomsur against the rite of sacrifice. I have invariably appealed directly to the clear reason and the strong affections of this natural and truthful people, avoiding the least offence to their pride, or wound to their self-love the awakening to hos- tility of any sentiment or prejudice or passion which I could not control. I have thence, in the first instance, denounced neither of the practices which I have laboured to abolish as a crime : I have but arraigned them as de- plorable errors, in which many portions of mankind, including our forefathers, have participated, but from which they have been successively delivered, elevated by their own reason and experience, or by those of others, as we desire to elevate the Khonds. CHAP. XV.] MARRIAGE OF MEEIAHS TO CHILD-SLAYERS. 223 4 It is eagerly admitted by all of this people, that if the usages which we condemn are not founded upon express ordinances of the Deity, or upon necessity, they are deep crimes : and their renunciation follows the complete conviction of the thinking part of it, that they have not those foundations, the Government performing duly its all-important part of tutelage and support. 4 The chief of these tribes, a majority of those of Gooldi excepted, have now generaly acknowledged the force of the considerations which I have opposed to their opinions in support of infanticide. They feel deeply the imputa- tion of inferiority with which I have laboured to associate the practice, so grounded upon the alleged permission of the Deity. They admit that the usage, and the evil which it is held to avert, react on each other as cause and effect ; and that when the latter shall be prevented, by the pro- mised extension of the justice of the Government, all necessity, if not every cause that may be alleged, for the former will cease. 4 The measure of which I have next to speak has pro- duced effects of great importance. I conceived that be- / tween a people organised on the principle of family, and patriarchally governed amongst whom contracts between individuals are also engagements between tribes, and the important class of marriage-contracts gives rise to the strongest feelings, next to those of religion, which connect society : I conceived that between this people and the Government a new bond of connection, involving influences of the highest value to this work, might be created through the marriage to its chiefs of the female wards of G overn- ment saved from sacrifice. I accordingly, about twelve / months ago, after careful preparation, bestowed fifty-three of those wards (Khonds and a few Panwas) in marriage upon chiefs and men of influence in Pondacole, half of Gooldi, and Deegee. In the operation I subjected both the principals and their followers, for a long period, to the influences of which I have already * spoken, settling 224 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XV. the disputes of all, and reasoning with all ; while I at the same time exhausted every art, by which I could hope to engraft ideas analogous to those of family connection upon the existing ideas of civil connection with the Government. ' The degree of influence which has been acquired through the gradual development of this measure has surpassed my expectations. Slight differences in manners, and feelings respecting persons devoted as victims, rendered both parties at first averse to marriage, but an entire change of feeling on this point soon took place. When it was found that the bestowal of a ward of the Government' denoted its favour and confidence, and was the beginning of a new and beneficial relationship to it that the in- terest of the Government followed its children undimi- nished into their new families and tribes, giving to these special claims to consideration, there arose the strongest desire to obtain the wards in marriage. I have since laboured to strengthen and to multiply the ties between them, and all connected with them and the Government, through the maintenance of regular intercourse with them, and the careful observance, as far as possible, of the forms and the duties, and the use of the language, of the paternal relation. Thus, ideas of connection and of authority, analogous to those which arise from natural affinity, have become blended in the minds of these people, to a certain extent, with their existing ideas of civil connection with the Government. Even in Gooldi, where our direct authority is not yet established, the influence arising from this quasi-family connection has produced very important results. The example of fifty-three heads of families who have relinquished the usage, forming a close and distinctive connection with the Government, has necessarily produced a strong impression upon all ; and more authority has been practically derived from this measure, directly and indirectly, than I could have hoped to acquire through the CHAP. XV.] DIMINUTION OF INFANTICIDE. 225 use of all the other means which are available, in a very long period. ' These, then, are the chief measures which have been employed for the abolition of the usage, viz. : first, the establishment of the authority of Government through the dispensation of justice ; secondly, the use of arguments ad- dressed against the opinions and reasonings by which the practice is supported ; thirdly, the application of influence acquired by the marriage of female wards of the Govern- ment to chiefs of the tribes acted upon ; and I may add, as means of high importance, fourthly, the protection of Khond traders from violence on the roads, and from fraud in the markets of the low country ; and fifthly, the use of every art to win the support of the Khond women to our object. 1 .... ' I have been at much pains to obtain a correct nominal return of the female children born and preserved in Pondacole, Deegee, and the partly-gained half of Gooldi (showing their tribes, branches, villages, and fathers' names) during the two last years ; and I have the high satisfaction to state, that above 170 female infants have certainly been saved in those tracts in that period two-thirds of the number within the last fifteen months through our direct influence.' 1 The manner in which these proceedings were regarded in England ap- pears from the following extract from a letter from the Court of Directors to the Government of Madras, dated 2nd April 1845 : f We have perused with much interest the further reports submitted by Captain Macpherson of the measures which he has adopted, with so much success, for the suppression of the practices of human sacrifice and female infanticide among the Khond tribes. The judgment and energy which characterise his benevolent efforts warrant us in the confident expectation that he will, at no distant period, succeed in altogether banishing this barbarous rite from the tracts under our control.' 226 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. CHAPTEE XVI. ME. CADENHEAD'S MANAGEMENT OF THE KHONDS. 1844-1845. MR. CADENHEAD, though new to civil office, proved him- self fully equal to the charge which the Government had confided to him. He first visited the infanticidal tribes, for the purpose of extending the influence of the Govern- ment by bestowing some of its wards in marriage there, and of endeavouring to compose once more the internecine feud which had long raged between the people of Grun- dawady and those of Darungabady, the two branches of the great tribe of Gooldi. 1 Some extracts from his letters, written at this time to Captain Macpherson, are here subjoined, as illustrative of Khond manners : < Souradah, 14th December 1844. 'Two or three days ago about 130 of the chief people of Pondacole, Deegee, and the Grundawady portion of Gooldi arrived. To-day we bestowed on the chief men twelve of our female wards in marriage. They were in great request ; every unmarried man would gladly have received one. We have retained eight for the Darunga- bady portion of Gooldi, whose arrival we are looking for with deep anxiety. In the three first-named dis- tricts it is alleged that there has been no destruction of female life since your measures last year. Many of the Pondacole people who were not pledged to preserve their children have nevertheless done so, led by the 1 See above, p. 221. CHAP. XVI] MERIAH MARRIAGES. 227 example of their neighbours. The marriages went off with great eclat, but were attended with an unexpected difficulty. The hussies absolutely pretended to have a right of choice ! One little vixen unconditionally refused to accept the one chosen for her a fellow of herculean mould, about forty-five years old, and a man of wealth / and, forsooth, because she said he was too old for her ! We were absolutely obliged to give her to another some- what younger. Hercules, however, was not disappointed ; we gave him another. 'Their state of mind is highly favourable on every point, except in the case of the continued warfare on the part of the Grundawady portion of Gooldi. They say, "You promised us justice. Give it to us in this case, which is our great, our only grievance. Restore our fields of which we have been forcibly dispossessed, and save our villages from fire and pillage ! You for- bade us to combine to wage war on our opponents or to protect ourselves, as Government was to put an end to strife, and to arbitrate between us. Fulfil your promise ! " ' We by no means see our way yet. The management of the assemblies is, as yet, difficult to me especially as I take- up your work in the middle, and these people wont bear repetition. ' The delay in the final settlement of the new plan and of your return has been a great blow to us. We con- fidently anticipated great deeds Boad-wards ; and now, after the completion of our work here if, by God's blessing, we shall be able to complete it we shall be re- duced to comparative inactivity. Mr. Anstruther 1 restored the revenue supervision of Souradah 2 on my letter. Had he not done so, I think we could have done nothing; we 1 The gentleman officiating for Mr. Bannerman. 2 Souradah was a zemindary under the Ganjam Agency, and had, owing to local causes, been withdrawn from Mr. Cadenhead's control. But it was only in the character of collector, or representative of the Government in the exercise of rights which in some respects bear analogy to those of an Q 2 228 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. should have been entirely powerless, and the object of ridicule to the whole population. With these difficult people of Grooldi we cannot afford the loss of an atom of our status.' ' Souradah, 23rd December 1844. ' In my last I told you that the Darungabadians, 300 in number, were on their way to visit us. Next day the 300 dwindled to five men of no note, followed next day by twelve only one of whom was a chief of any influence. We exerted all our energies to produce an impression on them, and we set them and the Grunda- wadians a-talking to discover the original cause of quarrel ; wherein, of course, there was no difficulty. The minds of the two parties were at once displayed by their manner of carrying on the conversation. It was done with little animation, and without us to keep it agoing, could not have been commenced, and would at once have ceased. At first the Darungabadians turned their backs entirely on the others, and addressed their talk solely to us. After a time they veered round a little, but never fairly looked at the others ; and addressed part of their conversation to them opposing their statements by counter-statements. The Grundawadians, on the other hand (all except the chief), looked at them fairly, and had no hesitation in directing their talk to them. After doing all we could, we sent the small party back to their section, with directions to assemble all its members to ascertain, and to return and report to us in seven days, their views whether the branch was inclined to peace, or was still determined to persist in war with their brethren of Grundawady ; in which case we should manifest our intentions with regard to them. 'It is plain that nothing can be done towards suppressing infanticide till our supremacy is acknowledged, and our universal landlord [see above, p. 175], that any officer could have that authority with the people of Souradah which was necessary to influence them to abstain from infanticide. Mr. Cadenhead therefore urged and ob- tained its restoration. CHAP. XVI.] FEAST OF RECONCILIATION. 229 mediation in the administration of justice accepted as its type ; and of course also, until this happens, we cannot bestow upon them in marriage the damsels whom we have reserved for them.' < Souradah, 26th December 1844. ' Old Strikana Bunje 1 is now at Pooree, and has already a vakeel at the Agent's cutcherry. Already people begin to talk. It is highly desirable to have the old villain sent back to his lair at Benares. He is here to create annoy- ance in some way or other ; at all events, his near neigh- bourhood unsettles men's minds. Sam Bissye's sons still try to keep up his and their influence. They are already spreading reports that Sam Bissye is forthwith again to present himself and establish old customs.' < Souradah, 28th December 1844. ' We are now full of hope. From the Barungabadians' report, confirmed by our Panwa spies, it appears that fear is the prevalent mental state at present, and the branch, generally, is therefore disposed to conclude peace at the Circar's desire ; the only dissentient being a very chief man who has lost two brothers in the course of the war, and who declares that he must fight for another season, so as to have two lives equivalent to his brothers, and that then he will be prepared to speak of peace. We had a talk this morning ; the Darungaba- dians came first, and some soon after the Grundawadians. It was plain at once that the minds of the Darungaba- dians had undergone a change ; they did not turn their backs on the other party, and soon entered freely into talk. There was a long conversation, of a very satisfactory character ; and we were nearly breaking up to bestow one of our wards on the Darungabadians, when, happily, a Grundawadian proposed that they should drink together and then talk. The chief Darungabadian a dour chiel 1 Formerly Rajah of Goomsur. He was the father of the deposed rajah, who died in 1836. 230 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. at first opposed this proposal, on the ground that the repre- sentatives of the whole branch were not present ; that he was only the head of one brother's house ; that the head of the other was absent. It was of course immediately re- torted that they said they had come in the name of all ; whereas now, when a proper plan of conciliation was proposed, they said they were merely the representatives of one sub-branch. After a few words the drinking plan was agreed to and arranged, the first objection having somewhat the appearance of maiden coyness. Well, we seated them to their drink, and in a twinkling all were as " thick as thieves : " those who a moment before were ready to break each other's heads were now sworn brothers. The dour chiel and the Grundawadians had a long and most satisfactory talk ; the younger spirits then let off their superabundant steam in a grand con- joint dance, and we solemnised the marriages. They all danced off the ground, and have now gone to feast on a pig, as happy as possible. We thus have them entirely in our own hands. As soon as the ground is dry and supplies ready we start, four days hence or so. The affair will now occupy us three or four days, at the most ; whereas formerly no one could foretell or foresee its end a most happy change of aspect, and, as you may imagine, it has quite revived our drooping spirits. We bestowed one of our damsels on the dour chiel, and the other three on fine young fellows, all sons of chiefs one a very excitable spirit, and apparently one of the war-party. Of course all these must be our firm friends and allies, and we have thus secured an immense diversion even in the midst of the adverse camp, if indeed it can now be called so ; as the Darungabady party, long before the termination of the fray, began to bespeak an equal measure of the Circar's affection to that heretofore bestowed on the Grundawadians, and to arrange plans of cooperation for the general good.' Having thus laid the foundation of confidence and amity CHAP. XVI.] DANCE OF PEACE. 231 between the contending parties, and between the Govern- ment and each party, Mr. Cadenhead proceeded to Gooldi to complete the pacification. He writes l : ' I first held counsel with each party separately ; dis- cussed the circumstances of the feud, and the necessity which had now arisen for a final pacification. As the people of Grundawady had already done, so now those of Darungabady used every art to excite my feelings against their opponents. They declared that it was quite im- possible for them, while the earth was still moist with the blood of their chief, while his ghost still wandered unap- peased, to make peace, to enter into friendly relations with his slayers ; who were, moreover, so false, that though, after concluding peace, they might not attempt to injure them by open violence, they would yet unceasingly exert their diabolical magical arts for their destruction. They then begged for one more year's war, after which they would be prepared to listen to terms of peace. Finally, they pleaded for one grand pitched battle, to be waged in my presence a proposition also made by the people of Grundawady. Those who had been gained at Souradah excused themselves as impotent to alter the tendency of the feelings of the people. They said they had done their utmost to produce a pacific disposition in their brethren, but had failed, as the warlike propensities of all classes were too strong to be swayed by their individual efforts. At last, perceiving my purpose fixed, they gradually yielded. ' It is the custom of these tribes when, after being en- gaged in war, they meet to conclude peace, to allay their feelings of still ungratified animosity by performing a war- dance in each other's presence, during which they mutually defy each other, and vaunt their prowess in war ; occa- sionally, with loud cries, rushing towards each other, flourishing their axes, as if to meet in mortal combat. Tearful that such a mimic display might end in a terrible 1 Report of 17th March 1845. 232 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. reality either from excited feelings mastering yet imma- ture better resolves, or through the wilful malice of some violent favourer of war 1 had my small party drawn up in double line between the factions. The people of Grunda- wady did not propose to dance, but, after performing their salutations, retired to a little distance and quietly seated themselves. The people of Darungabady also approached in perfect quietness, the chiefs unarmed and with smiling countenances : suddenly a young lad, and a brother of the slain chief, commenced whooping and dancing ; in a moment the whole mass was in commotion, pouring forth the foulest abuse against their opponents. The chiefs did their utmost to control the .excitement, without avail. For a little while the people of Grundawady bore the abuse with calmness ; at length their patience forsook them they rose as one man, and endeavoured to rush on their foes. The scene was now one of fearful excitement. ' Happily, the sepoys and seb undies behaved with the utmost coolness and determination ; and we succeeded, after a hard struggle, in beating back both parties without serious injury to anyone. But a different result was so imminent, that one Grundawady axe actually took effect, though, fortunately, the injury was no more than a scratch. When the excitement was in some degree allayed, the chiefs met, and the question of the engagement to be entered into for the preservation of peace was discussed with as much calmness and good-humour as if nothing had occurred. After much animated discussion, it was finally agreed that the ceremonial should be the most binding their religion and customs could furnish. On the morning of the second day after, it was completed, apparently amidst general joy. I then made arrange- ments for the maintenance of peace hereafter, through the settlement of all disputes between tribes and branches as they should arise ; and I told them that Government was determined to put an end to, and would certainly punish those who should hereafter engage in, private CHAP. XVI.] DECREASE OF INFANTICIDE. 233 warfare. At this meeting, as well as at a preceding visit from the chiefs of Darungabady, agriculture and commerce formed the chief topics of conversation, whereas formerly war had been the sole engrossing subject. 'In the course of these negotiations I derived most material assistance from the four wards married into the Darungabady tribe, and from their husbands the paternal bond which now united these to Government having equal if not superior strength to the tribal bond. I determined, therefore, still further to increase this con- nection, by the bestowal of other five wards who still remained to be disposed of, introducing one into the family of the malcontents. Besides these, I also intro- duced thirteen others into districts where their influence was most likely to be beneficially exercised.' Mr. Cadenhead on this occasion remarks as follows : ' The effects of Captain Macpherson's operations among these tribes have been the establishment of the supremacy and, to some extent, the actual exercise of the authority of Government over the tribes of Pondacole and Deegee ; and a tendency among the surrounding people to regard it as a rightful certainly irresistible controlling power, followed in one [of those tribes] by an entire relinquish- ment, and in the other by a notable decrease, of the practice of infanticide. In like manner the new po- litical relations w T ith the tribes of DarungabaSy, Grun- dawady, and their nearer allies, now entered into, may with certainty be expected to effect their entire aban- donment of this practice. ... It is, moreover, to be remarked, that since Captain Macpherson's first visit to these tribes, their ideas with regard to infanticide have undergone important modifications. They have perceived the force and truth of his arguments, admit the inutility of the practice, and deeply feel the imputations on their manhood involved in its continuance under the conditional religious sanction adduced by them, while the rest of mankind do not require to resort to it. So 234 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. sensitive were they on this point, that they cut short the conversation on the subject, saying that " They had already heard and understood the will of the Govern- ment ; that they were not beasts, that we should deem it necessary again and again to repeat the same sentiments to convince them of their truth, and to induce them to yield obedience." Mr. Cadenhead proceeds : ' In his report, dated 10th July 1844, Captain Macpherson states that, since the com- mencement of our operations among these tribes, 170 children had been saved chiefly through our efforts. It now affords me the highest gratification to be able to affirm, after the strictest enquiries, that since the date of that report not a single child has been destroyed in the two districts of Pondacole and Deegee, and that many have been saved in Boree and in Gooldi.' This testimony of Mr. Cadenhead an officer of great acuteness shows that Captain Macpherson had not been misled as to the effect of his measures in checking infan- ticide. Leaving the infanticidal tribes, Mr. Cadenhead next visited the (late) sacrificing tracts of Goomsur. Hod- zoghor he found much distracted by the intrigues of the family of Sam Bissye, who held themselves out as the champions of the restoration of the ancient rite, and had got up a most dangerous conspiracy against the Dulbehra; and he considered it plain that the Khonds could be led to believe in the stability of the policy of the Govern- ment only by the permanent removal of every member of the family to a distance from the Hills. The adminis- tration of justice had been satisfactory to the Goomsur people, and very few complaints were brought to him for decision. In conclusion, he reported as follows : ' The forbearance of the Khonds of all the Goomsur tracts with respect to sacrifice has been greatly tried by the state of affairs in Boad ; where they have seen sacri- fices celebrated, the orders of Government with regard CHAP. XVI.] SACRIFICES IN BOAD. 235 to the delivery of victims set at nought, and the authority of the Rajah openly resisted. 4 1 conceive that our measures in Goomsur are not in immediate danger, while it is generally believed that the Boad, and all other tracts where the rite is still celebrated, will soon be subjected to the same system which has proved successful in Goomsur, and while no event occurs violently to disturb men's minds. If, however, immediate steps shall not be- taken to bring all under one uniform system ; if, in spite of the efforts at present directed towards Boad, the rite shall still continue to be there celebrated ; if, month after month, the very shouts of the sacrificers shall be heard by people who have only relinquished the rite condition- ally ; or if, while our efforts are still distracted and diverse, any great calamity such as famine or desolating sickness shall overtake the Goomsur tracts, their fall would seem to be inevitable. In the one case they would conceive themselves no longer bound to adhere to their share of the contract, since we had apparently failed to perform ours ; and, in the other, the general overwhelm- ing dread of the wrath of their gods would soon over- power the individual fear of the anger of Government. 'Besides the woman intended for sacrifice in Hod- zoghor, and her infant of two months, I brought down two boys and a girl from Athara Mootah. These, when the victims of Athara Mootah were delivered up, had escaped, and remained hid till Captain Macpherson left the Hills, when they returned to their former possessors, with whom, as these gave surety for their safety, they, were allowed to remain. As these parties now declined to continue answerable for them, I removed them to Nowgaum and Souradah.' Some of the occurrences of this summer are worth noting : 1 Gopalpore, 5th June 1846. ' The result of Baba's and Soondera's last visit to Sou- 236 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. radah has been a grand assembly at Darungabady, not tribal but branch at which the weak war-party was finally, I hope, suppressed. A flying visit to Boree next season en route to Boad will, I think, render us supreme in Sikko Bodo, and place Khond infanticide in this quarter among the things that were. ' What would Sir H. Hardinge say to his ideas on vac- cination having been anticipated many years ago by some imperial Colonel who, by means of the rajah if I remember rightly had the whole country side caught and vaccinated at once? Every other man now bears good and laudable marks to this day. And you may further tell him that we did not neglect to take the initiatory step.' Notwithstanding the continued bad influence of the sacrifices in Boad, which more than once caused the chiefs of Goomsur to declare to Mr. Cadenhead that they must immediately recur to the practice unless it was prevented among their neighbours ; yet through Mr. Cadenhead's excellent management, the Goomsur Khonds were preserved from the dreaded lapse into their ancient bloody practices, though those of them who lived near Boad were much in the position of a reclaimed drunkard who is placed in the midst of a drink- ing party. It may be convenient to mention in this place what became of the victims rescued by Captain Macpherson. The statement is taken from the latest of the admirable series of articles on the Khonds, contributed to the ' Cal- cutta Review ' by the Rev. Dr. Duff, 1 to whom Lord Har- dinge communicated all the official papers for the express purpose ; articles remarkable, above all things, for their scrupulous accuracy and impartiality, and to which these Memorials are greatly indebted : ' The victims of both sexes, who had been stolen from parents that could be discovered, were, in every such in- 1 ( Calcutta Review,' vols. v v vi. ; viii., x. CHAP. XVI.J DISPOSAL OF THE RESCUED VICTIMS. 237 stance, restored to their families. Those whom their un- natural parents had sold were not, save in one or two very special excepted cases, restored to them, because it was all but certain that they would sell them again. ' The males under age, whose parents or natural guardians could not be discovered, and who consequently remained under the sole tutelage of Government, were variously disposed of in such ways as promised most for their benefit. In the year 1843, and subsequently, when Captain Macpherson acted as head assistant to the Gover- nor's Agent, Ganjam, he gave of those children to all the Christian householders, whether European or East Indian, who offered and engaged to support and bring them up usefully until they could maintain themselves. Of the rest, for reasons unknown to us, he gave a few for bond fide adoption by Mussulmans whom, he knew to be men of substance and good character. In this mode of distributing a portion of them he acted according to the rule which he found in existence, of giving only one victim to each in- dividual applicant. 'Mr. Sutton, of Cuttack, having applied for a large number (150) of victims, Captain Macpherson transmitted his application to his own superior, Mr. Bannerman, who alone could warrantably deal with it. On Mr. Banner- man's leaving the district, early in 1844, and Captain Macpherson's assuming temporary charge of his office, the latter found that nothing had been done in the matter of Mr. Sutton's application. He then at once addressed the Madras Government, proposing that it should empower him to distribute the victims in considerable numbers amongst the several missionary and charitable institutions that would engage to support, train, and educate them giving to each institution according to its apparent means of making effectual and permanent provision for them. Before receiving any reply to this communication, and under the direct instruction of Mr. Anstruther, who soon succeeded Mr. Bannerman as acting Agent, he gave some 238 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVI. eight or ten boys into the charge of the military chaplain at Vizagapatam, who made them over to a missionary there, from whom they effected their escape back to Captain Macpherson a few months after, when, with the chaplain's consent, they were -delivered to the Baptist mis- sionaries at Berhampore. ' At last the Madras Government wrote, in reply to the letter of the beginning of 1844, that its desire was, that such of the victims as were not otherwise already provided for should, if possible, be reunited, if not to their families, at least to their tribes or race ; and directed Captain Macpherson to report if this could be accomplished. In reply, he stated that they might be engrafted on the low- country Khonds by settling them in their villages, and setting them up, each with a plough and a pair of bullocks and^a year's seed, with a grant of a piece of jungle-land. The Government adopted this proposal, arid sanctioned the expenditure of fifteen rupees a victim, which its execu- tion would entail. Before, however, the plan could be fully carried out, Captain Macpherson was compelled by ill-health to leave the district. But it is specially worthy of note, that throughout the whole time a schoolmaster was employed by him to teach the boys to read and write Oriya the language already spoken by some, and more or less understood by the majority of them, and the only one containing any ready-made books ; and this the Agent found, by occasional examination, that they were very fairly taught. The females were also employed in spin- ning thread, but the results of their labours in this de- partment did not amount to anything very considerable. 'As to adults, or those who had reached the age of pu- berty, they were variously disposed of, under sundry checks and guarantees for their welfare. Young men became servants or apprentices, or were set up as petty farmers, in the manner already indicated. Of the rescued females, all, with a very few exceptions, were of marriage- able age, or just approaching to it. Many of them were CHAP. XVI.] PLANS FOR EDUCATION. 239 married to male victims and to persons of inferior caste in the low country, receiving small dowries of ten or twelve rupees from the Government. Of the rest, four- fifths were married to Khonds of substance and influence in the infanticidal tribes ; and arrangements were made for a like disposal of the remainder, all under the strongest securities for proper treatment and adequate provision any failure or shortcoming in the stipulated contracts or engagements being foreordained as sure to incur the serious displeasure of the Circar, or supreme Sovereign Power.' Captain Macpherson's fixed purpose was, as early as possible, to carry education into the Hills his great object being, through the moral and religious advancement of the Khonds, by educating them, to complete and render permanent the change in their ancestral faith and usages, which he had first brought about through personal, social, and political means. While he was in Calcutta in 1845, he repeatedly wrote to Mr. Cadenhead, expressing his great anxiety that some measures should be adopted as speedily as possible to attempt to establish schools on the Hills. To effect this, the first thing to be done was to reduce the Khond language to writing and exactness, in order that it might be properly taught to the persons who should be fit to undertake the office of schoolmasters ; so that they, in their turn, might be duly qualified to communicate with their pupils. Towards the end of 1845, therefore, Mr. Cadenhead began the acquisition of the Khond language, but was able to make comparatively slow progress from the numerous demands upon his time and attention. The increasing difficulties in the Agency com- pelled him again and again, temporarily, to suspend his labours in the matter. Nevertheless he persevered ; and eventually he succeeded in collecting and writing out, in the Oriya " character, an account of the manner in which the Meriah rite is performed, and of its origin as nearly as possible in the words of the religious songs or hymns 240 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. XVI. which are chaunted at the time of the sacrifice by the parties engaged in its performance ; an account of the origin of a feud between two tribes, and of the sacrifices and ceremonies to the god of war on the commencement of hostilities of the battles and of the return to peace ; an account of the Khond view of the creation of man ; an account of the Khond reasons why men, but not animals, are doomed to labor ; four purely Khond fables, and two fables translated from the Oriya. 1 1 See < Calcutta Review/ vol. x., p. 336. CHAP. XVII] THE HILL AGENCY. 241 CHAPTEE XVII. THE HILL AGENCY FIFTH VISIT TO THE HILLS. NOVEMBER 1845 MAY 1846. ANOTHER and a more gloomy chapter of this little history must now be presented. For fifteen months Mr. Caden- head (though much embarrassed -at times, through the impatience with which the people of Goomsur witnessed the sacrifice going on unchecked in Boad) carried out most successfully the plan of operations devised and acted on by Captain Macpherson for the suppression of the sacrifice, and of female infanticide, through measures essentially conciliatory. This time was spent by Captain Macpherson in com- municating personally with the Supreme Government with reference to the comprehensive Agency which it was proposed to establish for reclaiming the hill- tribes of Orissa from both their sanguinary practices ' by gradual and voluntary operations, without resorting to force or intimidation.' l As the tribes addicted to these customs were scattered through territories subject to different jurisdictions, the new Agency was to be superintended by the Govern- ment of India, as the paramount power. Unfortunately, the gentlemen forming the Government of Madras were disposed to make it a point of honour that they should 1 Resolutions of the Government of India, dated 19th July and 6th December 1845. R 242 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVII. retain the control of these operations, which, they ob- served, had prospered in their hands ; although they had written, for three years together, that they were about to submit a new general plan to the Supreme Government. Being overruled, they felt deeply wounded, and they hotly contested every square mile of territory which it was pro- posed to assign to the new Agency. It was intended thaf the Khond tracts should be sepa- rated for a time from the political divisions to which they belonged should be placed under the new and special Agency, which, it was hoped, would reclaim them and should be restored, one by one, to the old authorities, whenever that work had been accomplished. But not only were the Khond tracts to be thus separated : the Hindu Eajahs or Zemindars of the low-country to whom they were attached, and without whose cooperation it would have been vain to approach them, were also to be placed under the Agent. Thus the neighbouring civil jurisdictions would be shorn of part of their territory, and the sphere of influence and profit of the native establishments 1 would be circumscribed. The native employes in Ganjam naturally viewed this change with jealousy, and being aware that the Government at Madras was highly adverse to it, thought they should at once promote their own interests and gratify their superiors by opposing it in every way. A similar feeling prevailed among the officials of the districts of Cuttack and of the South-west Frontier. The Government of India framed chiefly for review, and at no time happily constituted for direct and ori- ginal management was now inexpressibly weakened by the departure of the Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, to the North-west, his legal powers in South- ern India passing to Sir T. H. Haddock, as President of the Council. The organisation of the Agency had been greatly 1 See above ; p. 147. CHAP. XVII.] MISTAKE AS TO INFANTICIDAL TRACTS. 243 impeded by the grave political questions with which the Governor-General was occupied. Had Sir Henry Hardinge, who entirely adopted the principle of the measure during the autumn of 1844, thought fit at that season to devote but a little time to its details, the constancy of the Goomsur Khonds would have been saved from a long and severe strain ; those of Boad must have yielded to the influence of an Agent mani- festly supported by the earnest will of the Government, and empowered to assure them of kind treatment ; and the abolition movement might soon have been extended to more distant regions. At length, in November 1845, after a delay which had greatly unsettled men's minds in Orissa, Captain Macpherson returned to Ganjam with the title of 'Governor-General's Agent for the Suppres- sion of Meriah Sacrifice and Female Infanticide in the Hill Tracts of Orissa.' The requisite legal powers, how- ever, had not even yet been conferred upon him, though he had urged upon the Government the necessity of im- mediate action upon the district of Boad before the return of the season for sacrifice. When, at length, he was empowered to act, the Zemin- dary of Souradah, the scene of his most successful opera- tions against infanticide, was, by an unhappy accident, omitted from the territory assigned to him. He had for- merly influenced the people of Souradah as representative (under the Ganjam Agent) of the Government : 1 he had now lost that derivative authority, and had not received any new authority in his own person, as they had been led to expect ; but with the sanction of Mr. Bannerman, who had returned from the Cape, he resumed his operations among them, assuring them that he should soon receive full powers to administer the affairs of their zernindary. 2 1 See above, p. 227. 2 He would have gone at once to Boad, but he could not do so without previous personal communication with the Eajah ; and the Eajah had pur- posely gone out of the way, so that he could not be conferred with till the middle of February. E2 244 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVII. C I have been dealing,' he wrote in the beginning of 1846, ' with the infanticidal tribes, and have got through the work to a wish. The practice may certainly be con- sidered at an end in the tracts on which I have acted. After communicating very fully with all the infanticidal tribes of Souradah, I am very thankful that I can say that we could not wish them to be in a better state of mind, and that I am now engaged in active aggression upon the neighbouring tribes of Chinna-Kimedy. Our justice, producing order everywhere, and the influence derived from the invaluable device of wiving the chief men with the honoured daughters of the State our rescued victim-girls have given us complete mastery over these tribes, considered the most intractable division of the Khond population in this quarter. Cadenhead ma- naged them very well in my absence, under trying cir- cumstances. ' We are, as yet, all well, living in a beautiful mango- grove by a river which springs in the^ mountain-chain fifteen miles off.' There was much to render the attempt upon Boad a difficult and doubtful enterprise. The people could only be approached through their head ; and the wretched little Court of the Eajah was agitated by conflicting personal and family pretensions. The Eajah's own title was doubtful; two men of influence contended for the office of premier ; two families carried on a hereditary strife for the office of Khonro (equivalent to Bissye, and involving the chief management of the Eajah's rela- tions with the Khonds) ; it was impossible to form con- nections with any of these chiefs, without throwing his rival into violent opposition. Moreover, the tribes could not be dealt with singly, like those of Goomsur, because they had been accustomed, to act in groups for common objects, and because they were divided into a great number of nearly independent CHAP. XVII.] MERIAHS OBTAINED IN BOAD. 245 branches, which it was necessary to keep in view at the same time. The tract over which they were scattered in Boad was about ninety miles long by thirty broad, difficult of access, and very little known ; and the nearest point of it was forty miles from any place where the Agent could permanently reside. The jealousy of the Eajah opposed a further obstacle to the introduction of the direct authority of Government into the Khond country ; all the Zemindars regarding their tracts of that country as the stronghold in their language 'the maternal bosom'- to which they had owed, and might still owe, the preservation of their families, and of their qualified independence. The Boad Khonds having already learnt, from the example of Goomsur, that a community might abandon sacrifice and yet live, had made up their minds to yield, if they found that the c Circar,' notwithstanding its long delays, was really in earnest ; but they offered to the earth-goddess one immense valedictory sacrifice, compris- ing 125 victims which might have been prevented if the Government of India had acted with more alacrity in giving powers to the Agent. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the case pressed for action Boad must be won or Goomsur would be lost; and in March 1846, though the safe season was over, the Agent, with Mr. Cadenhead (who had been appointed to the office of Principal Assistant in the new Agency), went to the Hills of Boad, preceded by the Eajah, who had at length appeared, and had promised his cooperation. After some very curious preliminary fencing and finesse, the Boad Khonds yielded to the persuasions of the Agent, and of the Goomsur Khonds, who attended him (as the reclaimed tribes had formerly gone with him among the unreclaimed tribes of Goomsur 1 ) as the zealous missionaries 1 See above, p. 198. 246 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVII. of abolition. They came into allegiance to the Govern- ment, and brought their victims to him, at a place called Bissipurra, to the number of 172 ; and he commenced the decision of their cases in conjunction with the tribal au- thorities, one of whom, a chief of importance, observed ' I now see the magic by which Goomsur has been con- quered !' Everything seemed to be in the best train, when suddenly the Khonds grew distant and reserved in their demeanour : they had become possessed with the delu- sion, that the delivery of their victims was a token of sub- jection, and that they were forthwith to be subjected to taxation and forced labour. This absurd notion was produced by the machinations of Kurtivas, the Eajah's uncle, but of illegitimate birth ; who, having once held and abused the chief power in Boad, desired to involve the Khonds in difficulties with the Government, and so to increase his own importance and recover his former position. Ever since a partial interference with the rite had com- menced on the part of the Cuttack authorities, this man had received fees for permitting each sacrifice that took place. Aided by certain Hindu and freebooting Khond chiefs, who for good reasons did not wish to see Boad brought under obedience to the Government, he set on foot intrigues, in which he contrived to involve the Eajah himself, in order to distract the minds of the Khonds, and engage them in forcible opposition to the Agent ; assuring them that, if they resisted that officer successfully, they would be withdrawn from his jurisdiction, and re trans- ferred to that of the Commissioner of Cuttack. The Eajah and all his servants naturally desired to re- main under the jurisdiction of Cuttack, being already acquainted with the usages and with many of the public officers of that province ; while the Khonds firmly be- lieved that the Cuttack authorities did not require the absolute relinquishment of the sacrifice, but only the annual delivery of a certain number of victims. CHAP. XVII.] MERIAHS GIVEN TO THE RAJAH. 247 Captain Macpherson, on observing this change in the Khonds of Boad, sent for the leading men, and told them that if they repented of having delivered up their Meriahs, they were free to take them back arid to go in peace. They refused, saying that they had given them up volun- tarily, and that they did not intend to recur to human sacrifice. But they maintained their reserve, and did not open their minds. Next morning they returned, in a state of wild excitement, and demanded the delivery of the Meriahs. They had, they said, abandoned the sacrifice, but they had discovered that their delivery of the victims was a token of servitude, and they were determined to have them back. The Eajah, seeing that Captain Macpherson had ordered his escort to fire at once if any violence was attempted, felt how deeply he was compromised by this outbreak, which he had fomented ; and, trembling for his zemindary and his life, he now interposed, and requested that the vic- tims might be given up to him, upon his personal pledge for their safety, and also for their redelivery when he should have had time to disabuse the minds of the Khonds. The Meriahs were given up to the Eajah ac- cordingly. By delivery to the Agent, they had ceased to be acceptable victims. 1 It may be stated in this place, 1 See above, p. 115 : and see also Appendix C. General Campbell makes the following statement (< Personal Narrative, 5 p. 89) : < I have no -wish to dwell upon these deplorable mistakes of judgment, or to bring odium upon any one responsible for them ; but I must say, that I have not the faintest doubt that this rapid transition of the Khonds from a spirit of confidence and obedience, as evinced by the delivery of their victims, to one of distrust and revolt, accompanied by demands not unlike threats, was caused exclusively by the exactions and oppressions to which they had been subjected by the native assistants of Captain Macpherson. Money was extorted from them, cooking utensils were forcibly carried away, and even the Rajah himself was mulcted of a pair of gold armlets.' This is the allegation of two noted rebels and supporters of the sacrifice. It was solemnly enquired into, and the following decision pronounced by the Government of India, adopting the Report of Mr. Commissioner Grant (mentioned below, Chap. XXI.) : ( It is alleged by Kurtivas Baboo and Bir Khonro, that the native servants abused and ill-treated the Khonds, and insisted on their paying them money. Mr. Grant is satisfied that the 248 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. XVII. that they were in course of free redelivery to Captain Macpherson, when he was suddenly removed from office in March 1847 ; that upwards of sixty of them had been delivered to him, while not one perished, before that date ; and that after his removal had taken place, under circum- stances which might naturally be expected to expose the remaining victims to the utmost danger, 1 the rest of them* were recovered by General Campbell in the spring of 1848, with the exception, as he states, of three, who ' had been sacrificed to defeat the success of our [i. e., his own and his assistant's] endeavours ; ' while, on the contrary, Captain Frye, the General's successor in office, uses language which can only be understood as a positive official denial that any one of them was sacrificed. 2 From the day when the victims were delivered back to the Eajah, the Meriah question became one of secondary importance ; and it was on the grand delusion of the intended taxation and forced labour that the re- sistance to the Government turned. No doubt, if the resistance had ultimately proved successful, the Khonds would have attributed its success to the revived power of charge is wholly untrue, and that the real cause of the rising was an idea infused into the minds of the Khonds not by any person connected with the Agency, and not by reason of any act of any person connected with the Agency that giving up their Meriahs was only the first step to taxation and servitude.' Resolution of Government of India, 7th October 1848. According to General Campbell (* Personal Narrative,' p. 88), the Rajah of Boad ' was a poor imbecile youth, utterly incapable of influencing Khonds or others, for good or evil. His guarantee, if ever given, which he himself stoutly denied, was entirely worthless.' It was not on account of the personal qualities of the Rajah that his guarantee (which was the very basis of all his subsequent communications with Captain Macpherson) was valuable, but on account of his great hereditary influence. General Campbell says, in his Report of 16th April 1848 : < The Rajah of Boad with his Paiks rendered good service, and I invariably supported his authority with the people of the Maliahs. He very strongly protested against being made responsible for the redelivery of the Meriahs restored to the Khonds, and professed his utter inability to accomplish it himself ; nevertheless, he very creditably exerted himself, and his protracted sojourn in the Hills has no doubt been a cause of great expense to himself and his establishment.' 1 See below, Chapter XX. 2 See Appendix C. CHAP. XVII.] POLICY OF THE AGENT. 249 the earth-goddess, and would have relapsed into human sacrifice ; but this was not the point upon which they commenced and continued their opposition. The only question for Captain Macpherson to consider was What was the right course for an Agent to pursue, who had been entrusted with power for the express purpose of bringing about the abandonment by these Khonds of their most ancient rites, by convincing them, as he had done in Goomsur, that the sacrifice was unnecessary? Many will say, ' These men had arms in their hands. True, they were savages ; it was their first meeting with the Agent ; they were under a delusion which they had not intelligence to resist, propagated as it was by the very men whom they had been accustomed to look to for guidance. Nevertheless, the authority of the Government should have been vindicated they ought to have been shot down without mercy ! ' This sounds more vigorous, but Captain Macpherson chose the better part, and he was amply rewarded by the result : for it was the opinion afterwards fully ascertained of every man in Boad whose opinion was of any value, that the forbearance shown on this occasion proved only the lenity and kindness of the Government, and ultimately led to the voluntary sub- mission of those who now stood out. The main and permanent end of the Agency, the substitution of a true for a false belief on the subject of the necessity of the sacrifice, had been attained. This advantage was endangered, without any fault of the Agent, by a movement arising out of a misapprehension of our objects, and it could only be retrieved by a proceeding to which there were serious objections. That proceeding was adopted ; the embarrassments connected with it were in due time successfully disposed of, and the great object was secured. What actually took place in the first instance was (as will be shown) a disturbed state of the hill-country of Boad, one-half of which Captain Macpherson (though 250 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. XVII. grievously hindered by causes over which he had no control) had, at the moment of his removal, reduced to friendly obedience ; while he was daily obtaining fresh adhesions in the other half, which must have been com- pletely in his hands in a few days. What would have followed if a different course had been adopted, was the confirmation of the Khonds in all their delusions, and probably a war for their faith, which would have re- tarded for many years any further attempts at abolition. Had the policy adopted by Captain Macpherson upon this occasion appeared to the Goomsur Khonds in any light save that of a further proof of the paternal mildness and benevolence with which he had always treated the hill- people, they must inevitably have inferred that the power of the earth-goddess was again in the ascendant, while that of the ' Circar,' which they associated with the god of light, was on the wane. But so far was this from being their impression, that they during this very year voluntarily abandoned the worship of the earth-goddess, and trans- ferred their adoration to the supreme beneficence, which they worshipped under the name of the god of light. 1 The victims having been given up, there was nothing further to be done at that time in Boad ; and the Agent withdrew across the Goomsur border to Kunjeur, a few miles off. The Eajah and Kurtivas (the latter formally disavowing all connection with the rising) thought proper to accompany him thither ; but he sent them back the same day to their own country, 2 to undeceive the Khonds, and bring in the victims. The Eajah of Boad, after an ineffectual attempt to fulfil his promise, returned to the low-country. Kurtivas re- mained with the excited Khonds at Sangrimendi, a few miles from the camp of Captain Macpherson, who had now been reinforced by three companies of sepoys. Sam 1 See above, p. 216. 2 General Campbell's assertions on this subject are noticed in Appendix D. CHAP. XVII.] REBELLION OF SAM BISSYE'S SONS. 251 Bissye's sons had been in concert with the conspirators at Bissipurra, where the victims were given up, and they brought the excited mob of Boad to attack the Agent's camp at Kunjeur in Goomsur on the 19th of March. There was no religious question here it was an act of simple rebellion, and Captain Macpherson ordered a few shots to be fired to disperse them. One man was wounded, when all instantly fled across the Boad frontier ; pursuit was pro- hibited. A week after, the Agent moved into Hodzoghor to put an end to the divisions of that tribe, having all its legitimate heads with him. By their advice he ar- rested five of the partisans of Sam Bissye's sons, who were providing large supplies for future mobs from Boad, and exciting the Khonds against the Government. One of the sons of Sam Bissye gave himself up. * On the 1st of April, a mob of about 1,000 men, led by the two sons of Sam Bissye who were still at large, came to demand the release of the prisoners on pain of attack. A small party of the Agent's Sebundies and matchlock Paiks fired ; four Khonds fell, and the whole crowd fled. A party of sepoys being added for show and noise, they were chased to a village, their place of rendezvous, about a mile from the camp, in which the sons of Sam Bissye and their friends had stored large supplies of provisions. That village the Khonds who ac- companied the Agent plundered and fired. Its destruction was, unfortunately, rendered absolutely necessary by the circumstance that this mob intended not to fight and return home, but to take up its quarters in that and the neighbouring villages, and issue daily to attack the camp, or insult it at a safe distance ; to send parties to cut off the dawks (letter-post), to prevent the collection of forage, and to pick off unarmed followers from the jungle. The Agent now renewed his efforts to induce the partisans of the sons of Sam Bissye to submit to the authority of the Government and of their tribe : a very few came in and were pardoned the rest held out with 252 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVII. inflexible obstinacy. The question of the reduction to obedience of this party in Hodzoghor obviously involved that of the maintenance or abdication of the authority of the Government in the Khond tracts of Goomsur. There was, in the judgment of all the Hindu and Khond chiefs, and of every person with Captain Macpherson who could form an opinion, but one mode of compelling this party to submit viz., the destruction of a few of their villages. The recusant Khonds had moved from their villages, according to the universal usage on such occa- sions, with their families and their property, into the most inaccessible recesses of the Hills. But the season for cultivation approached, and if they should not then be sheltered by habitations, their fields must lie untilled. Were their huts now destroyed, they must either promptly make peace with their tribe (for the tribe was loyal : it was only a faction that was in rebellion), so as to obtain temporary hospitality and aid to construct new dwellings or entirely forego the cultivation of their lands for a year. Thus, should they remain at war, the destruction of their huts would be an extreme evil ; while if they submitted, as the labour of a very few weeks would suffice to rebuild them, it would inflict only a moderate hardship but a light penalty for their offence. No description of force can apprehend or kill the Khonds in their mountain fast- nesses. They can be assailed there only, as was done in the original Goomsur war, by parties sent expressly to discover and burn their temporary dwellings and property, and drive their families into the forests ; the fighting men are quite intangible to troops. But had it even been possible to devise slower pro- cesses for the reduction of these malcontents, such processes could not have been executed ; for the great and daily-increasing sickness both of Captain Mac- pherson's civil establishment and of his escort now compelled his immediate return to the low-country. He had therefore no course left but to direct the burning of CHAP. XVII.] REBEL VILLAGES BURNT. 253 five villages of the chief recusants, and to authorise a division of the tribe itself to execute a like decree against the hamlets of three most faithless and determined public enemies in it. The family of Sam Bissye having left their village, carrying away all their property, it was set fire to, either wilfully by their enemies, or by accident, but against the Agent's express orders. The effects anticipated from this measure were imme- diately produced. All both in Goomsur and in Boad were convinced that the authority of the Government was to be maintained ; the partisans of the sons of Sam Bissye immediately submitted ; the ascendency of the legitimate chiefs of the tribe was re-established, and all solemnly abjured the connection with Boad. The sons of Sam Bissye fled thither with their families, and the Agent left the Goomsur tribes in perfect tranquillity on the 15th of April. That tranquillity continued as long as he held office, except in one little tract 1 where no village had been burnt. It has been already mentioned that these wooden villages are of no great value, being abandoned as a matter of course after they have stood about fourteen years, or earlier if they are thought to be haunted. 2 In point of fact, the burnt villages were all rebuilt and reinhabited within five or six weeks. To sum up in the words of Captain Macpherson : ' In Boad my measures towards the Khonds were checked, at an advanced stage of their progress, by a bold and successful intrigue by the uncle of the Rajah, carried on with his privity and with the aid of certain Hindu chiefs, for the attainment mainly of his personal objects. The Eajah, admitting his participation in that intrigue, sought and obtained an opportunity to atone for his fault by counteracting and remedying the evils produced. ' In Goomsur the uncle of the Boad Eajah attempted for the same general objects, and through the same means, 1 Lower Bopulmendi. 2 See above, p. 61. 254 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVII. strengthened by the aid of the sons of Sam Bissye of Hodzoghor to excite the Khond tribes to opposition to my authority. He succeeded only in a single section of Hodzoghor, devoted to the family of Sam Bissye. That section has been reduced to obedience to the authority of the Government and the tribe, but partly through coer- cive means, the necessity for the use of which is to be deplored.' Some have objected to this mode of coercion, although both before and since the events just narrated it has been repeatedly resorted to in various parts of India. 1 The objection has arisen from the erroneous supposition that Captain Macpherson adopted the measure for the sup- pression of the sacrifice, and that the destruction of the villages involved the destruction of all the property of their inhabitants ; from the habit of associating the idea of the burning of villages with the infliction of the worst horrors of war at once upon the innocent and the guilty ; and from the notion that he might have pursued a course less repugnant to the general feelings of those who were distant from the scene. But this measure was resorted to in no respect for the suppression of the sacrifice for there had been no ques- tion of sacrifice in Hodzoghor for the three preceding years but solely for the restoration of order among a portion of the population which had long been in alle- giance to us. To leave that section of Hodzoghor leagued 1 See above, p. 45. We find in the l Personal Narrative' (p. 212), that General Campbell ordered the village of Bundari to be burnt, as the only means of saving the lives of the victims, whose sacrifice would have assuredly followed that which had been already perpetrated, had it been left unpunished ; and (at p. 223) the people of Toopunga having attacked General Campbell, so that he was compelled to fire in self-defence, 'the courage of the men of Toopunga failed ; and they fled, leaving their villages (from which all property had been removed some days before) to the mercy of the excited followers of the Oriya'h Chief of Shoobernagery who ac- companied me, and who, with the matches of their matchlock guns, set fire to three small clusters of houses.' Indeed, to judge from certain recent notices of Khond affairs, it would seem that no other form of coercion applicable to the hill-country has yet been discovered. CHAP. XVII] RESTORATION OF ORDER. 255 iu arms against our authority, and in opposition to the rest of Goomsur, would have been to leave Goomsur to anarchy ; while the Government, which had induced the tribes to give up their old security for rights, the appeal to arms, was specially pledged to afford to them the bless- ings of order and peace. The villages destroyed were empty, and they were far fewer than the number indi- cated for punishment by the body of chiefs of Goomsur. 1 The measure produced immediate obedience ; it was just, necessary, and successful. 1 The Khonds do not consider themselves distinctly defeated unless their villages are destroyed. 250 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIII. CHAPTEE XVIII. RETURN" FROM THE HILLS RUIN OF THE INFANTICIDE WORK NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE BOAD RAJAH GENERAL WORSHIP OF THE GOD OF LIGHT REFUSAL OF ESCORTS. APRIL OCTOBER 1846. AFTER reaching the plains, Captain Macpherson wrote as follows to a friend : 'Nowgaum, 20th April 1846. 4 1 do not think that my difficulties could have been greater than they lately have been. I cannot say one word as to the future, except that I see grounds for hope, and it may, I trust, be God's will that we shall prevail. I am thankful to feel that were the work to be done over again, I would pursue precisely the same course which I have taken. There is, of course, plenty of room for difference of opinion as to my policy, and the mass of men will simply judge by the result when it comes ; but I trust that when fully explained to you, you will approve of it. Although terribly poisoned with malaria and medi- cine, and worn out by the heavy strain of unintermitting anxiety, I am glad to say I can look forward with some confidence to be able to fight out the battle. Nothing alarms me so much as the idea of devolving the least of my responsibilities upon another person. You cannot, I dare say, understand the tone of malignant exultation in which some of the Madras writers on Khond affairs CHAP. XVIII.] MISREPRESENTATIONS AT MADRAS. 257 indulge : 1 I confess it is utterly inconceivable to me. I should have thought it impossible that an Agency like mine, working for good ends in the teeth of what all intelligent men know to be all but impossibilities I should indeed have thought that such an Agency, whether suc- cessful or the reverse, would be sure of all men's sym- pathy. But this is not to be concealed a portion of the Madras Government, its friends and supporters, have made the question of the creation of rny jurisdiction under the Supreme Government a vital question, and would rejoice beyond all measure at my failure.' While the Supreme Government was surprised and an- noyed by the statements regarding Khond affairs contained in some of the Madras papers, it received no report from Captain Macpherson, who had not been in the habit of reporting officially to the Madras Government till some time after the conclusion of his tours in the hill-country, and had never been informed that the Government of India desired that he should communicate with it more frequently. There can be no doubt that it would have been wise to make an exception upon this occasion ; and, in fact, he did write very fully (though his letters were not in the form of an official record) to Mr. Secretary Bushby immediately upon his return to the plains. But Sir T. H. Maddock administered what Captain Macpherson styled ' a wig of the grandest,' because an official Eeport had not been made ; and required that for the future very full diaries and other records should be kept, and should be forwarded once a week. Accordingly, from this time 1 About this time he wrote : f The newspapers have had the most pre- posterous stories. I believe we have all been killed outright, &c. There have been one or two stories which only the most consummate malice could have devised. I turned out of camp a poor half-caste, delirious with fever, fear, and brandy. A scribbling youth got hold of him, and sent every word of his drunken nonsense to a Madras paper.' In another letter he complains of the public use made of a note written by a very young man upon wholly erroneous information, while the same writer's immediate cor- rection of his own mistakes was not noticed. S 258 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIII. to the end of Captain Macpherson's tenure of office, a mass of minute information, such as never probably ema- nated from any Agency in India in an equal space of time, was duly registered and laid before the Government. When Sir T. H. Haddock received the Eeport which he had called for, he declared that as the Government had not been duly informed at the time, it could now pro- nounce no opinion whatever as to the Agent's proceedings. Before pursuing the history of the sacrifice question, it is right to mention once more, and for the last time, the fate of the infanticidal districts. During the summer Captain Macpherson wrote to a friend as follows : 6 You may recollect how well my plans have worked in Souradah ; not a child-murder in it for about two years. Well, I demanded it of the Government at first ; then it was not given by mistake ; ] but I re-demanded it on the 20th February last. It is not yet given. The people be- lieve it will not be given ; do not at all understand a to be and not to be authority ; and have to a great extent broken loose from me, and taken to infanticide again. This is the plain deplorable truth, and I am perfectly helpless.' Nevertheless, the official delays continued, and in October he was compelled to write thus : ' I scarcely know what to say respecting the state of Souradah, which you know I had brought to give up infanticide entirely; but for my own justification, I must say all one of these days, when I see precisely how matters stand. 6 1 gained an ascendency over its tribes, as being master of the Zemindary, as being in the place of the Eajah, and having his sons 2 identified with me in the service of the Government. ' Souradah being considered nearly one with Goomsur, I was placed in great difficulty from its not being put under 1 See above, p. 243. 2 Soondera Sing and Gopee Sing, mentioned above : the latter was now dead. CHAP. XVIII.] RESTORATION OF INFANTICIDE. 259 me when Goomsur was given; but my assurance that it would be immediately given, and Bannerman's abstinence from settling its revenue at my public request, enabled me to struggle on, though scarcely able to hold my ground against his cutcherry, 1 who of course declared that, although the Acting Agent had failed to keep Goomsur, Bannerman would never yield another hill. The Madras Government referred the question of giving me Souradah, &c., to Bannerman (i.e., invited reasons why it should not be given). Bannerman, as I am informed, not only wrote that no more should be given, but that some should be taken away ; arid, believing that he had settled the matter, he forthwith proceeded to settle the Souradah revenue 2 a few weeks ago, and without even giving me notice, to enable me at least to make an effort to save my work. Bannerman's cutcherry now declared that his day of triumph was come, and the people opposed to my influence in the Souradah tribes everywhere incited them to destroy their children, and with very abundant success. This is a more heart-breaking thing to me, and to those who have laboured so long and so admirably with me, than you can at all imagine. Its general effect upon the Khond population, on the Eajahs, and on the cutcherries. you can now well understand ; knowing that my main difficulty is the conviction, drawn directly from the cutcherries of the three Agencies with which I am in contact, that the Government is in no degree in earnest against either sacrifice or infanticide. Bannerman's ec- centricity is well known. He has always regarded the Khond work as a high personal impertinence to himself, making it impossible for him to listen to one word con- nected with it. I was able to keep him tolerably straight while we were in Ganjam, near the coast, together, but 1 Establishment. 2 To settle the revenue was to announce that he was, and, consequently, that Captain Macpherson was not, the person in official charge of the district. s2 260 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIIL being bound to this spot for twelve months, I have quite lost sight of him ; and here is our infanticidal work, known to all to be a complete undeniable success, coming or come to the ground.' Souradah was of course given to the Agency, but only when all the mischief had been done. Those who are not aware of the very great influence exercised by the native employes of the Government, will learn with surprise that such proceedings should be tole- rated as are disclosed in the following letter : 4 The Tahsildar 1 of Goomsur, who is identified with the chief man of Bannerman's cutcherry, has during the last three months laboured indefatigably, as a man like him labours only for the advancement of a matter nearest his own heart and the hearts of his superiors, to make the management of these tracts difficult or impossible to me. He some time ago canvassed all the renters of my villages to petition the Government against their trans- ference to me, and when the Khonds got their heads loose the other day, urged them again to do so, on the assurance that my power must now cease, and that he would remit them two kists, 2 &c. on their re-transference to him. He laboured vehemently at that time to excite a panic in the country, by announcing that a great religious Khond war had broken out, and must embrace all the hill-country that the district would be immediately plundered, so that all must bury their goods, and prepare to take their families to the Hills. He demanded a guard of troops over his treasury, and told the officer commanding Eussellcondah to strengthen his guard and prepare for defence. His reports and, I am told, his private letters (at which he is a great hand, being a poet and that sort of thing) to Madras, and especially to a person in confidential office, were ah 1 of the same com- plexion, and the effect which for the moment he contrived 1 Receiver of revenue. The name of this man was Sooriah Narain. z Periodical payments of land revenue. CHAP. XVIII.] HOSTILITY OF GANJAM CUTCHERRY. 261 to produce was not small ; this work, moreover, is not ended, but proceeds industriously. The renters had too much sense to petition for re-transference to a man whom they had been petitioning me and every other officer in charge of Goomsur for these eight years to remove, and people soon found out the gross hoax of the Khond war ; but I know not what effect the intimations by this Tahsildar to the Boad Eajah may produce. 6 1 shall be in a great difficulty if Bannerman's cutcherry shall act, as it now threatens, with systematic hostility to me, in the belief that such action is pleasing to the Madras Government and to its own head. I plainly could not go on against such hostility. It could be put clown, I think, only by the Ganjam Agent's taking a strong course against it not by my bringing charges (which might or might not be substantiated) judicially against his servants, which would necessarily produce exasperations and recriminations without end. I grieve to say I cannot at present appeal to him to make such an effort with any hope of success. ' I shall state in my Eeport the effect which has been produced by the Boad Eajah's continuing to look to Cuttack, of which looking the Government has evidence from the Cuttack Commissioner, and shall say that if Eajahs under me look anywhere but to me I can certainly effect nothing. On this the Supreme Government might perhaps say something distinct to the Madras Government to repeat to its Ganjam Agent.' The first object of the Agent was to obtain the zealous and hearty cooperation of the Eajah of Boad. He there- fore pressed the Eajah to come to him ; and accordingly, in the beginning of August, he came in, bringing with him some of his principal people. Kurtivas and another fomenter of rebellion were at the same time brought in under constraint. Captain Macpherson would willingly have used Kurtivas for the attainment of the objects of the Agency, had it been possible to employ him ; but his 262 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIII. treacherous character rendered this very hazardous in it- self, and, moreover, he could not have been employed with- out making enemies of other chiefs much more powerful, and alienating all loyal and respectable men in Boad. What passed on the occasion of the Eajah's visit is thus narrated : 4 1 of course set immediately upon the party collectively, and each individual separately, and in ten or twelve days had them in as satisfactory a state as I could possibly have hoped. I found that the Eajah, as I supposed, had all along desired to fulfil his engagement, but had been utterly powerless to do so against Kurtivas and the Proraj. And I found that he and his people were convinced that the Government meant to tax the Khonds when they should be brought to give up the sacrifice, but that it was by no means absolutely determined upon its suppression ; in fact, that the Eajah and his servants held very nearly the ideas of which they were pledged to disabuse the Khonds. ' I therefore first put Kurtivas under close restraint, and then marched him towards the coast to the high satisfac- tion of all, and put the Proraj into confinement here. 1 Secondly, I gave the Eajah and his people by degrees the convictions I desired them to hold, and gave them a written declaration of the intentions of the Government towards Eajah, Bissyes, 2 and Khonds, which they declared to be all that could be wished for. At this stage of the proceedings a very important event occurred. As I was giving the Eajah his audience of leave, in rushed the Hindu chief and all his Khond chiefs of the great tract of Bulscoopa in Boad, with green branches, 3 to beg for forgiveness, and made their unconditional submission to me. Last spring I pitched my tents in Bulscoopa in Boad, and its principal chiefs were the first to submit, and were always with me in mind, and thence were 1 At Nowgaum in the low country of Goomsur. 2 There were many Hindu Bissyes resident in the hill-tracts of Boad, and also many Hindu Paiks a sort of military colonists, planted in the Hills in old times. 3 i.e. as suppliants. CHAP. XVIII.] GOOD SERVICE OF BOAD EAJAH. 263 treated with infinite hostility by Kurtivas and his con- federates, and now they took the first opportunity to rejoin me. ' On the 20th I sent off the Eajah to the Khond country, hoping strongly that he will be able to fulfil his pledge ; that, in other words, I shall, by God's blessing, be enabled fully to carry out my original policy.' It is satisfactory to know that after this meeting the Eajah and the friendly chiefs acted in such an earnest spirit that before November their party embraced two- thirds of the inhabitants of Boad, In the meantime, however, the Eajah of Ungool upon the Mahanuddee, a potentate of no small importance in native estimation, was at variance with the British autho- rities in Cuttack ; and meditating resistance to them, he had taken advantage of the state of feeling amongst the Khonds of Boad which led to the disturbances in the spring. Through the agency of Chokro Bissye (the nephew of the imprisoned chief Dora Bissye 1 ), and the freebooting chief Bir Khonro (son of JSTobghon Khonro, the chief patriarch of Boad, whose family had been ousted of part of its dignities by a younger branch, and who was ever at work to recover his ancient standing), he contrived, by pulling the wires skilfully, to prevent the restoration of tranquillity in the Hills. In August and September, when the submission of aU the tribes appeared inevitable, these two Khond chiefs, and particularly Bir Khonro, induced a portion of the Khonds of Boad, and those of the one small tract of Lower Bopulmendi of Hodzoghor in Goomsur, to which no measure of coercion had been applied, to make an attack on the tract of Lienpurra, a border district of Goomsur; and repeated that attack several times during the autumn, burning about twenty villages. 1 Chokro Bissye, and the other relatives of Dora Bissye, had taken re- fuge in Ungool after the Goomsur war, and had dwelt there ever since. See above, p. 104. 264 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIII. It was the rainy season ; the climate rendered it im- possible for the Government to afford to its loyal subjects the protection to which they were entitled ; and Captain Macpherson, having put an end to the custom of private war among the Goomsur tribes, did not think it right to permit the Dulbehra of Tentilghor to retaliate these aggres- sions in the usual Khond fashion, by raising the tribes of Goomsur to sweep Boad. He made, however, the best arrangements he could for defence, 1 by sending up a guard of Sebundies, to repel attacks upon Lienpurra, having it in view to give reparation to its people for their losses, and to punish the aggressors judicially, as might be found expedient, after the rainy season should be over, and when the Boad tribes should be brought, like those of Goomsur, under the general authority of the Govern- ment. During this period also he exhausted every means in his power to induce Bir Khonro to submit. With the trifling exception of Lower Bopulmendi, the whole of the Khond tracts of Goomsur were tranquil ; and so fully did they respect the power and appreciate the benevolent policy of the Government, that the aboli- tion movement now culminated in the solemn transfer of their worship from the evil being, the earth-goddess, to the Supreme Beneficence, which they identified with the god of Light. On this subject Captain Macpherson writes as follows : < Russellcondah, 23rd October 1846. ' You see that all the tribes of Goomsur have at last joined in a sacrifice to the god of Light. I trust that you will understand the all-important significance of this fact. You see that a true religious change has been in progress, and is gradually being consummated the blessed change from the service of the evil to that of the good principle. I cannot at all tell you how this fact of the general offering to Boora rejoices us. If it means all 1 See above, p. 193. CHAP. XVIII.] PLAN FOR RECLAIMING BOAD. 265 it appears to mean, it is an infinite reward to me. Then the direction of the change with reference to the hope of the fulness of God's time ! matter of thought more than speech.' * Captain Macpherson's plan for the establishment of the British authority in the hill- tracts of Boad, was that a conciliatory proclamation should be issued, and that he should enter those tracts with an escort of troops sufficient to show that he really had the support of the Government ; while an officer similarly escorted should advance to meet him from Cuttack, and another from the South-west Frontier thus demonstrating to all that the British local authorities were in unison, and not (as the poor Khonds were industriously taught) at variance with each other. The Government approved of this plan, and ordered the escorts for Captain Macpherson, though not those for the officers who were to join him from the other Agencies. The Eajah and his chief advisers (as has been already mentioned) had played their part boldly and well ; the rebel leader Bir Khonro, finding himself unsupported, told his mob that he would leave them to fight their own battles, and they all dispersed to their homes. It needed but the appearance of the Agent and the other officers on the scene at the promised time to ensure universal submission. Unhappily, at the last moment Mr. Bannerman wrote something which induced the officer commanding the Northern Division of the Madras Army to withhold the promised escort, and the Madras Government to sanction their being withheld. What he wrote Captain Macpherson had no means even of guessing, but the long-hoped-for opportunity was lost, and the rebellious party rallied again, being taught 1 See above, p. 216. 266 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XVIII. to believe that if they stood firm they would be retrans- ferred to Cuttack, and would remain untaxed. Bir Khonro's motives were purely political. Neither he nor his father Nowbghon was a sacrificer. Thus thwarted (and informed by the Madras Govern- ment that he could have no escorts before March !), the Agent insisted upon taking three companies, not as es- corts, but as absolutely necessary to keep the peace, and ascended the Ghauts about the end of November, to repair, if possible, the mischief caused by this ill-timed interfer- ence. When the Supreme Government were apprised of his difficulty, they ordered escorts to join him from Cut- tack, distant at least twelve days' march. CHAP. XIX.] ACTION IN BOAD. 267 CHAPTER XIX. SIXTH VISIT TO THE HILLS DISTURBANCES THEIR SUPPRESSION. NOVEMBER 1846 MARCH 1847. CAPTAIN MACPHERSON'S plans for the restoration of order had been frustrated, as has been mentioned in the last preceding chapter, by the denial of his promised escorts in the beginning of November, which prevented him from proceeding at the critical moment to the Khond country, to take advantage, as he had arranged in concert with the Eajah, of the disruption of Bir Khonro's party, pro- duced by the Eajah's appearance in the resisting tracts. He issued the proclamation of the Supreme Govern- ment in the middle of November, offering pardon to all who should submit, but declaring that those who resisted should be punished at the discretion of the Government. On the 30th of November he dispersed Bir Khonro's mob at the village of Nowgaum of Bengrikia, when it was on the point of moving to attack him, and had actually fired upon him. He next distributed the grain-stores of Nowgaum. The chief of the tribe of Bengrikia, and all its people excepting Nagsun Khonro, the devoted partisan of Bir Khonro, and the leader of the parties which had devas- tated Lienpurra then submitted, and every other tribe in Boad made overtures of submission. The Agent then destroyed the grain-stores of Nagsun Khonro, after his 268 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIX. tribe had declared that he and the people of his village, who were his immediate relatives and dependents, had separated himself from the tribe and its interests for his own ends. Neither Captain Macpherson nor any person acting under his directions ever ordered or sanctioned the destruction of a single village in the sacrificing tracts of Boad, or in any part of Boad above the Ghauts ; and during his operations there were destroyed in all those tracts by hostile Khonds, against his will, only two empty villages, containing together about sixty houses, and three small empty hamlets, containing altogether about twelve houses, only two houses being burnt in one hamlet. 1 Upon the 8th of December Chokro Bissye, instigated and supported by the Ungool Rajah, and by the intrigues of Sooriah Narain, headed a rising in the low-country of Goomsur, for the restoration of a Rajah of the Bunje family. The insurgents were the Hindoo Paiks or mili- tary tenants of the low-country, and they rose simul- taneously in those tracts which had remained under the Ganjam Agent, and in those which had recently been made over to the Hill Agency. With them were the Khonds of the adjoining lowland district of Chokapaud. Bir Khonro, 1 The first village destroj-ed was that of Nowgaum of Bengrikia, at which Bir Khonro's mob had rallied for all its attacks upon Lienpurra. Captain Macpherson, when his camp was pitched there, thrice extinguished the flames in the village, when fired by its Khond enemies. It was burnt when he left it. The second village destroyed was the empty village of Nagsun Khonro j it was fired in spite of the orders of the Agent's two Assistants. The three small empty hamlets which were burnt by the Khonds were all entirely out of the protection of his camp. When the vast amount of loss and suffering savagely inflicted by the Boad tribes upon the people of Tentilghor is remembered, the all but perfect abstinence of the latter from retaliation, and in reliance upon the final justice of the Government, when the whole country was in their power, was a fact in the highest degree creditable to them. Captain Macpherson authorised the use of the materials of the village of Dirbi Pudhan for firewood when the cowardly murder of some of his unarmed camp-followers by that chief made it necessary that the rest should not, if possible, go to the forest for fuel. CHAP. XIX.] RISING IN GOOMSUR LOW-COUNTRY. 269 similarly instigated and supported, was enabled to renew the resistance in Boad. Captain Macpherson arrested Bir Khonro, finally paralysing his party in the resisting Khond tracts, and frustrating to a great extent the plans of Chokro Bissye. There were now to be carried out, simultaneously, two sets of measures for completing the work of the suppression of the sacrifice in Boad, and for quelling the insurrection in Goomsur below the Ghauts. The Rajah, his family, and all the chiefs of Boad excepting the immediate partisans of Nobghon Khonro on the Mahanuddee, and in the half of the group of resisting tribes which Captain Macpherson did not visit, were one with the Government. The victims, in the tracts under their influence, were restored. That body of chiefs had entire confidence that the measures of the Government would be carried out in the terms of its proclamation, and cooperated so earnestly that nearly all the heads of the tribes which had not submitted were pledged or prepared to submit upon the Agent's visiting them. That officer considered it to be certain that when Chokro Bissye should be put down in Goomsur, and one of his own Assistants (who had gone to the low-country) should appear above the Ghauts to co-operate with him, all would submit without a blow ; and that when the Ungool Rajah, the prime source of mischief, should be compelled by the Cuttack authorities to abandon his support of ISIobghon Khonro, every object would be permanently secured. Not doubting that the Agent in Ganjam would cooperate with him by directing the troops at his disposal to act against the insurgents within his jurisdiction, Captain Macpherson felt confi- dent that the disturbances in Goomsur must be very soon put down, and that Chokro Bissye must be ex- pelled ; and he resolved, with the full concurrence of the chiefs, to await that event before moving into the tracts of Boad which had not submitted, labouring in the 270 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIX. meantime to confirm and extend the growing circle of his connections, and repelling (but not following up by the destruction of the property and villages of their tribes) the feeble attacks of the mobs of Khonds which on several occasions appeared before his camp. In the end of January Mr. Cadenhead, having put down the insurrection in the Paik tracts of the Hill Agency, and broken it in Chokapaud, returned above the Ghauts to hunt out Chokro Bissye, and to co-operate with Captain Macpherson. The completion of Captain Macpherson's plan was now certain, so far as the success of his measures could secure it ; but from the Agent in Ganjam not having thought fit to direct the action of troops against the insurgents in his jurisdiction, Chokro Bissye found there safe rallying-ground, and the insurrec- tion broke out afresh in a portion of the low-country. It was necessary to despatch an Assistant (Lieutenant Pinkney, a young officer of great promise) immediately to meet that outbreak, and, soon after, the attitude which Nobghon Khonro was enabled by the Ungool Eajah to assume on the Mahanuddee made it expedient to send Mr. Cadenhead with a force to deal definitively with him. Captain Macpherson maintained his course unchanged towards the moiety of the Boad tribes which had not submitted, except that he moved into Sangrimendi, and, without a blow, gained that great tribe thoroughly with the exception of a very few recusant individuals in one section. On the 1st of March he left Captain Haughton 1 (the officer who had been deputed from the South-west Frontier, and who rendered most valuable assistance) to bring in those persons, and to maintain his relations with the tribes around. To return to the insurrection 2 which took place below 1 Now Colonel Haughton, Commissioner of Cooch Behar, and in charge of our political relations with the Bhooteahs. 2 The insurrection broke out simultaneously in two Mootahs of the Hill Agency and in three Mootahs of the Ganjam Agency. The insurgents (with the exception of the Khonds of Chok^paud, who had fully abandoned CHAP. XIX.] CAUSES OF THE RISING. 271 the Ghauts in December. Within ten or twelve days, the insurgents burnt all the villages in four Mootahs, and half of the villages in a fifth Mootah, committing every species of outrage and excess, and the movement and the de- vastation were rapidly extending to the whole country. Mr. Cadenhead to whom, aided by Mr. Pinkney, the task of dealing with the insurrection was confided 1 had at first but about a single company at his disposal, besides human sacrifice) were Hindoos : such of them as belonged to Captain Macpherson's Agency had passed under his authority about eight months before, and there had never been the slightest question or dispute between them arid the Hill Agency. It is a remarkable fact that General Campbell has omitted to mention that any disturbances took place in Mr. Bannerman's Agency. 1 The following extracts from Mr. Cadenhead's letters to Captain Mac- pherson will show how matters stood : ' 17th December 1846. There can be no doubt that these dis- turbances are caused by the Sumasthanum Paiks and their relatives by, in fact, that part of the population of the country accustomed to bear arms. Their leader is, as we supposed, Chokro Bissye, who is said to be attended by a party of forty Paiks from Ungool. He is also said to have with him a relative of the Rajah of Ungool, whom he passes off as a son of the Rajah of Goomsur, on whom he has bound the sari of Rajah, and he and his partisans call on all those who have ever ate the ssC.t of the Bunjes to join in their movement I do not anticipate that you will be able to make any progress until this business is put down. I shall be glad if you can hold your ground in Boad till then with a company and D.'s and H.'s escorts. I think all the rest of the troops ought to be sent to meet the diffi- culty here. After it shall be overcome, the Boad work will fall into your hands like a ripe pear. It is hopeless attempting anything against the in- cendiaries with the force now with me. I shall be very thankful if I can prevent further destruction in this quarter, and in the Mootahs still un- touched/ < Nowgaum, 21st December 1846. My policy, since I saw how matters really stand, has been to attempt to limit the destruction and confine the outbreak within as narrow limits as possible, until I can obtain the means of acting against it with energy and effect Besides Belgoonta, I think my presence here has certainly saved all the villages in this immediate neighbourhood, if not Nowgaum itself and Kodinda. * 22nd December 1846. The armed population has never given up hope of seeing the Raj restored to the Bunjes [see above, p. 229], and the Sirdars have longed for this restoration as the means of increasing their importance. The fixed restrictive rule of the Government is necessarily ex- tremely burdensome to a race accustomed to the fast-and-loose adminis- tration of a native authority which they themselves swayed, and they have desired the restoration of that authority as the means of regaining their law- less freedom.' 272 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. XIX. a few guards posted in the principal villages. He re- pelled a large body of insurgents in a night-attack upon a rich trading village, dispersed them a few days after at two jungle retreats, induced a chief of importance to return to obedience, and to assist him zealously with all his partisans, and by a series of able and successful measures he completely quashed the outbreak within the Paik Mootahs of the Hill Agency before January 10. Three or four of the insurgents fell in the night-attack, two fell on either side at one of the jungle retreats : this was the whole loss of life and of property inflicted in arresting a movement which, had it not been then checked, must have immediately involved at least the whole of Goomsur. Mr. Cadenhead then proceeded to reduce Chokapaud, whence Chokro Bissye had been already driven by an officer deputed from Cuttack. Chokapaud was the con- necting link between the Paik or military Mootahs of both the Hill Agency and the Ganjam Agency, and the Khond tracts of Goomsur and of Boad above the Ghauts. The insurgents had just acquired the highest confidence, from a small portion of them having been enabled with impunity to strip a company of Sepoys of its whole bag- gage, inflicting upon it some loss in men. The attention of all who were still in resistance, or who tended to resist in either Agency, was riveted upon the course and the fortunes of this tract, and everything depended upon its subjection. It was impossible to get at the insurgents, personally, in the forests of their most difficult country. The course therefore was adopted which has been usually adopted under similar circum- stances throughout the world viz., that of acting against the resources of the insurgents, destroying their grain, seizing their cattle, and burning their villages, as the necessity of each case dictated. By the destruction of five or six villages and eight hamlets, containing about 150 houses in all, and of a quantity of grain, the in- CHAP. XIX.] INSURGENTS RALLY IN G AN JAM. 273 surrection was completely broken by the 24th of January. Several chiefs came in, and many of the rest made over- tures of submission. During the progress of these aggres- sive measures full pardon on a return to obedience was offered to all, save a few leaders and murderers. As soon as the resistance ceased and a distinct tendency to sub- mission was established, those measures ceased ; and Mr. Cadenhead moved above the Ghauts into the Khond country of Boad on the 25th of January, in pursuit of Chokro Bissye, and to co-operate, as already mentioned, with Captain Macpherson. Mr. Bannerman's inaction at that critical moment when the movement of a single company of the troops at his disposal, in concert with those under the Hill Agency, by removing the prevalent belief of the antagonism of the two authorities in Goomsur, would have sufficed to put an end to the rebellion enabled Chokro Bissye to find in the Ganjam Agency a safe rallying-ground for his partisans, and the insurrection was partially renewed in the districts under the Hill Agency 1 about the 25th of January. A strong reinforcement being expected to arrive soon, Mr. Pinkney was deputed, with three companies at his disposal, to repress that outbreak. About the 10th of February troops were moved into the disturbed tract of the Ganjam Agency, who dispersed the insurgents there in their jungle retreats, and then helped the troops in the Hill Agency to expel them from Goomsur. A number of jungle retreats and grain-stores were destroyed, and a herd of cattle was captured. In the beginning of March the troops were enabled to act at the same moment within both Agencies, and the insurgents lost all hope. Chokro Bissye fled above the Ghauts on or about the 10th or 12th of March. Captain Macpherson directed, on the latter date, the sus- 1 1. e. in the lowland Hindu districts ; not in Chokapaud. T 274 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIX. pension of aggressive measures, and on the 16th proclaimed an amnesty to all save the principal leaders of the insur- rection and principals in murders. Upon the 18th his action was arrested under circumstances to be mentioned below ; but the result of his measures in the low-country of Goomsur was the return of the whole population of the disturbed Paik tracts in the Hill Agency to their villages excepting a few families, the devoted partisans of Chokro Bissye. In the Goomsur hill- country the people of the one tract of Lower Bopulmendi, who had largely partaken with Bir Khonro's mob in the plunder of their own tribe, were punished, upon the express requisition of the chiefs of Goomsur and the friendly chiefs of Boad, by their grain-stores being given to the men of Tentilghor, whose country ,they had wasted. Their enemies burnt some of their deserted villages. All, with the exception of the principal chief, immediately submitted. Nobghon Khonro, in January 1847, with aid from Ungool, plundered and burnt one or two villages of the domain-lands of Boad, blockaded the Podentilla Pass, the great highway for traffic and for pilgrims from the west, and besides closed the Mahanuddee river, plundering and murdering merchants and other travellers. The Khonds of the only tribe above the Ghauts which was distinctly in the interest of Nobghon Khonro at the same time blockaded the Ghauts between the low country of Boad and the Khond table-land, murdering several of the Bajah's Paiks. Captain Macpherson therefore, upon the 9th of February when the state of things in Boad above the Ghauts first enabled him to dispense with Mr. Cadenhead's services there, and when the expected arrival of the 18th Eegiment was about to place the necessary force at his disposal- instructed Mr. Cadenhead to proceed to the scene of dis- turbances, to endeavour by every peaceful means to CHAP. XIX.J SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 275 re-establish order, and induce ISTobghon Khonro and his partisans to return to obedience ; and if peaceful mea- sures should prove ineffectual, to employ force. The confidence of Nobghon Khonro and his partisans, based on the support of bodies of men from Ungool (for the Cuttack authorities had not succeeded in arrest- ing the -hostile action of its Eajah) was so distinct and determined, that Mr. Cadenhead found it absolutely essen- tial to the accomplishment of the objects entrusted to him to destroy two hill-fastnesses of Nobghon Khonro, along with seven other villages, and some of the grain of those of his partisans who had been immediately im- plicated in the outrages perpetrated and in attacks upon the troops. The result was that a large portion of the population, including several of Nobghori Khonro's personal adherents, immediately submitted ; that Nobghon Khonro and those who still remained with him protested their desire to throw themselves on the mercy of the Government, and sent messengers to arrange for their submission ; while the Ungool Eajah no longer dared to afford them re- fuge. Such was the general outline (to state the details would be useless) of the distinct but closely-related sets of measures which the Agency carried out simulta- neously for completing the suppression of the sacrifice in Boad, for putting down the insurrection for the re- storation of a Eajah in Goomsur, and for putting down the disturbances which the Ungool Eajah enabled Nob- ghon Khonro to raise on the Mahanuddee and these the general results of those measures. Captain Macpherson, it will be observed, continued to employ the mildest means alone where conciliation was possible and permissible ; but he felt also (as he him- self expressed it) that ' to trifle with distinct rebellion is to inflict a most cruel and unjustifiable wrong alike T 2 276 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XIX. upon the loyal and the rebellious that it would be the height of folly and of inhumanity to hesitate to reduce, by the destruction of their property, intangible bands of plundering, burning, murdering ruffians, whose lives and property were forfeited to the law.' CHAP. XX.] THE AGENCY DISMISSED. 277 CHAPTEE XX. DISMISSAL AND VINDICATION OF THE HILL AGENCY RETURN TO GREAT BRITAIN. CAPTAIN MACPHERSON came down the Ghauts early in March, as has been already mentioned, for the purpose of meeting a Brigadier-General, who had been appointed to the command of the Northern Division of the Madras Army, and who had been instructed to repair to the scene of the disturbances, to co-operate with Captain Macpherson in restoring tranquillity if he should find things tending to pacification, but to assume civil as well as military charge of the Agency if he should find the contrary to be the case. Since these instructions were issued, reinforcements had arrived; the troops had at length been permitted to act against the rebels in the Mootahs under the Ganjam Agency, at the same time that they were acting against the rebels in Captain Macpherson's Mootahs ; resistance was at an end, and Chokro Bissye was a desperate fugi- tive in the Khond country, whence a few days' action of a couple of companies would have driven him for ever, and the whole country above and below the Ghauts would have been at peace. The Brigadier-General, after an interview with Mr. Ban- nerman, took as his interpreter and active agent that same Sooriah Narain whose mischievous intrigues have been spoken of above, whom the Ganjam Agent himself had dismissed from the office of Tahsildar of Goomsur, and 278 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XX. who had been twice indicated officially by Captain Macpherson to the Government as one of the chief pro- moters of the rebellion. After the lapse of a few days the Brigadier-General reported to the Government in the strongest terms against all the measures of the Hill Agency declaring (in the words of Captain Macpherson) ' that the war had not been against the Government but against my Agency, that I could never pacificate the country, and that he should have full powers to settle matters in his own way. The Government let him take it, without asking me one question.' He assumed charge : Captain Macpherson and his assistants were required im- mediately to withdraw beyond the limits of the Agency, while his native servants were not only removed beyond those limits, but were summarily discharged from the public service in a body. The Government (i. e. Sir T. H. Maddock) then ap- prised Captain Macpherson of the General's accusations, and informed him that his removal being deemed ' a measure necessary for the restoration of tranquillity,' Colonel Campbell 1 had been appointed to succeed him, and that the Government would record its opinion on his conduct after it had received his explanations. Captain Macpherson immediately demanded an inquiry, and the Government of India, at the close of a protracted inves- tigation, expressed its regret that it had acted in the manner just mentioned, declaring the accusations un- founded, and adopting the opinion of the officer who had conducted the inquiry, that ' the general characteristic of Captain Macpherson's administration was that of mild- ness,' that ' no reason existed for fancying that the feelings of the people towards the Agency would have interfered with the return of the country to permanent tranquillity under them,' and that some parts of the policy adopted after their removal had been attended with lamentable 1 The officer who has been already referred to; now Major-Gen eral Campbell CHAP. XX.] VINDICATION OF THE AGENCY. 279 consequences to life and property. 1 It would have been, therefore, unnecessary to dwell upon these events, but for the conduct of General Campbell, who thought fit, in the year succeeding that of Major Macpherson's death, to re- produce these accusations and to assert their truth, 2 with- out even alluding to the inquiry or its results ! 3 As these charges in no way concerned General Campbell or his ser- vices, their gratuitous revival by him so many years after the Government had pronounced an honourable acquittal, and so immediately after Major Macpherson had been re- moved by death, bespeaks a feeling which is rare indeed among British officers. The charges were met on the instant, and have been finally disposed of as regards the officer who originally made them. But so far as General Campbell has set them forth in his book, they shall be met, as his charges, by a statement of the decision pronounced upon them, and also of some remarkable circumstances connected with the inquiry. The reader will find them in the Appendix. 4 The Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie (who had ar- rived in India during the investigation), as soon as the decision of his Government was pronounced, 5 sent for Captain Macpherson ; and after saying that he was sensi- ble that nothing could ever compensate for the treat- ment which he had undergone, assured him, on behalf of every member of the Government, that to mark their undiminished confidence in him he should be appointed to a suitable office in the Political Department as soon as his" health (then entirely broken, and requiring his imme- diate return to Europe) would enable him to accept it. 1 Resolution of October 7th, 1848. 2 ( Narrative,' &c. It is true that General Campbell has not reprinted the charges in his ' Personal Narrative ' of 1864, but he has not withdrawn nor in any way qualified them. 3 See Appendix F. 4 See Appendix E. 5 In October 1848. 280 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XX. Such had been the scale of Mr. Grant's inquiries that his final reports were not sent in before the autumn of 1848, and the Eesolutions of the Governor-General in Council were not passed till October of that year. Cap- tain Macpherson and his Assistants were dismissed in March 1847 : they had therefore consumed a year and a half in attending (so far as they were permitted to attend) an inquiry into charges which ought never to have been made ; and they had endured the vexation of having those charges hanging over them the whole time, to say nothing of the enormous pecuniary loss which they all sustained for they had not been suspended from office, as is usual during inquiry, but had been summarily re- moved. In 1846, Captain Macpherson had barely got through the unhealthy season with life. The campaign in the cold weather had been rendered an anxious one by cir- cumstances for which he was not responsible, and which it was quite out of his power to anticipate ; and before the Government at Calcutta pronounced its opinion, in October 1848, his constitution was completely under- mined by continued attacks of fever. He therefore re- paired to England to recruit his health, and, though even there he suffered from the constant recurrence of fever, yet he gradually became stronger. The relief af- forded to mind and body by this happy interval of free- dom, which enabled him to revisit his family and the friends of his youth, and to wander over his own and other countries, exercising his faculty of kindly observation this and the salutary influence of climate slowly and gra- dually overcame, to a considerable extent, the action of the Goomsur malaria, which had sunk deep into his system, and his nerves were braced for another struggle. But it was not to come yet. It may be here fitly mentioned that when he was in the hotel at Cairo, on his way home, a gentleman hearing him addressed by his name came up, and, introducing CHAP. XX.] RETURN TO ENGLAND. 281 himself as Colonel Outram, desired his acquaintance, 4 having long watched his career,' he said, ' with the deepest interest and admiration.' The acquaintance of two such men naturally and rapidly became a close and intimate friendship. The Court of Directors, on the 25th September, 1850, minutely reviewed the Resolutions of the Indian Govern- ment on Mr. Grant's report, and pronounced a decision not less favourable to Captain Macpherson and his Agency than was contained in those Resolutions. The first hours of returning health were devoted by Captain Macpherson to remodelling his account of the Khond religion, and recording with the greatest pre- cision the results of the inquiries which had so long been prosecuted by himself and by Mr. Cadenhead ; for he felt that without a knowledge of the motives which induced the Khonds to sacrifice, it would always be impossible to address to them reasons which they could understand for relinquishing the rite. The paper, when completed, was communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society of London. 1 During the inquiries and discussions of 1850-53 on Indian affairs, Captain Macpherson's services were men- tioned with high commendation in various quarters, and in particular by Mr. Kaye, the eminent historical writer, whose favourable judgment was pronounced, as that of Dr. Duff had been, not from any previous friendship, but simply upon an examination of all that he and others had done in relation to the Khonds. Mr. Kaye, after a spirited outline of the manner in which the great change was effected, adds : ' The good work is going on, under diminished difficul- ties, towards a prosperous conclusion. It was obviously, indeed, a work of which the beginning may almost be said to be also the middle and the end.' 2 1 See above, Chapter VI. 2 History of the Administration of the East India Company London. 1853. 282 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XX. And the Court of Directors finally, in enumerating the good deeds of their administration of India, mentioned no other name than Major Macpherson's in connection with the Khond race, as will appear from the following extracts from a ' Memorandum 1 (prepared at the India House) of the Improvement of the Administration of India during the last Thirty Years:' ' Among the barbarous tribes who occupy the hill- tracts of Orissa, on the south-west frontier of Bengal, human sacrifices prevailed until a very recent period. By a well-devised and judicious series of conciliatory mea- sures, worthy of a more lengthened record than can be given in this place, the extinction of this enormity has been effected.' 2 * * * ' There still remain to be commemorated a set of pro- ceedings, among the most interesting and the most honourable to our Government which have distinguished the present century the measures for raising and civilis- ing the oppressed races. ' The first person who is known to have tried the effect of justice and conciliation on any of these tribes was Mr. Cleveland.' [The paper goes on to mention the benevolent exer- tions of Mr. Cleveland among the people of the Bhau- gulpore Hills, those of Colonels Hall and Dixon in Aj- mere, and of Sir J. P. Willoughby, Colonel Ovans, and Sir James Outram among the Bheels ; after which it proceeds in the following terms : ] 'Another example is that of the Khonds in Orissa, among whom a policy of the same general character was carried into practice by Major Macpherson. This was the tribe who, as mentioned in a previous part of the present paper, have been induced to abolish human sacrifices. ' The mode in which these objects were accomplished 1 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 12th February, 1858. 2 Page 18. CHAP. XX.] RECOGNITION OF SERVICES. 283 was in all cases fundamentally the same ; they were effected by the admirable power of individual character.' 1 Nothing could be more true. In the instance before us the effect was produced by bold reasoning and ready action, based on the closest observation ; by the hand ever open and liberal, and the heart overflowing with sympathy and kindness by unflinching perseverance under extra- ordinary difficulties. Thus it was that the Khonds of Goomsur were reclaimed ; and such an impression was produced on those of Boad, that, so far as could be learnt, no sacrifice took place while Captain Macpherson con- tinued in office. 1 Page 34. 284 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXI. CHAPTEE XXI. ME. CADENHEAD AND MAJOR PINKNEY. No better illustration of the character of Captain Mac- pherson's Khond Agency can be given than that which is afforded by the course of his subsequent service, and that of his two colleagues in the Agency, whom he had selected for political employment and had initiated in political business, and who were included with him in those hasty accusations which General Campbell has deliberately revived, in the punishment without inquiry, and also in the ultimate vindication. The Government of India had pronounced Mr. Caden- head's services to have been 4 valuable and highly meri- torious throughout,' and had declared that nothing had been found to say of him or of Mr. Pinkney save in their praise. And it proceeded to mark its sense of the injustice which had been done them, by reappointing them to political office. Eegarding Mr. Cadenhead, Mr. Commissioner Grant had written thus : ' During the whole of this period of three months and a half, from the first outbreak in Gullery, he was con- stantly, in good health or in bad health, scouring these unwholesome jungles and hills, accompanying the troops in all their movements, and present with them in every action ; and my opinion of these proceedings is, that they were conducted with rare spirit and energy, and with great skill, and that they reflect great credit on the con- ductor of them.' CHAP. XXI.] MR. CADENHEAD'S SERVICES. 285 All this was true : and yet the most valuable part of Mr. Cadenhead's services did not come -under Mr. Grant's notice his skill and tact in managing the Khonds during Captain Macpherson's absence, his hearty co-operation with him when they were together, the ability with which he discharged the arduous civil duties which had been suddenly thrust upon him, the candid and enlightened spirit in which he dealt with the strange questions that were ever and anon presenting themselves among those wild people, the industry and scholarlike penetration with which under many distractions he persevered in ac- quiring their language, and the genuine kindness with which he strove in every way to promote their welfare. Upon the close of the Commissioner's inquiry, Mr. Caden- head was appointed one of the Principal Assistants to the Governor-General's Agent for the South-west Frontier. But it is easier to do injustice than to repair it, and his new post was far inferior in emolument though equal in rank to that of which he had been deprived. Here, however, he cheerfully laboured thinking little of him- self and his family and consumed the three short years that remained to him of life in works of duty and benefi- cence. He was sent, in the first place, to the station of Chyebassa in Singbhoom. His official superior, the Go- vernor-General's Agent, resided at a great distance ; and Mr. Cadenhead's duties were to administer justice, civil and criminal, to maintain the peace, and to superintend the revenue in short, to exercise all the functions of Government. Singbhoom is a range of slightly elevated undulating land lying between the 21st and 23rd degrees of North latitude and the 85th and 86th degrees of East longitude. Of its population of 331,000, at least 90,000 are Lurka Koles, a wild aboriginal race, whose love of ' harrying the loons of the low-country' brought them into collision with the British Government, which finally took them under its protection in 1837. Previous to that time the Koles 286 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXI. were practically independent, although nominally subject to the neighbouring Zemindars. Their organisation was purely tribal, and had all the defects incidental to that system. The chiefs were without any direct power, and with little influence except in accordance with the whims and will of their tribes. Each tribe being wholly inde- pendent, there was no power to arbitrate between them, except that of the Hindu Zemindars, whose policy usually led them to foster strife. The quarrels of tribes almost necessarily *led to bloody contentions, which only termi- nated when the losses of one or both compelled a tempo- rary cessation of hostilities. Although the independent Kole tribes could unite so as to resist an open attack on the part of the Hindu chiefs to reduce them to subjection, they were incapable of evading that gradual and imperceptible reduction, which was the certain and indirect result of the policy of the Kajahs, and they were in the course of being entirely superseded by the Hindoos ; the number of independent tribes was rapidly diminishing, their chiefs formed an armed class of some estimation in the Zemindaries, holding their lands on something like a feudal tenure, while the mass of the population were reduced to a servile condi- tion. British intervention to some extent stopped this. The policy of the enlightened officer 1 who assumed charge of the country was, to enlarge the influence of the Kole chiefs, to elevate them into distinct and substantive powers by holding out to them the hope of becoming district and village heads of police, whilst he gave the people a chance of maintaining their individuality as peaceful cultivators of the soil. Of course it required long years of patient administration thoroughly to effect such a change. Although a kindred race to the Khonds, the Koles do not sacrifice human beings ; they offer up to their local divinities buffaloes, goats, pigs, fowls, &c., on occasions of 1 Colonel Wilkinson. CHAP. XXL] HABITS OF THE KOLES. 287 rejoicing and sorrow. They have (like other very back- ward races) neither idols nor temples. They burn their dead in the yards of their houses, and, placing the bones in an earthen pot, bury them with rice, money, ornaments, clothes, &c., underneath a heavy stone in the village ceme- tery. A commemorative stone is likewise fixed upright on the outskirts of the village, or in some old frequented spot. A specimen of their composition is subjoined : INVOCATION TO THE DEAD. 1 We never scolded you, never wronged you. Come to us back. We ever loved and cherished you, and lived long together under the same roof. Desert it not now ! The rainy nights, and the cold-blowing days, are coming on. Do not wander here. Do not stand by the burnt ashes. Come to us again ! You cannot find shelter under the peepul, when the rain comes down. The soul will not shield you from the cold bitter wind. Come to your home ! It is swept for you and clean ; and we are there who loved you ever ; and there is rice put for you ; and water. Come home, come home, come to us again ! The streams, 2 which are rapid, wash down gold, much of which is lost, owing to the ignorance of the Koles ; the iron and copper ores are said to be excellent, and coal has been discovered near the Ebe Eiver. The tusser- worm is reared in all the jungles spread over the district, and the cocoons are bartered with the Hindoos for trinkets. Massive forests of saul cover the western boundary ; bam- boos clothe the hills, 3 and rattans grow in the marshes. Jaspers, green-stone, quartz, and pebbles are found in the beds of the rivers. Corundum is abundant. Nor are antiquities wanting. Indeed, on this head there are won- derful stories current one of them tells of an immense 1 Translated from the Kole by Captain (now Colonel) Tickell, Bengal Army. Colonel Tickell's interesting sketch of the Koles has, with other sources of information, been consulted in framing these pages. 2 The River Bunnye, between Singbhoom and Sonepore, is said to dis- appear underground, like- the Mole in this country, and then to join the Kolekaro. 3 The ranges of hills in Singbhoom are not above 1,000 feet high, and consist mainly of quartz, but some are of granite. 288 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXI. circle of forty temples, standing two miles apart from each other, buried in an impenetrable forest. The Kole villages are built, in open spots, each house in its own garden, in which maize or tobacco is cultivated. Those of the chiefs are large and substantial, formed in the shape of a square, in the centre of which is invariably a pigeon-house. Intoxication is the great foible of the Koles. Their favourite beverage (eely) is manufactured from rice, and from the mowa-berry a strong spirit is distilled. On cool evenings they assemble beneath the shade of the tamarind-trees in the village cemetery, or else before their doors, where they indulge in singing and dancing. The men and musicians are placed in the centre of a circle of girls, and the latter, with their arms locked round each other, glide backwards and forwards in perfect time, going slowly round the men in the middle. The Koles, like other mountaineers, have a consider- able sense of personal dignity. Mr. Cadenhead was amused, on arriving among them, to observe the sort of ' How d'ye do, my good fellow ? ' air with which a naked Kole waved his hand to him by way of salutation. Among these people Mr. Cadenhead laboured inces- santly for a year, clearing off the enormous arrears of busi- ness which he found awaiting him, observing the people with a kindly and sagacious eye, and doing what he could for their improvement. Mr. J. H. Crawford, late of the Bengal Civil Service, the very able officer who presided over the district, has favoured the Editor of these Memorials with his recollec- tion of Mr. Cadenhead's services : ' My official association with Mr. Cadenhead was in the political districts of the South-west Frontier Agency, one of the wildest quarters of the Bengal Presidency. I was appointed Governor-General^ Agent in June 1849, when he was in charge of the Principal Assistant's Office in Singbhoom, a division of the Agency which comprised the country of the Lurka Koles and the estates of a few CHAP. XXL] ADMINISTRATION OF SUMBHULPORE. 289 tributary chiefs. There I found him, when I visited the district in November, actively engaged not only in ad- ministering justice and collecting the revenue, but also in" encouraging education and other means of civilising the wild people under his care. 4 But a wider field of usefulness was opening to him. By the death, without heir, of the old Eajah of Sum- bhulpore, that fine rich district, in the southern quarter of the Agency, had lapsed to the British Government in August, and Cadenhead had been selected to fill the office of Principal Assistant there, and substitute for native misrule a regular system of administration, after annexation had been effected. 1 Happily, the difficulties in the establishment of the British rule, anticipated by the Government, had been obviated ; and in January I was able to leave Cadenhead, who had marched down with me from Singbhoom to Sumbhulpore, in charge of the latter district, with a fair field for the exercise of those qualities which peculiarly fitted him for the duty with which he was entrusted. His success was complete. In a few weeks conciliatory treatment of them com- bined with firmness had won over to him those petty chiefs and subordinate adherents of the old Rajah who had threatened to give trouble. At the same time, by patient assiduity and intelligence, he introduced an effective form of civil and criminal judicature, embracing the cherished native system of Punchayets, or courts of arbitration, as well as an organised system of revenue collections, free from the old oppressive transit-dues and other traditionary imposts. 2 Thus, by the breadth of his views, and the liberality of his judgment, were the useful 1 The country had been devastated by the Mahrattas in 1819, and had subsequently been ill governed. The last Rajah, who was a comparatively respectable man, received one-eighth part of the profits which the dacoits or gang-robbers realised by the exercise of their professional skill. 2 Mr. Cadenhead drew up, amongst other valuable papers, an elaborate account (which, it is to be hoped, still exists) of the gold-washers of the Mahanuddee and their business. U 290 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXI. features of native administration adopted, and those of an opposite tendency discarded. At his instance the estab- lishment of schools followed in due course, together with dispensaries and other institutions contributing to the moral and physical benefit of those, around him; and within a year and a half, the territory, which had been a point of difficulty to the Government, became, through the energy of one of its servants, a centre of comparative strength. Unhappily, however, the notorious unhealthiness of the locality at certain seasons remained, and he who had done so much for its improvement in other respects was among the first to suffer from that circumstance. In a short visit to the interior of his district, in October 1851, Mr. Cadenhead contracted an illness which in a few days terminated his valuable life. ' Hurried and imperfect as is this sketch of his career under my observation, I feel sure that it justifies the opinion I have always entertained, that the Indian Govern- ment has seldom been served more efficiently, and never more devotedly, than by our lamented friend.' In truth, under the modest designation of a Principal Assistant, Mr. Cadenhead had discharged a most difficult political duty with distinguished success. Unfortunately, because he was a medical man, the Government deemed it a piece of justifiable frugality to leave Sumbhulpore without the usual medical aid, or he might, perhaps, have lived for many years, adding largely to his titles to public estimation, and receiving, in the end, advancement suited to his merits. The Government paid a graceful compli- ment to his memory, by maintaining a school which he had established. 1 1 Mr. Kaye states, in his work on the administration of the East India Company, that Mr. Cadenhead, ' by his unceasing devotion to the interests of the people, alike in the laws of public and of private duty, gained in an extraordinary degree their confidence and affection. Amongst his works of private benevolence may be noticed the institution of a school, which opened in April 1850 with seven pupils, who soon increased to sixty, in- cluding youths of the highest families in the district. The system of tuition CHAP. XXI.] CAREER OF MAJOR PINXNEY. 291 With regard to Lieutenant, afterwards Major, Pinkney, Mr. Grant had reported ' that his whole conduct dis- played intelligence, energy, and zeal, with aptitude and a degree of discretion remarkable in a young officer without previous experience in civil employment ; that the opera- tions in which he was concerned were judicious, necessary, and successful, and that his conduct was strongly marked with humanity.' Mr. Pinkney, after a short service in Arracan> was transferred, in 1849, to the Saugor and Nerbudda Com- mission, which administered the affairs of a large province of Central India. In this new territory he laboured, as he had done in Goomsur, with great intelligence and with steadfast zeal and singleness of purpose. He gradually rose to the important office of Commissioner of Jhansi, and his abilities were conspicuously displayed, to the great advantage of the public service, in the days of the Revolt. He was among those who received the Companionship of the Bath for their exertions upon that occasion. He has since died, leaving behind him the reputation of a soldier of brilliant courage, an excellent political officer, and an honest and upright man. was that of Dr. Duff of Calcutta. On Mr. Cadenhead's death the inhabi- tants of Sumbhulpore petitioned the Government to maintain the school. The Commissioner warmly seconded their petition, " not only for the direct good which would accrue from the permanent establishment of the school under Government patronage, but as a monument of the active and charac- teristic benevolence of the founder." The Government immediately appor- tioned the sum of 240 per annum for its effectual maintenance.' u 2 292 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. CHAPTEE XXII. RETURN- TO INDIA BENARES BHOPAL GWALIOR . 18531857. IMMEDIATELY upon Captain Macpherson's return to India, in August 1853, Lord Dalhousie bestowed on him the office of Governor-General's Agent at Benares, a post of little importance, but the only one then at his Lordship's disposal which Captain Macpherson would have cared to fill. Before he had passed many weeks at Benares, Lord Dalhousie wrote : ' Adverting to your very intelligible desire for more active employment than that which you now hold, I am happy to have it in my power to offer you the Political 1 Agency of Bhopal, which is now vacant. It is a very satisfactory little State, and will give you 1,500 rupees a month, which is an improvement.' The offer was at once accepted, although it was not entirely without regret that Captain Macpherson prepared to leave the ' holy city ' of the Hindoos, in which he had begun to interest himself, and where he had recently seen a great variety of people, who came to be introduced to Mr. Colvin, the new Lieutenant-Go vernor of the North- west Provinces. ' These attenuated shadows' (he writes) 'of the regality of Delhi these strong, noble, robust, and workmanlike Sikh chiefs, 2 whom my heart takes in straight ; then the 1 i.e. Diplomatic. 2 A number of chiefs or members of families which had been in rebellion CHAP. XXII. ] APPOINTMENT TO BHOPAL. 293 shroffs, merchant zemindars, and bankers of 400 years' standing, and insurance companies of Benares the very essence, pride, and heart of Gangetic commerce, or rather half-heart, Mirzapore holding the other ventricle ; then also its Punditdom, in full strength yet : all this has passed before me most curiously in these eight days ; and it would be matter of infinite interest to me to look into all classes distinctly.' On his way to Bhopal he paid a visit to Colonel (after- wards Sir William) Sleeman, Resident at Lucknow, an officer who regarded the people of India with the largest sympathy who was, like Outram, master of the whole science of their social organisation, and had con- sequently swayed their minds most successfully. Colonel Sleeman, though not personally acquainted with Captain Macpherson, had long been familiar with his work among the Khonds, 1 and had not failed to seize its peculiar traits. c The Goomsur work,' he said, ' was not like other Indian district works, a work of administration, but one of policy, civil and religious, and there was not any- thing like it.' Captain Macpherson's impressions of Bhopal, from first to last, were agreeable : ' Sehore, Bhopal, 8th February 1854. ' I got here on the 1st of this month, and what I have seen of this country quite comes up to my expectations. First, in the way of people, I think we are lucky. Then I have a capital large bungalow 2 of twelve good rooms, in a pretty little park about a mile in breadth and three- quarters of a mile in length. A small river flows through it, which is caught by a dam and made a very pretty piece lived under surveillance near Benares, and it was part of the duty of the Agent to manage their relations with the Government. 1 Colonel Sleeman had written thus of him to Colonel Outram : ' I honour his character, and am delighted to find that Lord Dalhousie has sent him to Benares. He, too ; was thwarted by those who ought most to have sup- ported him.' 2 Thatched house. 294 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. of water, and the clumps of trees are the very finest. There is a capital drive round and through it, where most of our people come. I wish I had a picture, for it is one of the prettiest places you ever saw, having been thus ela- borately prepared for me, by my friend and predecessor Haddock. Then I have a capital garden, and an infinity of produce. I have not yet been to Bhopal, twenty miles distant, to see my queen and her court. This, however, I expect to do in a few days ; we shall then have a fine show. Nothing can exceed the elegance, I am told, of this little court. The men whom I have seen are very gentleman-like and refined-looking. The country is a vast open plain, with bare low hills and clumps of wood containing magnificent trees. We have scarcely a car- riage-drive except in my park, and the solitude is rather awful. The work is not heavy at all perfect rest after Goomsur ; and this is what I want yet awhile, though I do hope I shall not be forgotten here.' ' Bhopal, 21st February 1854. ' Bhopal is a very pretty and pleasant little country, and I like all its circumstances quite as much as I ex- pected. I have just had my first meeting with the very interesting court; and all the people of the Contin- gent being my guests has made it very pleasant. You must know we have three Begums, all totally dis-pur- dahed, 1 who do everything but eat with us with the free- dom of European women. There are the grandmother, the regent-mother, and the minor Begum on the musnud 2 a girl of sixteen, whose marriage is the knotty point in hand. The grandmother and mother ride, spear, and shoot grandly, or have been used to do so they being now aged fifty-three and thirty-four respectively. The regent is a wonderful woman in the way of government ; for years she has worked everything herself. With but 1 A lady of rank in the East is said to sit behind the purdah a screen or curtain so as to be concealed from the eyes of men. 2 The musnud, or cushion of state, equivalent to throne. CHAP. XXII.] THE BEGUM REGENT. 295 eleven lacs l out of twenty-two lacs of total revenue at her disposal, she has paid off in eight years ten lacs of debt, reformed all her civil establishments, reorganised her army, resettled her revenue, and set up a new police and judicial system. She has been in the way of work- ing ten and twelve hours daily, visiting every district, and seeing to the drill and equipment of almost every soldier. Her energy is quite wonderful, and her ad- ministrative ability very great. Two miles from my tents, the Shah Jehan, the girl on the musnud, met me on her elephant with all her chief ministers and nobles and state. I gave notice that I should arrive at 7 A.M., so the army was out at two and the young queen at five of a bitterly cold morning. She is a fat, not stupid-looking little girl, with one of her cheeks incredibly bulged with a lump of betel ; and by her side was her Duchess of Sutherland, a very fine old lady, widow of a first-rate Christian minister of the state a Bourbon long settled in India. Then we have had durbars, 2 one at her house, and one for the men at my tents, my ladies looking through a purdah. Then, too, we have been to tea-drink- ing at her garden, and fireworks and music and nautch- ing. The Secunder Begum-regent talks exactly, in her way, like the fastest European woman you may happen to know for example, mixing politics with her per- sonalities. We talked of the King of Lucknow's four hundred peris, and of Sleeman, passing to the theory and practice of revenue- surveying ; the great mystery of my not being married, and that of the disposal of Nag- pore; the question of my age, and that of how the present revenue settlement in Scindiah's country may stand five years hence; the comparative value of Cash- merian and English needlework, and the merits of the English and the Arab military exercises ; the terrible nonsense of durbar forms and talk, and then (half an hour 1 A lac, or lakh, is 100,000 rupees, or about 10,000 sterling. 2 State receptions. 296 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. during the nautching) about Eyotwar, Goomsurwar, 1 &c., as if we had been a Board of Eevenue. I happened to say, somewhat emphatically, of those matters, that everything depended on the way any system was worked on the "wm/" 2 that everything, in fact, was "uml" And I wish you had seen how she turned to her two ministers, sitting dumb some way off, and cried, " Gentlemen, do you hear ? That's for you ! " " Uml is everything" And I wish you had seen the salaams which followed. This and much more of the same kind was when we went to tea and music in her garden. She shows a fine Elizabethan taste in the choice of her officers of state. Our ladies think her Commander-in- chief the finest man they ever saw ; his dressing of course perfect ; he is like a much-enlarged, robust D'Orsay. Her Mahomedan minister is also fit for any court, and has a garden for relaxation, poor man ! next to hers ; but you can easily conceive that no breath of scandal floats at Bhopal. The ladies' dress is capital brocade tights, so tight that they look sewed on. Above are drapery mainly jackets and shawls, worn as Englishwomen wear them and bare heads, except now and then a silver scarf.' < Sehore, Bhopal, 24th April 1854. 6 1 heard from Outram yesterday, full of his Baroda success. All smooth arid merry there. ' The idea that there is nothing to do at Bhopal is a mistake. There is so much Persian business that the mere signing is heavy work. There are such a number of separate statelings and fragments of states to be looked after, while you have so many neigh- bours on your boundaries, all having thieves to catch, or boundary disputes to settle, or something. Then this 1 I.e., about the land tenures in the Madras Presidency, and in Goorasur in particular. 2 Mode of administration. CnAP.XXIL] APPOINTMENT TO GWALIOR. 297 princess to marry is work enough for one man. But I must say that the amount of experience I am gaining here is prodigious. All the peoples of India, with the exception of some thirty or thirty-five, meet here, and I deal with them all in every relation of life.' ' Sehore, Bhopal, 18th May 1854. ' I am rusticating quietly here, answering millions of petitions, and trying to get smoothly through with our princess's marriage arrangements. 1 The selection of a prince rests with the regent and the Government.' Colonel Outram having, at the request of the Govern- ment of India, given up the Residency of Baroda and undertaken a painful and difficult charge at Aden, Colonel Malcolm, the Political Agent at Gwalior, an excellent officer, was appointed Eesident at Baroda, and Captain Macpherson (who attained about this time by brevet the army rank of major 2 ) was now advanced by Lord Dal- housie to the more important post of Political Agent at Gwalior, 3 whence the following letter was written : 4 1 Gwalior, llth July 1854. * I have got to Gwalior all well, but I give you an in- cident to make the most of. A man on the road per- suaded me to go a night's journey, not in my palanquin, but in his carriage drawn by bullocks. In the middle of the night it upset, and my face and head were much 1 Colonel Sleeman wrote to him from Lucknowon the 22nd March 1854: ' Pray tell the Begum that she had much better get a husband for her daughter from some other place, for it is a hundred to one against her getting an honest man from Oude.' 2 In his regiment, the good health enjoyed by his seniors prevented him from ever rising above the rank of captain. 3 Colonel Outram wrote to him as follows, from Aden, on the 14th Aug. 1854 : ' I trust you will like your new charge, and, if so, it will be some consolation to me for my self-sacrifice in leaving the fostering wing of the Government of India, as having been the indirect cause of your ad- vancement.' 4 In bidding farewell to the unrivalled Secunder Begum, it may be well to state that our Queen has acknowledged her friendly conduct during the Mutinies by conferring upon her the Star of the Order of British India. 298 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. smashed, my right eye escaping by a miracle, while all round it was cut and bruised. I lay quiet for four days, and am now all right, but with beauty impaired I fear. I am much charmed with Gwalior. The Eesidency is a very large two-storied house, full of everything I want in the way of furniture, 1 plate, crockery, &c. At this season too it is pretty, with a capital garden, woods, &c., but in hot weather it becomes a furnace. The worst of it is, however, that I must quit it from the 1st August to the 1st November. 2 There is a swamp near it which is kept for the cultivation of water-melons, and during those months fever inevitably appears, an enemy with whom I will hold no parley. I expected to have charge of Bundelcund, besides the Agency, but I am most glad to say I have not had it put on me. Thus I shall have abundant but not killing work.' It will be remembered that Gwalior was taken under our particular charge by Lord Ellenborough, in 1844, after its rulers had attacked us and had been defeated in the battle of Maharajpore. The country was thenceforth governed by a Eegency, under the advice of a British Agent, during the minority of the heir by adoption, the present Maharajah, who bears the hereditary name of Scindia a Mahratta ruler, surrounded by a dominant class of Mahrattas, in a country the people of which are not Mahrattas, but are akin to the population of the British territories around them. Gwalior is formed of clusters of small principalities or petty chiefships, Eajpoot, Aheer, Goojur, &c., subdued and annexed by the Mahrattas ; the titular and pensioned representatives of the ancient rulers, regal and tribal, still existing and of course longing for an opportunity to reclaim their own. For the purpose of keeping down these principalities and tribes, a regularly disciplined force, commanded by 1 The furniture was the property of his predecessor, from whom he bought it. 2 During these months he resided in a house which he hired in the can- tonments at Morar, several miles off. CHAP. XXII.] SCINDIA IN 1854. 299 British officers, and forming part of our Bengal army, was kept up by us, and paid from the revenues of districts assigned to us for the purpose by the Gwalior Government. It was called the Gwalior Contingent. In 1854 the Maharajah was about nineteen years of age. His education had been nearly confined to the use of his horse, lance, and gun, whence his tastes were purely and passionately military. He seemed to enjoy no occupation save drilling, dressing, ordering, transforming, feasting, playing with his troops, and the unwearied study of books of evolutions, and he grudged no expenditure connected with that amusement. He was not deficient in courage nor in quickness of -apprehension, but was impatient of public business ; and .like other Eastern princes, he was addicted to pleasure, and liable to be led by low favourites, who were perpetually tempting him to disturb the regu- lar course of administration by acts of personal inter- ference, whence irregular gains might arise, in which they would necessarily participate. Important reforms had been initiated since the estab- lishment of British influence at Gwalior. In earlier days, the revenues of the State derived, it need not be said, chiefly from the land were farmed by officers who held permanent contracts, and who were consequently interested in the prosperity of their districts. But for ten years before our intervention, these officers were replaced by a multitude of petty Pundit [Brahmin] farmers, who, instead of holding permanent contracts, were super- seded as often as they w r ere outbid. Every man, there- fore, wrung from his district all that he could extort. The ruined peasantry emigrated in masses. The revenue of some of the richest tracts fell off by two-thirds ; and in 1844, when the British Government assumed the guar- dianship of Scindia's person and interests, the country was on the verge of ruin. The members of the Eegency were pressed by us to give up the farming system, and to cause the revenue to 300 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. be assessed and collected by the officers of the State, under a village settlement for a term of years ; but their inte- rests were opposed to such a change, for they were them- selves farmers of the revenue (though not in their own names) ; and all the influential classes the Pundits, the Bankers, the courtiers, and State servants, were strongly arrayed against the proposed alteration, which would tend to prevent their irregular exactions. It happened, however, during the first year of our control while Sir Eichmond Shakespear lived at Gwalior as Political Agent, in sub- ordination to the Governor-General's Agent, Colonel Slee- man, who resided at Jhansi that two warlike Rajpoot clans, whom Scindia's Government held under a loose subjection, refused, as usual, to pay their revenue until they should see the force that was to take it. British aid was requested in reducing them, Scindia's commandants having always allotted four battalions of infantry, sixteen guns, and a body of horse, for the collection of the reve- nue from one of the two clans in question. The Political Agent, while he maintained the authority of the Gwalior Government, thought it right to guarantee to those clans a just and fixed settlement of the land revenue to be paid by them. He accordingly caused a five years' village settlement to be made that is, leases for five years at a fair rent to be granted by the Government in the district occupied by the two clans ; but the Eegency could not be induced to extend it to other provinces. In 1852, however, Colonel Malcolm being then Political Agent, and Mr. Bushby Agent to the Governor-General, the President of the Eegency died ; and although but ten months of the Maharajah's minority remained, 1 the British Government embraced the opportunity to introduce the measures of reform which were judged necessary to save the State. It dissolved the Council of Eegency, intro- duced the young Eajah at once to a part in affairs, and 1 Eighteen had been fixed by treaty as the age of the Maharajah's majority. CHAP.XXIL] REFORMS OF DINKUR RAO. 301 with his consent appointed to the office of Dewan, or Prime Minister, Dinkur Kao, 1 a young Pundit of Gwalior, whose fitness had been tested as an instrument of our initiatory revenue measures, when Sir Eichmond Shake- spear perceived his talents and brought him forward. Mr. Bushby saw in him alone any hope of improving the administration, while Colonel Malcolm at first conceived . him to be overrated, but soon pronounced him to be the ablest arid best of the living natives of India. Dinkur Eao, then, having been appointed to office by the British Government, to carry out the reforms which it had determined to introduce, adopted, with Colonel Malcolm's support, the most active measures for that pur- pose. Scindia, though old enough to enable Colonel Malcolm to dispense with a Regency, was not yet practi- cally admitted to the exercise of power. During the two years which succeeded, Dinkur Eao effected a great revolution. He set up throughout the country three departments, of revenue, justice, and police. In the first, he abolished (throughout a considerable part of the Gwalior territory) the farming system, and gave ten years' leases to the people of every village. In the second, he created a large establishment of Mahomedan judges, mostly drawn from our territories and courts. In the third, he established police stations, &c. all over the country, under a separate organization. His rule was to give high pay, and to abolish all perquisites, and bribes, and exactions. On finding that the Pundits his own class deliberately refused to co-operate in any sort of revenue reform, Dinkur Eao fearlessly resorted to our North- west Provinces for a supply of persons trained to public business, retaining only about a third of the old employes. The Brahmins, of course, resented this ; but the minister steadily held on his course. Between the departure of Colonel Malcolm for Baroda 1 Now Rajah Dinkur Rao. 302 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. and Major Macpherson's arrival, a period of about two months intervened, and during this time the young Eajah, wildly grasping at power, which he was unable to wield, had brought public affairs into the utmost confusion. His bad advisers incited him to insist upon governing as well as reigning, and to dismiss Dinkur Eao, whose continuance in power was a deathblow to their hopes of plunder ; and although the Rajah had fully accepted and had pledged himself to the reformed system of administration, they still strove to bring back the old tyranny. Our treaty with Gwalior provided that the Eegency, while it subsisted, should be guided by the advice of our Agents, but it did not stipulate that the Eajah should be so guided. He was therefore free to appoint a new minister if he pleased. All believed that the ministry was at an end. Major Macpherson, on his arrival, had a delicate waiting game to play, not knowing a man in the place, and not having had one word with Colonel Malcolm. He thought it best to leave the Gwalior Court absolutely to themselves to fight it out, determined that the first move should come from the Eajah, and that it should never be in his power to say that we had imposed a minister upon him. So the Eajah at last took it on him- self to decide^ without even asking the Agent's advice, to retain Dinkur Eao in office. Although the Maharajah had thus declared for Dinkur Eao, his mind was still kept in an unsettled state for many months by the intrigues of various aspirants to office, and the intermeddling of his grandmother by adoption, called the Baiza Baee, the widow of a former ruler of Gwalior, whose great wealth enabled her to influence Scindia, through the hope of becoming her heir. The political arrangements of Central India, which placed the Agent at Gwalior under the superintendence of the Governor- General's Agent, residing at Indore, 350 miles distant, were but too favourable to native trickery. The plan of raising differences between Scindia and his Dewan, and CHAP. XXII. ] POLICY AT GWALIOR. 303 between the office of the Political Agent at Gwalior and tli at of the Governor-General's Agent at Indore, was a familiar Indian expedient, and great efforts were made to bring it into play. But Sir Eobert Hamilton, the Governor-General's Agent, when his attention was called to these intrigues, at once made it to be felt by all that he was in perfect accord with Major Macpherson. The latter thenceforth pursued his policy at Gwalior, with the full support of Sir Kobert Hamilton, with whom he of course continued in full communication throughout, but who left him a large discretion, seeing that minute interference could only paralyse the action of an officer so distant, and whose conduct required to be adapted to circumstances varying from day to day. The duties of the Political Agent required him to take part, by suggestion and advice, in securing to a wide region that peace and good government which had been partially restored to it by our interference. Gwalior is considerably more extensive than Oude,. and stretches across Central India ; and it is intermixed with, or touches, the confines of a great variety of states ; so that its good or bad government is of importance far beyond its own limits. To consolidate and to advance the new system of go- vernment, and to aid the wise and upright minister in retaining his influence over the fluctuating and inconstant will of Scindia ; to imbue the minds of prince and minister with principles familiar to European statesmen, but new to Orientals, and to suggest fresh measures for improving the condition of the people these were the objects of the incessant endeavours of the Political Agent. Scindia, as has been already stated, had, after his first dis- astrous experiment in governing, freely restored the Dewan to office, with poAver to carry out the reformed plan of administration which we had initiated during his minority; and the Agent laboured to impart to him and his Durbar the will and the power to make that plan, in its com- pletion and development, their own ; leaving to Scindia 304 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. the utmost freedom of action consistent with political subordination and the stable maintenance of his adminis- tration. The Agent therefore took care not to interfere too much or too visibly, but to allow His Highness and the Dewan, in their spheres, themselves to direct and to work out the administration, considering themselves solely responsible for it, and exclusively entitled to the re- sulting honour or discredit ; to allow His Highness, with- out question, the utmost latitude of action, especially with respect to his troops and his capital ; and at the same time to maintain, by influence and advice, the essential con- ditions of the administration ; as befitted the Power by whose protection Scindia's Government was maintained. The Dewan was in fact the sole author and worker of the administration. His ambition was to save the State through its good government, and he seemed to under- stand that the time had passed for any affectation by Gwalior of unreal nationality, independence, or separate- ness of interest, and that the course left to it was that of municipal energy and prosperity through co-operation, approximation, assimilation to the Supreme State. The event rewarded the Agent's efforts. His support gave free play to the administrative genius of Dinkur Eao ; his suggestions fell upon no barren soil ; and Grwalior rapidly advanced in every respect. To touch briefly upon the public measures adopted during the first three years of Major Macpherson's Agency, Scindia was induced, at a great immediate sacrifice of revenue, to abolish the transit duties on all the main routes in his dominions, and to lay out a very large sum of money on roads and bridges. The Dewan, with the Maharajah's full support, extended and revised the revenue settlement, and promulgated new codes regulat- ing the Eevenue and the Civil and Criminal Procedure. The Eevenue settlement worked with entire success. The dues of the Government were collected with facility, and without a balance, save where staple crops had CHAP. XXII] IMPROVED CIVIL ADMINISTRATION. 305 failed. Cultivation and population everywhere increased especially in the* districts earliest settled. Wherever the Agent went, he found contentment and distinct signs of increasing prosperity. The people asked for nothing, except water for irrigation, and, where they had learnt their value, for roads. The first object of the Gwalior Government being to maintain the village municipalities in integrity and energy, the land of zemindars was not made saleable for arrears of revenue ; other coercive processes being the same as in our North-west Provinces. Claims to zemindary land after the lapse of a period of thirty years were prohibited. A village boundary survey was instituted. The little half- independent principalities within the Gwalior dominions were treated in a just and conciliatory spirit, and the usual quarrels and coercion nearly ceased. The revenue amounted (in round numbers) to about 800,000/. Before 1843 there had been an annual de- ficit of 60,000/. ; during the period of the Eegency, the annual deficit had been 30,000/. The estimate for 1855-56, after making a liberal provision for all the objects of government, showed a balance in the treasury of 15,000^. The code of Civil Procedure was modelled after the rules then in force in the Punjab, or those of the British possessions in Burmah. According to it, the first duty of the judge is to effect the prevention or the compromise of suits ; the next, to decide summarily, if possible, but to call a Punchayet or committee of five where necessary : in that case, however (contrary to the Punjab rule that the judge still decides), the Punchayet decide as judges. Professional pleaders are not admitted. Coercive pro- cesses are nearly the same as in the Punjab, but pay or pension is first sequestrated ; then land zemindary land, however, not being liable to sale ; and lastly, and with great tenderness and precaution, personal property is sequestrated and sold. The Criminal code is in close x 306 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. accordance with the Punjab rules, but it does not authorise capital punishment. The Dewan adopted in his codes and his practice as much of our revenue, judicial, and educational systems as the intelligence and feelings of the people could bear. He had to contend with administrative difficulties some- what analogous to our own, in governing, mainly by an alien and unpopular Mahratta agency, a population nearly identical in constitution and circumstances with those of our North-west Provinces. 1 By the time that the codes were promulgated, a very large and fairly-paid police, organised like that of the North-west Provinces of British India, was spread over the country. For example, along the Agra and Bombay Eoad there were stations at intervals of a mile, and parties of horse at intervals of six miles. The number of heinous offences accompanied by violence was very small, save in the Malwa districts. The exaction of labour without pay, formerly the curse of the country, was abolished ; as was also the provision of supplies without payment. Weights and measures were adjusted ; schools were established in the principal towns and in some village districts ; some bazaars and many wells of masonry and timber were constructed. The Political Agent earnestly called the attention of the 1 The following extract from a letter addressed to Major Macpherson by his old friend Mr. Bushby (the Secretary with whom he had corresponded when in charge of Khond affairs, and whose voice had been raised in vain against the unworthy treatment to which he was subjected), will tend to show the estimation in which this work was held : ' Hyderabad Residency, 23rd August 1855. I very much want to assist the Nizam's minister to govern the country better. He is willing and intel- ligent, but without experience, being very young. His experience is great only in the practices of the people in this vile city, where he learned much in the house and the ministry of his uncle the late Suraj-ool-Mulk. Your able Dewan, my esteemed friend Dinkur Rao, and the chief of the Adawlut at Gwalior, prepared a capital code of law and procedure for the adminis- tration of Scindia's country, brief and practicable, lucid in its proportions as well as in its provisions. Could you send me copies and let me know how all is working ? Dinkur Rao's paper was the best I have ever seen, and would do credit to the Council of India.' CHAP. XXII.] EFFORTS TO CHECK INFANTICIDE. 307 Gwalior Government to the usage of female infanticide, prevailing amongst the Eajpoot and some other races ; and the Maharajah and the Dewan showed themselves anxious to do their utmost for its extinction. In 1855, the Dewan summoned a large assembly of Eajpoot chiefs on the Chumbul, and he and the Agent held with them two long discussions. All declared that the poverty, which had been an excuse for the practice, was at an end. ' We sit here,' said they, ' in cotton and silk dresses, who used to wear rags ; and every man has two or three horses in his yard, who, in the old time, had not even an ass.' They moreover alleged that the practice was declining, and, although the Agent was opposed to the valueless formality, they insisted on giving a pledge to discontinue this usage, and to punish the perpetrators by expulsion from caste. His chief hope lay, however, in the Dewan's influence with one great tribe. The Maharajah was, of course, generally, and the Dewan minutely, informed, from their constantly asking the Agent's advice, and from their endless conversations with him, of his impressions upon every point of policy ; but, nevertheless, his first object, to lead them to direct and work out the administration by themselves, was fully attained. It is not to be supposed that the reforms which have been spoken of were carried into effect without labour and anxiety, 1 caused by the nature of the changes 1 At the end of his first six months at Gwalior, he writes : ' This office, with all its difficulties, is child's-play to what I have been accustomed to. I have actually at times a day to myself ! Never, in Goomsur, had I one hour waking or sleeping. I really almost begin to think to dream that I may have some days of quiet service in India, like other people.' In another letter, dated Gwalior, 28th March 1855, after noticing the Maharajah's extreme instability of character, he writes: 'On him, how- ever, rests the structure of government. All we can do is to support it, with the aid of the Dewan and Sirdars, making the best of the circum- stances of the day. Rajah and all are now wholly with me, through very lucky management, I venture to say, and so for the day we have bread. I have just got Scindia to do a great thing, viz., to abolish transit duties on his two great lines of road that from Agra to Bombay, and from Saugor x2 308 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXII. themselves, necessarily interfering with existing interests ; and also in a greater degree by the character of the young Maharajah, influenced as he was by worthless courtiers, with whom the Dewan, a man of high and unbending spirit, disdained to contend for his favour. Scindia himself, on whom the fate of Oude made a deep impression, declared that but for the English counsels and support, the misgovernment in Gwalior must have equalled that of Oude. Scindia was at all times anxious to obtain the approval of the Governor-General ; and during a visit which he, accompanied by the Political Agent, paid to Calcutta in the spring of 1857, he was highly gratified by Lord Canning's attentions, and by his Lordship's assurance that in case of his death without male issue, the Government would not be disposed to assert its right of succession by lapse, but would recognise an adopted son. The Dewan and several of the Chiefs of Gwalior ac- companied their Prince ; and the effect of the railway, steam-engine, electric telegraph, shipping, &c., upon all of to Bombay and to reform them on all other lines. I trust I shall be able to leave a good mark upon these poor people.' Later he writes : 1 1 have the management of a man who should govern a fine kingdom, and I am able to keep things together and to hope decently for the future. I have much sleepless anxiety, but that is in the trade of whoever deals in politics, and in four years now I look to final liberation, with the company I desire, after working every day of my working life. I am just going to a Chobham we are getting up here, several Contingent forces, which will amount to 10,000 men.' Colonel Outram writes from Lucknow, 4th December 1855 : l Your last indicated that you had no easy path before you at Gwalior, beset as it is by the usual amount at least of Mahratta intrigue ; but I doubt not your straight- forward mode of conducting business with the young Rajah will keep him straight, in spite of all the rascally endeavours of those about him to get him to thwart your measures. You are exactly the man to (l confound their politics," and I only hope you may not get disgusted with the work, as I did at Baroda.' It may be here mentioned that during the spring of 1856 Major Mac- pherson visited Calcutta. When he thanked Lord Dalhousie (then on the point of delivering up his charge to Lord Canning) for the kindness he had shown him, his Lordship replied, emphatically, ' What I have done for you is nothing? CHAP. XXII.] SCINDIA AT CALCUTTA. 309 them was very great. Scindia remarked, on seeing a spinning-mill at work, ' What a fine contrivance for saving the sweat of the poor ! ' and determined to have a steam-engine for his mint. One of his Mahratta chiefs observed of Calcutta, ' Ah, this is a place to take the con- ceit out of a man ! ' But they were all disgusted at seeing the Brahminee bulls, animals sacred in their eyes, employed in drawing dung-carts along the streets ; a measure adopted by order of the Chief Magistrate long before, but which they attributed to the Governor- General's personal command. 310 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA, [CHAP. XXIII. CHAPTEE XXIII. 1857. THE MUTINY THE GWALIOR CONTINGENT KEPT OUT OF THE FIELD. SOON after Scindia's return to Gwalior from Calcutta, the mutinous spirit which had shown itself in the Bengal Army during the spring became more and more manifest, and the Sepoys at length broke out into open rebellion. Early in May, Meerut was sacked, and Delhi was lost to us ; and it was plain that, unless the latter city could be instantly reoccupied, the movement would extend to the whole of Hindostan. The main proximate cause of the rebellion was the conjunction in our army, and to a great extent in our people, of the two convictions that we had desired to overthrow the native religions for the esta- blishment of Christianity, and that by the will of our army, united chiefly by that belief, our empire could and must be overthrown. Scindia and his minister, and a few of the best-informed of his Durbar, or court, did not hold these opinions, but considered the religious apprehension groundless, and be- lieved that, through our Indian or our European resources, the British power must eventually triumph. But the Gwalior Contingent (which was a local branch of our army), and Scindia's own army of 10,000 men, and almost all Scindia's private companions and friends, with the great mass of his subjects, shared the convictions of our army and our people ; and the task of the Political Agent was to induce Scindia to maintain and act on his own CHAP. XXIIL] COMMUNICATIONS WITH SCINDIA. 311 convictions in co-operation with us, in antagonism to the revolt, and to oppose it mainly by demonstrating that he considered the religious panic groundless, and our power immovable. It was quite uncertain whether, amid the storm of passion, interest, and prejudices raised by this great convulsion, the Maharajah's wayward mind could be led to maintain its confidence in us, so that he might afford to us, not aid according to his en- gagements merely, but the earnest and demonstrative co-operatiori which the juncture demanded. Had Major Macpherson's influence over him or that of the Dewan not been exerted to the uttermost, he might at any time have broken away, his head turned by the idea of being chief, instead of relying on the eventual success of our Government, and might have come with the troops to try how large a share of dominion he could get. Fortunately, his close intercourse with Major Mac- pherson for the three preceding years had led him to regard that officer with confidence and respect ; his visit to Calcutta had enlarged his view of our resources, and Lord Canning's intimation that adoption would be per- mitted to him, had reassured him as to the continuance of his own dynasty, so far as our Government was con- cerned ; while he was easily led by the Agent to see that if the soldiery gained the ascendant, the Eajpoot, Jat, and other ancient races whom his own Mahratta government held in subjection, would in all probability throw off their allegiance to him : in short, on this, as on former oc- casions, he adopted as his own the plans suggested by the Agent, and he adhered to them zealously. For a month after the seizure of Delhi by the Sepoys the English held their ground at Gwalior. As the situation gradually became more dangerous, the Agent's communications with the Eajah and Dewan were ceaseless. When he did not visit Scindia, the Dewan generally came to tell him his mind, to discuss all the phenomena of the revolt, and every point of the situation 312 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. in Gwalior, and to receive the encouragement so much needed under the extraordinary difficulties of his part. During this time, Scindia had done his utmost to co- operate with us, by despatching his Bodyguard to Agra, to attend upon the Lieutenant-Go vernor ; by sending his personal Mahratta troop to Etawah ; by warning the Political Agent, on the 26th May, of the impending de- fection of the Contingent ; by then arranging personally for making the Residency a place of refuge ; by pro- tecting the families of the Contingent officers, who by order of the Brigadier repaired to it for safety when an immediate outbreak was apprehended ; by inviting those families to his Palace for full security, 1 and thus showing that he was entirely with us. But, to neighbour- ing chiefs, to the soldiery, and to his people alike, by far the most generally appreciated and unequivocal of his acts was his giving to his Dewan (regarded by all as the prime enemy of the revolt) his full confidence and the highest powers ; while with the Dewan acted his com- mander-in-chief Mohurghur, and the second in command, Bulwunt Rao, whose earnest co-operation was indispens- able to the management of the troops. To understand the full meaning of the Dewan's ascend- ancy, it must be remembered that there existed, ever at Scindia's ear, and especially at his revels, a party composed of the remnant of that faction which brought on the fight of Maharajpoor in 1843, and of the corrupt intriguers whose great aim was the overthrow of the Dewan and the restoration of the system of farming the revenue. Scindia listened, as usual, to this party, and it thought its opportunity had come ; but he met all the Agent's views with the utmost heartiness and candour, and acted thoroughly with the Dewan. At length, on the 14th of June, when the troops at most of our stations in Upper India had mutinied, the 1 They afterwards returned to the cantonment, to Scindia's deep regret. CHAP. XXIII.] THE GWALIOR MASSACRE. 313 Contingent rose at Gwalior. 1 The outbreak was fore- shadowed by the usual premonitory symptoms, which yet failed there, as elsewhere, to open the eyes of the brave but too confiding officers ; and Scindia's warnings, con- veyed to them by the Political Agent, went for nothing as against the consummate hypocrisy of the Sepoys ; who, while they were leagued for the immediate destruction of their officers, protested boundless devotion to the State, and execration of the murderous traitors of Meerut and Delhi ; and affected to be profoundly distressed by any sign of want of confidence, such as that the officers or their families should sleep elsewhere than in the lines, or that the British treasure or magazine should be given into any custody save their own. Upon the afternoon of the 14th the mess-house and a bungalow in the cantonment were burnt down, one regi- ment working with good-humoured alacrity to extinguish the flames. About 9 P.M. the artillery loaded their guns. Their officers immediately went to their lines, but brought back word that it was a false alarm, the men having imagined that Europeans were upon them. But the outbreak commenced immediately after, with loud shouts, tumult, and bugling in the lines ; through which men rushed caUing to arms, ' for the Europeans had come' the cry of that night. The Brigadier ordered the officers who were with him to their lines. There firing began, and gradually extended to the whole station, while bungalows blazed up. Then ensued a cold-blooded massacre, such as had already occurred in other places. Every commanding officer Major Blake of the 2nd, and Sherriff of the 4th Eegiment, and Captains Hawkins and Stewart of the batteries fell. Blake went to his lines on the first alarm, and was shot at his main-guard. His men, amidst whom Doctor Mackellar 1 That is, the bulk of the force, which was stationed at Gwalior. The regiments at out-stations also rose, but not all on the same day. 314 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. found him dying, wept over him and professed deep sorrow, declaring strongly, but falsely, that the 4th Eegiment had killed him. They themselves, at least, gave him burial, savagely denied to all others. How Sherriff fell amidst the volleys which flew everywhere is unknown. Hawkins, who had with him his sick wife on a litter and five children, besides Mrs. Stewart with her two children, was killed in the cavalry lines, it is said by the infantry, while two of his children also perished. When he fell wounded in front of a hut where the ladies were sheltered, Mrs. Stewart went and took his hand, and the volley which killed him killed her also, with a child. Stewart was wounded that night, but nursed through it by two of his men, and deliberately shot the next day. Doctor Kirk, superintending surgeon, was sought out and murdered in an outhouse. The chaplain, Mr. Coopland, wholly un- known to the troops, was pursued with volleys through cantonments and cut down. Lieutenant Proctor, of the 4th, who had in his care the sick wife of an absent brother officer, and did not attempt escape, was searched out, after concealment through the night, and murdered before his wife by infantry and horsemen. Four sergeants and two pensioners also fell, as did Mrs. Burrows, the widow of a conductor, and Mrs. Pike, a sergeant's wife. There were killed seven officers, six sergeants and pen- sioners, three women, and three children nineteen in all ; while there escaped of the men of the Contingent (some under showers of bullets, but favoured by a moonless night) seven officers, one sergeant, and two medical sub ordinates. The women and children likewise escaped, with the exceptions which have been mentioned. The surviving officers made either for the Maharajah's Palace, or for the Residency, 1 where, under the guard of his Highness' troops, they were safe. Two officers rode straight for Dholepore and Agra. 1 The cantonments and the Residency were each of them several miles distant from the Maharajah's Palace. CnAp.XXIIL] EUROPEANS PROTECTED BY SCINDIA. 315 The cantonment guards favoured, or aided actively, the escape of several officers and families. Thus, of the 2nd Eegiment, three men escorted Lieutenant Pearson, and carried his wife in a litter, seven miles to the Re- sidency ; and the guard of the 1st Eegiment over the family of its absent commandant behaved admirably. The rearguard of the 4th Eegiment protected most faithfully Captains Murray and Meade and their families, while a party of the 2nd came to destroy them. Against our rule the Contingent apparently acted as one man ; but they were so much divided as to the slaughter of their officers, that four out of seven infantry regiments, two out of four batteries of artillery, and the two regiments of cavalry (excepting a party at Gwalior) killed none. On hearing of the outbreak, Major Macpherson im- mediately proceeded to join the Maharajah. His carriage, which contained also his sister, Mrs. Lines, who was on a visit to him (and who showed remarkable pre- sence of mind throughout the whole of these events), and an officer just escaped from cantonments, was soon arrested by the levelled muskets of a party of five or six Sepoys. They belonged to a band of Ghazees, bound to Delhi under Jehangeer Khan, once a havildar in the Contingent, then a favourite captain of Scindia's, now a Ghazee leader of the highest pretensions to sanctity. They vehemently demanded the lives of the English party, with which, besides a Mahomedan escort, were some forty Mahratta horsemen. The Mahratta captain of the bodyguard told Major Macpherson at the time that the Ghazees had yielded on his threatening de- struction to all who should oppose him, but it afterwards appeared that he had said he was conveying the Agent, by Scindia's express order, a prisoner to him, whereupon the Ghazees expressed satisfaction and drew back, and the carriage passed on. The party found Scindia at his palace, the Phoolbagh 31G MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. (Flower Garden), surrounded by his troops under arms. The Brigadier, and several other officers with their families, had already arrived there ; and they believed that all who were left in cantonments had perished. Patrols of the Maharajah's troops, most likely to save them, were, how- ever, looking for them in all directions. Major Macpherson, while desiring that his party should be forwarded to Agra, insisted that he should himself remain with Scindia an offer which, considering the cir- cumstances under which it was made, evinced no ordi- nary degree of courage and self-devotion. But the life of the Political Agent was sought above all others by the rebels, and Scindia positively refused to allow him to re-- main. Indeed he thought it so clear, from the attitude of the rebels and the feeling of his own troops, that he could not protect the Europeans for an hour, that he had already ordered for them carriages, palanquins, and an escort of the bodyguard. He expressed infinite anxiety as to his own course. Of the rebels, he knew generally that they contemplated either his enrolling and leading them against Agra, or his giving them a large mass of treasure, while, if he refused these alternatives, they would bombard his palace and city. He feared that his troops would coalesce with them, and, as they had powerful artillery and magazines, he was certainly at their mercy. So far as his mind could be discerned in the confusion of the scene, it seemed plain that Scindia was prepared to purchase the departure of the rebels from his terri- tory. But Major Macpherson asked of him, at whatever cost, to detain them within Gwalior until we could assemble an European force to crush them, which might, perhaps, not be before the Dusserah, or the 29th September, while he assured him that the Government would consider this most friendly service. The Dewan enquired if it should appear that, for the detention of these rebels against both Governments, no CHAP. XXIIL] ESCAPE TO AGRA. .317 course could avail save that of giving them service, would the Governor-General approve of that ? The Agent said that the difficulty was obvious, but that, if no other means , might avail, Scindia should detain the rebels by service, until we were ready to deal with them. The Maharajah, through the Dewan, promised that the wishes of the Government should be executed if possible. The risks incurred by the Agent and his party, con- sisting of thirty men, women, and children, on their march to Kaintree Ghaut on the Eiver Chumbul, were very considerable. In Hingonah, a village twelve miles from the Chum- bul, they found posted Jehangeer Khan with the band already mentioned, consisting of some two hundred Ghazees, mostly from our or Scindia's ranks. After long parley, he protested that he did not wish to injure the Europeans ; and came to visit them, arrayed in green, fingering his beads in ceaseless prayer. But in concert with him, a body of plunderers were assembled to attack them in the ravines fringing the river. The captain of the bodyguard said he was alarmed by the double danger, from which he saw no way of escape ; while his men refused to move forward that night. In the hope of avoiding one peril, Major Mac- pherson resolved to abandon the carriages and start the ladies and children on horseback, after midnight, by a bridle-path towards Bajghat, lower down the Chumbul. But the Dewan had summoned to aid them Thakoor Buldeo Sing, chief of the Dundouteeah Brahmins, a robust and warlike tribe of that quarter ; and at midnight the chief most happily appeared, with a strong body of followers. He declared warmly that he had not forgotten that Major Macpherson had interceded with the Dewan for certain tanks and wells for his people, and he said that they would defend the party with their lives. He placed one body of men to watch Jehangeer Khan, and with another he conducted the Europeans towards the 318 MEMOEIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CnAP. XXIII. river. At the edge of the ravines, the bodyguard, despite of remonstrances and reproaches, turned their backs upon the party. With them went the horse and the palanquin- bearers, while the coachmen were forced on. On the farther bank of the Chumbul, opposite one of two paths which strike it at the ghat, the elephants and escort of the friendly Eana (Prince) of Dholepore were in waiting. But a party of Jehangeer Khan's band had taken post during the night in the ravines over that path. As the party proceeded along, however, Buldeo Sing learnt their presence in time to change the route, and all crossed in safety. The Eana of Dholepore treated the Europeans with great kindness, and gave them safe escort along the highly disturbed route to Agra, which they reached on the 17th. He extended equal care to a large party of the ladies and children, who soon afterwards followed them from Gwalior in the extremity of distress. 1 From great exposure in passing his party over the Chumbul, Major Macpherson suffered a sunstroke, which, added to the extreme strain of anxiety which he had endured, produced severe and continued illness. Sir Eobert Hamilton had left India, on leave of absence, in April 1857, and did not return till December 16th ; and from this circumstance, or from difficulties of communica- tion, Major Macpherson had, during the first eight months of the revolt, no intercourse with him, or with the officer who officiated for him. Our relations with the Gwalior State, therefore, remained during those eight months in the sole charge of Major Macpherson, who, under orders 1 It does not appear to have been part of the plan of the Sepoys to mur- der the women and children. At least, on the day after the massacre they sent off. after very insulting treatment, those who survived to the Maharajah. He forwarded them to the Chumbul in carts. To have attempted more had been their certain destruction, as he was very hard pressed to save the lives even of the Christian families in his hereditary service, furiously demanded by the fanatics. CHAP. XXIII.] DETENTION OF THE CONTINGENT. 319 from Lord Canning, communicated (so far as communi- cation was possible, which it was only to a most limited extent) with the Supreme Government direct. But from no quarter did he receive any instructions for his guidance, or any sanction for his proceedings : everything was done upon his own responsibility alone. Gwalior, while it thus continued in his hands, might have been regarded as in one sense the key of India, or rather, perhaps, as one link of a chain, which could not have given way in any part without ruining our power in India. If the Euler of Gwalior had either played us false, or succumbed to the strong adverse elements with which he had to contend, the Revolt would almost certainly have been national and general instead of being local and mainly military ; and instead of its fate being decided by those operations in the easily traversable Gan- getic valley, upon which public attention was concentrated, we should have had to face the warlike races of Upper India combined against us, in a most difficult country ; and, in all probability, those of the South also. The Europeans being gone, the Contingent, as part of our army which had brought our empire to its last hour, offered their services to Scindia, but only as his masters : he must place himself at their head (when they would enable him to take Agra, and share our dominions), or he must give them the mass of treasure they demanded to enable them to move off. Unless he conceded one or other of these demands, they would bombard and plunder his palace and city, empty his treasury, and carry off his person. To keep such men near him was like holding a wolf by the ears, and he, of course, desired to buy them off at the lowest price. But Major Macpherson had required of him, as high service to our Government, to detain them. This Scindia and Dinkur Eao, through the most wonderful combination of firmness, courage, and skill, effected up to the 15th of October. 320 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. But for Major Macpherson's parting demand and adju- ration to the Dewan and his Highness, enforced with all the weight w r hich three years of confidential intercourse could give, to keep the Contingent at Gwalior for our objects, at any possible cost or risk to Gwalior or to Scindia personally, it is not to be supposed that Scindia or the Dewan would have kept the Contingent there for a day. They naturally wished to get rid of these sepoys out of their territory. All engagements to the British Government would thus have been fulfilled. Indeed, they could not with propriety or safety have attempted to detain the rebels, except on the express requisition of the British Agent ; for the sepoys could only be detained by compliances which must (as the event showed) deeply compromise Scindia in the eyes of any of the British authorities who were not aware that such a requisition had been made. But that they should adopt a course of purely British policy, indicated by the Political Agent, strikingly at variance with what the immediate interests of Gwalior seemed to prescribe, and should work out month after month the Agent's requirements as they did, was a proof of the highest ascendancy on his part, sustained even in absence, and under the utmost pressure of ever- changing difficulties. Had that ascendancy failed for one instant, while from his cell in the fort of Agra he sent to them daily words of encouragement and counsel, in reply to their messages of agony or despair ; had they ceased to confide implicitly in his knowledge of every circumstance, and his appreciation of every man's conduct, and, above ah 1 , in the correctness of his judgment as to their proper course, and in his power to obtain the assent of the Government to his views in the face of opposite ones, expressed in an important quarter (which all but over- threw Scindia), the Dewan could not possibly have held his ground with Scindia, nor could he and Scindia have persevered in their course. The Dewan, as Major Macpherson always emphatically CHAP. XXIIL] INDECISIVE FIGHT AT AGRA. 321 said and wrote, is a man of rare genius and noble mind. His merit was unspeakably great, and to him everything in fact was due ; but without ideas, and convictions, and moral support, which Major Macpherson, or some one in his position, alone could have afforded to him through years of intimate converse and especially during the month that they spent together after the outbreak, discuss- ing it line upon line, he must necessarily have been quite powerless to face that storm. No one save an energetic and far-seeing Political Agent could have supported the Dewan through such a struggle ; and no Minister not gifted with great sagacity, courage, and constancy, could have conquered in it, whatever assistance had been afforded him. Nor does the credit, whatever it may be, to which the Agent and the Minister are entitled, derogate at all from the merit of Scindia's conduct. On the 5th of July, a rebellious force coming from Neemuch reached Agra, and fought Brigadier Polwhele's force. The rebels held the field and claimed the victory, while we retired into the fort, and abandoned, without an effort, our capital station in the North-west to be burnt and plundered during two days ; the blood of at least twenty Christians being shed not by the enemy, who withdrew on the night of the action, but by the ruffians of the city and villages, the traitorous police, and the prisoners who had escaped from the broken gaol. It was believed that we were entirely broken and para- lysed. The Neemuch rebels, by a deputation, conjured those of Gwalior to join them for certain victory ; and these demanded vehemently of the Maharajah treasure and supplies for their march, while his own troops re- cruited from our provinces joined in the demand. Scindia in this dark hour, when he was supported only by the Dewan and the two chiefs of his troops, had undoubtedly many inducements to take part against us. He had always been possessed by a mania for military 322 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. pursuits. He had a name round which. Hinduism would have rallied. High influence was inseparable from his territory, touching states or provinces almost numberless between the Chumbul and the Godavery between Bun- delcund and Guzerat. He had 10,000 men of his own, besides the Contingent, which amounted to 6,000 more, with siege-train and ample magazine. A party within the Durbar, strongly opposed to our rule, conjured him to seize the hour. The Nana Saheb, with strong claims on Mahratta feeling, and the wealth of the ex-Peishwa, and a large host, triumphed at Cawnpoor. Of Oude we held but our beleaguered position in Lucknow. The chiefs of Bundelcund, at least, hung upon Scindia's example. The Bhopal and Malwa Contingents, and most of Holkar's troops, were on the verge of revolt. At Delhi we but held our ground. No man was sure of Seikh aid, or of the China force ; but, above all, the Fort of Agra stood nearly unprepared, and crowded like a beehive. Had Scindia then struck against us nay, had he even done his best in our behalf, but failed the character of the rebellion might have been changed almost beyond the scope of speculation. But he believed in our final triumph, and that it was his true policy to strain his power to contribute to it ; and that belief was created and kept alive, in the face of every difficulty, exclusively by the Political Agent. 1 The rebels, after the outbreak, had called to be their general a native officer of the 1st Eegiment; but the most violent sepoys, in fact, commanded. These troops 1 A civil officer of great experience, who was present at Agra during this summer, writes as follows : * Few know how much we, at Agra, are in- debted to Major Macpherson for our immunity from attack by the full force of the Gwalior Contingent, with their powerful siege artillery. The real state of the case was this : the Political Agent had full influence over Scindia's Dewan, or Prime Minister, the celebrated Dinkur Rao j the Mi- nister in his turn influenced his master; and thus Major Macpherson, from the interior of the fort at Agra, ruled the course of events at the Court of Gwalior.' ' Notes on the Revolt in the N. W. Provinces of India,' by Charles Raikes, Judge of the Sudder Court at Agra, late Civil Commis- sioner with Sir Colin Campbell, &c. ch. xvi. London, 1858. CHAP. XXIII.] PROCEEDINGS OF THE REBELS. 323 spent their whole time in councils, Punchayets, courts, and deputations ; and the Maharajah was compelled to receive daily ' to report' one of the latter, composed of officers from every corps with privates delegated to watch them bodies of from thirty or forty to a hundred men. They menaced, beseeched, dictated, wheedled, and insulted Scindia by turns. For four months he confronted, defied, flattered, deceived them ; above all, through endless arts, kept them at loggerheads, until he finally baffled and de- spatched them to rout by our arms, sending them, not to Agra, where they would have done infinite mischief, but to Cawnpoor, where it was known that they were likely to meet with a European force capable of dispersing them. It were tedious to recount how he sowed dissensions among the rebels ; how he ordered the removal of the wheels of all carts that were within their range, and sent all elephants and camels to distant jungles ; how, when a formidable body of rebels from Mhow and Indore, which had been detained by him for some time, broke away towards Agra, he by a secret movement, suggested by the Agent, swept the Chumbul of its boats, so that those who remained could not pass on, and those who had passed could not return ; how he summoned from the provinces his chiefs or Thakoors and their retainers. The results may be stated, but the dangers and discourage- ments he encountered from day to day cannot be por- trayed. His conduct, however, on one memorable occasion deserves particular notice. After the departure of the Mhow and Indore men, the Contingent demanded peremptorily of the Maharajah his final plans, and, to hear them, their officers attended on the 7th of September with some 300 men in his palace-garden. Scindia asked what their wishes were. The officers began to reply ; but the sepoys thrust them aside, and said that they had resolved immediately to take Agra and destroy the Christians there, when they would carry Scindia's Y2 324 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. banner where he pleased. He replied that, by their own showing, they did not await his orders ; that their move- ment, until after the rains, would be against his will, and they should receive from him neither pay nor supplies. The sepoys declared indignantly that they had been be- trayed ; and returning to their camp, planted a green flag for Mahomedans, a white flag for Hindus. Deputations invited Scindia's troops to join them, for their common objects. They wrote to pray the rebel force at Banda to come to crush him, and they prepared their batteries. Scindia was in despair ; one of his corps was certainly with the rebels, and all, save the Mahrattas, seemed about to join the green and white standards. Then he would have no alternative save to become a puppet in their hands, or to fly to us. Had but a bugle sounded or an alarm- gun fired in his lines that night, his troops would have risen uncontrollably. He had every bugle brought to his palace, and every gun watched. At daybreak lie paraded his whole force. He appealed to them corps by corps, it is said very touchingly, against the insulting coercion which the rebellious Contingent threatened. His own army, though in accord with the rebels in their feelings towards the British power, did not desire that he should be coerced by the Contingent ; and on his addressing himself to his best-affected regiment of Gwalior men, that regiment declared enthusiastically for him. Then another corps, mainly of Gwalior men, did so. Of his two corps from our provinces, one was fully, one far committed to the rebels. But both had Mahratta officers, and they also professed obedience. Scindia required that, in proof of it, one of these corps should give up the ringleaders of the defection to the green and white flags; and they gave up twenty men, whom he instantly placed in irons and in gaol. He promised daily batta to his troops, and increased his irregular Thakoor levies from 6,000 to 11,000 men. The rebels at once planted their batteries against Scin- CHAP. XXIII.] SCINDIA'S SUCCESSFUL RESISTANCE. 32S clia's palace and city. The Maharajah moved out his whole force, and himself placed every battery and picket, and arranged his Thakoor force. His spirit, and the adhesion of his troops, surprised the rebels. A portion of the Con- tingent cavalry, which had been for some time with him in a sort of neutral attitude, joined his ranks. He cut off the supplies of the rebels, and doubled his guards on the Chumbul to prevent the threatened return of the Mhow and Indore body from Dholepore. His emissaries sowed fresh dissensions. The 5th Eegiment, with which the rest had quarrelled on account of its killing some of the native officers who had led it to mutiny, and the men of the 6th Eegiment offered to fight for him. The Banda force would not come to Gwalior. The Contingent lost heart ; professed to be satisfied, after examining accounts, that they had received nearly all ' their own ' money deposited in Scindia's treasury by the Political Agent and within six days withdrew their guns, while Scindia maintained his posts. The appearance of Vakeels from the Eanee of Jhansi and the Nana Saheb, bidding high for the services of the Contingent and for their magazine, now introduced amongst them fresh distractions, which Scindia turned to instant account. If they would join the Nana Saheb at Cawnpoor, settling Jhansi and Jaloun for him by the way, the Nana's Vakeel promised to all high pay, while he conferred brigadierships and ensigncies by the dozen ; and finally the rebels asked leave of Scindia to go to Bundel- cund and Cawnpoor, instead of to Agra which he could but promise about the 23rd of September. They demanded with ceaseless violence the performance of that promise ; and great indeed was Scindia's difficulty in carrying out our desire at once to guard against the risk of their precipitating themselves from some new impulse upon Agra, and to delay their march upon Cawnpoor. By the fall of Delhi, about the 20th of September, 326 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. Scindia's situation was of course entirely changed. The delusion that he must at length place himself at the head of the revolt was at an end, although many still believed that our empire must fall. Notwithstanding this event, and the rout and dispersion of the Mhow and Indore sepoys by Colonel Greathed at Agra, on the 10th of October, it was not in Scindia's power longer to detain the rebels from moving upon Cawnpoor, save at the immediate risk of their turning against Agra, to which the party whose object was war and the compromising of Scindia with us at all hazards, still urged them. The rebels, when at length they marched for Cawnpoor under Tantea Topeh, who had been sent by the Nana to obtain their aid, fiercely wasted Scindia's country, de- nouncing him as the great enemy and betrayer of their cause ; and they extorted money from a chief on their march by destroying his son's eyes with boiling oil. They reached Cawnpoor on the 1st of December, and being reinforced from Banda and from Oude, they pressed General Windham's force into its entrenchments, but were finally routed on the 10th, by the force under the Com- mander-in-Chief, Sir Colin Campbell. Thus a force of at least 16,000 men, of whom upwards of 6,000 were good and unbroken troops, with ample artillery and magazines, was kept out of the field for four most critical months, when the fate of Agra or that of Delhi might have been determined by their movements ; and a great territory was interposed, as a non-conductor of rebellious influences, between the disturbed districts and the southern and western regions of India. It needs but a glance at the map to show what the re- sult might have been had Gwalior sided with the rebels. The Nizam's territories, already sufficiently inflammable, would assuredly have caught fire ; and it is questionable, whether in that case any part of Southern India could have been saved. CHAP. XXIIL] CAUSES OF THE REVOLT. 327 The difficulty of Scindia's task was greatly enhanced by the state of public opinion in his dominions, where the feelings of the population, Hindu and Mahomedan, were generally very much the same with those of the Hindus and Mahomedans of our own provinces. It was the opinion of the more intelligent chiefs of the Gwalior State, who were but few in number, that the Bengal native army believed our Government to have intended, through the greased cartridges, to strike at the Hindu and Mahomedan religions in favour of Christianity. But they held that the army was predisposed to revolt through the disaffection of the population, and that the chief causes of the popular dissatisfaction with our rule were the extinction of Native States, and our consequent measures ; the depression of chiefs and heads of society ; the resumption, or the conversion into life-tenures, of he- reditary rent-free tenures of land, or of hereditary interests connected with land or the land revenue ; the alienation of zemindary lands for arrears of revenue, or in satisfac- tion of civil decrees ; the non-conferment of estates or honours for eminent services to the State; the want of conciliatory and confidential personal intercourse between our officers and the native chiefs, heads of society and people ; our system of administering civil justice. In the opinion, however, of the wisest of these chiefs, the examples of Malcolm and Elphinstone, and of many others, showed that our rule could be made very acceptable to the people of India, and its unpopularity arose essen- tially from the incapacity of the people to appreciate its principles and excellences ; from their having forgotten the evils suffered under native governments ; and from their impatience of small grievances, engendered through their relief and protection by us from great ones. The mercantile class were contented with our rule, and also the lowest agricultural class, save when moved by sympathy with the higher. Our revenue settlement in the North-west 328 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIII. Provinces was lighter, more equitable, and more acceptable to all than any that ever existed in Hindostan. All blessed the goodness and security of our highways. Under native governments, past and present, the dissatisfaction had been, and was, as great as or greater than under our Govern- ment, but different in its origin, and grievances were endured in a different spirit, from their being old, while the governors and governed were one, or were socially intimate. CHAP. XXIV.] CONDITION OF SCINDIA'S TROOPS. 329 CHAPTEE XXIV. SCINDIA'S OVERTHROW AND RESTORATION. ILLNESS AND DEATH OP MAJOR MACPHERSON. 1858-1860. THE following letter, written at Agra, on the 27th March 1858, may serve to indicate the state of affairs in Upper India at that time': 'I have had to write a long letter -to Lord C., to try and make him station the European troops of the new Contingent at Gwalior. Our principle should be to place commanding forces at the capitals : the districts will take care of themselves. Then I am at my wits' end for a Gwalior force I mean one for the Eajah. His force mainly now consists of men from our provinces, who are all, he says, hostile to us, like our own late army. I pro- posed to supersede them by Mahrattas, not more friendly, but who will wait on Scindia's will ; and Lord Elphinstone objects strongly to this, believing, I presume, that the Mahrattas want only the Nana Saheb anybody but us : the sign whereof is the offer of a lac of rupees for his capture. I am considerably anxious as to the effect of Nana coming to Gwalior. Till Jhansi and Calpee shall fall, it must be highly disturbed. The people there don't at all believe that Lucknow is fallen, or that we have a big army ; or why do we leave Calpee so long alone ? They believe that we are hard pressed, though victorious, and say it is their own policy to fly and renew the fight, so as to wear us out in the hot weather and rains.' Scindia influenced solely by his reliance on Major 330 MEMORIALS OF SEKVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. Macpherson, and disregarding alike the threats and the flattery of the Contingent, and the desires of his own troops, of his intimate friends, of nearly all his chiefs and people had allowed himself to be guided by the Dewan and by his two faithful military chiefs, and had himself acted with much tact and spirit. He had thus at the greatest personal risk, as is proved by the events which are about to be narrated succeeded in effecting the object, vital to British interests, of keeping the most formidable and best- appointed body of Sepoys in India out of the field till it had lost its importance, and he had then sent it to its destruction. But he was still left to cope with his own troops, partly composed (as already mentioned) of Poor- beahs men belonging to our provinces, who sympathised with the rebels ; while the other portion (the Mahrattas and the men drawn from Gwalior itself) had with diffi- culty been combined, by the great zeal and steadfastness of Mohurghur and Bulwunt Eao, to check and baffle both the Contingent and Scindia's sympathising troops, and to prevent them from uniting. Unhappily, when the danger seemed to be past, Scindia no longer availed himself of the skilful pilotage of the Dewan. He withdrew his confidence and practical support from Mohurghur and Bulwunt Eao, preferring his own unworthy favourites, and in this way lost his hold upon the faithful soldiers who had stood by him. At the same time, contemplating the eventual dismissal of his Poorbeahs, he was so unwise as to make his intention known to them, thus withdrawing from them any inducement to adhere to his cause. He completed the list of mistakes by massing his whole force at the capital, where the emissaries and the contagion of the revolt were strongest. In May 1858, whilst he was thus unconsciously playing the game of the rebels, the most dangerous of them all, Tan tea Topeh, was secretly at work in Gwalior, cor- rupting that portion of his troops which had remained faithful. CHAP. XXIV.] THE REBELS CROSS THE FRONTIER. 331 Already, in September 1857, when he went there to gain the Contingent to the Nana, and move it upon Cawnpoor, Topeh had become thoroughly acquainted with the ground. He saw (as was stated by one of his chief agents) that the Maharajah, influenced by the Dew an, was the only serious obstacle to the acquisition of Gwalior to the revolt ; and that the sole hope of mastering that obstacle lay in gaining over the Mahratta and Gwalior divisions of Scindia's troops which stih 1 looked to him for guidance, in addition to those who already sympathised with the rebels. Then Scindia might be seized, or over- borne, or compromised with us, when the Princes of Hindostan would still rise. These ideas he worked out in May 1858, ere yet the rebel leaders relinquished Calpee to Sir Hugh Eose ; and on the 28th of May, shortly after that event, the rebels moved across the Sinde river, Scindia's frontier, to Amaen. The leaders were the Eao Saheb, connected, by adoption, with the Nana and the late ex-Peishwa ; Tantea Topeh in foresight, resource and influence with individuals and masses, the soul of the N ana's cause ; the Nawab of Banda ; the Eanee of Jhansi, an ardent, daring, licentious woman, under thirty, who rode in military attire, with sword and pistols, followed by forty horse from Kotah, and by a Brahminee concubine of her late husband. Major Macpherson had remained in Agra up to May, Scindia declaring truly that he could not receive him until he could appear with an escort of Europeans. Towards the end of April he had been summoned from Agra to meet Sir Eobert Hamilton in Sir Hugh Eose's camp, and to take a force to Gwalior after Calpee should have fallen. He made his way accordingly with Colonel Eiddell's troops, and arrived at Calpee in time to see that place which might have made a serious defence evacu- ated by the rebels. Sir Hugh Eose, on hearing what the Agent had to say regarding the state of affairs in Gwalior, perceived the necessity of sending troops thither : for 332 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. although the Maharajah had been able to hold his ground thus far, it was plain that without the assistance he solicited he could not regain his authority over his sub- jects and his soldiery hostile to us, though still held in check by him. But our aid did not arrive in time. The following letter is from Calpee, 1st June (117 to 120 in tents) :- ' The rebels have next invaded Gwalior, while the force to go there in support of Scindia is still here, for want of orders from the Governor-General ; but Sir Hugh Eose has ordered it off to-morrow, at our request. I am in deep anxiety. A rebel mass from Bareilly and Calpee is twenty-four miles from Gwalior, and Scindia has sent out two regiments and eighteen guns and a thousand horse to meet them. If they beat that force, Gwalior is theirs, there being infinite treachery within it. We have, it is true, a small pursuing force within five marches of their rear, quite enough, I think, to meet them separately, or to co-operate with Scindia's, but not to command both the enemy and Scindia's men, which we desire to do. ... ' The monsoon threatens to overtake and paralyse us ; and for want of an order to march a week ago, all my Gwalior work may be ruined/ About Amaen were posted, when the rebels crossed, 400 of Scindia's foot, 150 horse, and 4 guns. Scindia's civil officer told the Eao Saheb, ' It is the order of the Maharajah and the Dewan that you retire.' ' And who,' replied the Eao Saheb, ' are you ? A ten-rupee underling of a Soobah, drunk with bhang ! And who are the Maha- rajah and Dinkur Eao ? Christians ! We are the Eao and Peishwa. Scindia is our slipper-bearer. 1 We gave him his kingdom. His army has joined us. We have letters from the Baiza Baee. Scindia himself encourages us. Tantea Topeh has visited Gwalior and ascertained all. 1 The Scindia family was popularly but inaccurately said to have sprung from a menial servant of the Peishwa. CHAP. XXIV.] SCINDIA DESERTED BY HIS TROOPS. 333 He having completed everything, I am for the Lushkur. 1 Would you fight with us? All is mine.' Scindia's de- tachment did not attempt resistance. Advancing with such boastful words, and affecting to send letters to Scindia requiring his submission, the Eao Saheb paraded his troops, under 5,000 in all, and marched to Burragaon, eight miles from Gwalior. Scindia's whole force had now been brought to sympa- thise more or less with the rebels ; a large portion was fully with them, and the remainder had no sufficient motive to strike heartily against them for Scindia. Still, the Dewan was confident that, as the small force detached by Sir Hugh Eose was advancing behind them, and as the rebels themselves might be divided by bribery, a selected body of Scindia's Gwalior and Mahratta men if posted in advance, while the mass of his troops was kept back would check them for a few days, and give time for our force to come up. On the morning of the 31st, Scindia was led by his bodyguard and household officers, who were in the in- terest of the rebels, to move 8,000 men and 24 guns to Morar, to disperse the rebels at once. In the evening, however, the Dewan 's advice prevailed, arid he marched his troops home, save a portion which was left entrenched at Morar. But, after midnight, His Highness was per- suaded, in the absence of the Dewan, suddenly to move his whole force back against the rebels. After a short mock- fight, Scindia's troops fraternised with them. The Maha- rajah fled to Dholepore, attended only by the Dewan, one other gentleman, and some troopers. A very few adhe- rents joined him there, and proceeded with him to Agra. The Ranees, accompanied by the Sirdars of the state and some officers of the household, went to the fort of Nurwur, thirty miles off. One of them, the mother of 1 i.e. the capital called the Lushkur or camp ; a memorial of the military habits of the Mahrattas. 334 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. the Maharanee, believing that Scindia was beleaguered at the Phoolbagh, seized a sword, mounted her horse, and rode to the palace, summoning all to his aid, until she found he was certainly gone. She followed the other ladies on the third day. Of His Highness's pampered favourites and boon-com- panions not one man followed him, while scarcely one followed the Eanees. Those men, almost without excep- tion, instantly accepted from the rebels pay, gratuities, rank, and office or became perfectly intimate with them ; while, with few exceptions, the whole population sympa- thised with them. The Eao Saheb was greatly disconcerted by Scindia's flight. In papers of the new Dewan appointed by the Eao, Scindia was styled ' a deeply-fixed root of the Naza- renes and strong striver in their cause.' The Eao Saheb invited the Baiza Baee to take charge of the State ; but she sent his letters to Sir Eobert Hamilton. The Eao Saheb prevented plunder ; confiscated only the houses of the Dewan, Bulwunt Eao, and Mohurghur ; confirmed nearly all Scindia's officials, appointing Topeh commander- in-chief ; and disbursed to Scindia's troops and his own, or appropriated, twenty lacs of rupees and a mass of jewel- lery, Scindia's loss by robbery and fire being in all from forty to fifty lacs. The Fort was surrendered at once. The Palace and the Eesidency were destroyed. Sir Hugh Eose immediately put his forces in motion, and marched upon Gwalior, accompanied by Sir Eobert Hamilton and, of course, by Major Macpherson, acting under the orders of the last-named officer. Sir Eobert, on entering the Gwalior State, issued a proclamation which greatly reassured the people, and they remained perfectly quiet. The rebels were beaten ; Gwalior was occupied on the 19th of June, and next day Scindia was re-established in his capital. Tan tea Topeh and the Eao Saheb escaped. The Eanee of Jhansi fell on the 17th. She was seated, CHAP. XXIV.] RETURN TO GWALIOR. 335 drinking sherbet, 400 of the 5th Irregulars near her, when the alarm was given that the Hussars approached. Forty or fifty of them came up, and the rebels fled, save about fifteen. The Kanee's horse refused to leap a canal, when she received a shot in the side, and then a sabre- cut on the head, but rode off. She soon after fell dead, and was burnt in a garden close by. At the same time, the Brahminee concubine of her late husband, who never left her side, received a long sabre-cut in front. She rode into the city, was tended by a Fakeer and the Mahoniedan head of police there, and, dying in their hands, was re- puted and buried as a Mahoniedan convert. The rebels were deeply dispirited by the Ranee's death. 1 Major Macpherson remained at Gwalior, 2 whence the next letter is dated : 1 A large portion of Scindia's revolted troops joined the rebels near their own homes in Oude and Rohilcund, or went with Topeh and the Rajah of Nurwur, the only chief of note under Scindia's rule who had risen. The remainder, scattered through the country, were kept quiescent, in sight or in hand, during the rains, and were eventually disarmed and discharged, and most of their ringleaders seized. 2 His conduct during the crisis of Scindia's overthrow and restoration, and during that period alone, is indicated in the following notice : ' From the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for India to the Right Hon. the Governor- General of India. 1 East India House, 30th November 1858. ' My Lord, Your Lordship's dispatch, No. 36 in the Foreign Department, dated September 14th, respecting the distinguished services of Sir Robert Hamilton, having been considered by me in Council, I have much satisfac- tion in expressing the gratification which it has afforded me to read the high testimony which you have borne to the "zeal, energy, and ability displayed by that meritorious officer throughout the arduous and protracted campaign which has now been brought to a triumphant conclusion." Sir Robert Hamilton has, as your Lordship observes, " in circumstances of great difficulty, rendered admirable service to the British Government." ' 2. I observe also, with much satisfaction, the commendatory language in which you have spoken of the services of Major Macpherson, u whose management of political affairs with Gwalior throughout the past crisis has been marked by much judgment and tact;" and of Captain Shakespear, Sir Robert Hamilton's assistant, who accompanied him throughout the campaign, and rendered valuable service to his chief. 1 3. You will be pleased to communicate to these officers the gratification 336 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. 'Gwalior, 4th July 1858. 4 Scindia's whole army at Gwalior, with the exception of a few hundred men, went i.e., both ran away at once and received pay from the enemy. His great chiefs went off with the Baiza Baee. Nearly all his officers, military and civil, at the capital, were more or less fully with the rebels ; and all, save a very few, like the Dewan, deserted him utterly all those men who were with him in Calcutta, for example, save Angria and Phalkeah. But the point of the story is to come. Scindia has received every rebel with open arms, while he repels utterly all who have stood by him. The bodyguard rascals, and those who brought Tantea Topeh in the other day to the Lushkur for eight days, to pave the way for the rebels' coming, all dine with him daily in the old way : to none other does he speak a word. We cannot get him to do anything even to the man, the prime villain, his treasurer, who brought in the rebels and robbed his treasury ! His sole wish is to get his army restored in full, through new recruits, and replaced under its officers who have just betrayed him, as we should say. I fear he may be wholly unmanageable ' My line is to treat Scindia as still our ward, and re- move from him the villains who are leading him to de- struction.' It were tedious to relate the difficulties with which Major Macpherson had now to contend between Scindia, who could scarcely be induced to inflict punishment even upon the most signal offenders, and others who were eager to punish those who had in truth deserved best of the British Government. < Gwalior, 17th August 1858. ' I am writing in His Highness's Phoolbagh Palace rows of -pillars in a garden and who are just come in which I have derived from the perusal of this record of their services, and that it will afford me much satisfaction to bring- the services of Sir R. Hamil- ton to the notice of Her Majesty. I have, &c. &c. ' STANLEY.' CHAP. XXIV.] FAMILY OF T ANTE A TOPEH. 3-7 but the whole family of Tantea Topeh ! A fortnight ago, the Soubah of Bhind sent us word that he had captured some suspicious pundits in the house of an ironsmith. The Dewan's father-in-law, three days ago an official thereabouts told the Dewan that he believed they were the Topehs. Instantly the Dewan sent for them, and here they are. I have been out looking at them. They are all lying in that pavilion in the Phool Bagh garden, at which we gathered after the murders. There is a doubled-up thin old man of eighty-two, Topeh's father, born in the Deccan, who left it a begging priest with the ex-Peishwa, and has since lived at Bithoor; two sons one bull-like, the other thin and haggard both near forty ; one of seventeen, and four children down to a year old, a very fair beautiful child ; three women, wives of those three, one old one with a rather fine indignant-eye- browed expression one decidedly pretty, but a mere child. 4 1 have been ordering sweetmeats for these hungry children, not reflecting that their fathers' treatment of ours was not quite in that fashion. ' I don't know if any act of rebellion can be proved against these men, but I will try to-morrow. They are all as quiet and collected as if nothing had happened. To whose custody do you think I entrust them ? To a troop of Meade's Horse, formed of the Dundouteah Brah- mins, who, you may recollect, saved us all in our flight from Gwalior last year. They are moreover my own sole guard here, while Durbar and all say I should have Bombay Sepoys or Europeans ; but here I am " trust- ing natives " again, like any Brigadier of the old school, though with a difference, and I think L. would trust them. 'The only paper this Topeh family have brought in with them is a sloke or ode of contempt or execration of the English, which I will send when I can translate it. 6 You may like to hear that " the English bray like z 338 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. asses and run away," and " will fly like a kite witli a broken string." < Gth September 1858. .....' Certainly it seems strange that there should be an article in " The Times " on Scindia, taken entirely from my Eeport, as far as Scindia's conduct goes, without the faintest allusion to me. It is said that a man who has the telling of his own fights is a fool unless he makes his fortune ; and I suppose I am such a fool 'The Palace is occupied by the 71st Highlanders. 1 Scindia, unfortunately, has a daughter again. 2 But the people fired so many guns and squibs, that down rushed the Brigadier with a troop of horse and four guns, &c. to our aid.' Nothing caused Major Macpherson greater embarrass- ment or greater pain than the feeling towards the natives which now prevailed among military men. He writes, in November 1858 : ' It is this that makes me almost despair for India ; for until this state of feeling shall be reversed, I see no hope. How admirably Lord Stanley spoke at Fishmongers' Hall on that point ! ' 1 Gwalior, 19th December 1858. . . . . ' The circumstances have differed ; the man has been the same. He followed my bidding from the out- break to the 1st June last, because I did not touch his force (his mania) or his favourites, and let him, of course, have his will ; only moulded to meet my policy. 'In 1858 he resisted me absolutely, because that policy required him to sacrifice forces and favourites. Then he fell into a succession of " moods," causing delay and vexation unspeakable.' 1 The conduct of this fine regiment during a whole year obtained for them, in an extraordinary degree, the goodwill and the respect of Scindia and of all the inhabitants of Gwalior. 2 Scindia had no son. CUAP. XXIV.] DIFFICULTIES AT GWALIOR. 339 A little later 'My difficulties since Scindia's restoration have been boundless, solely from his character, and habitual conduct and relations to his servants The great difficulty is to keep the rare Dewan and Gwalior together.' .... Major Macpherson had embodied in an elaborate report, dated the 10th February 1858, not only a full narrative of all that had occurred in Gwalior since the outbreak, but also a statement of the causes of the insurrection as they appeared to the native eye ; and Lord Canning had thus written to him during the same spring : l c Your report is admirable, and the course which you have followed throughout will receive the warmest public acknowledgments from me.' Yet all this time, though Major Macpherson's services rendered in subordination to Sir Eobert Hamilton during the crisis of Scindia's fall and reinstatement had been publicly recognised, 2 the course which at an earlier period he had solely devised and pursued, during those eventful months when so much depended on Gwalior, and to which Lord Canning had promised his warmest public acknowledgments, remained entirely unnoticed; 3 while offices for which he was highly qualified, and to which he might reasonably have expected to be advanced, were bestowed upon gentlemen whose claims were, to say 1 April 23, 1858. 3 See above, p. 335. 3 In the debate on the vote of thanks to the Government and the Army in India, April 14th, 1859, Mr. Vernon Smith (now Lord Lyveden) observed, in the course of his speech : ' . . . Major Macpherson is also entitled to much praise. He con- trived, by management of which we have as yet no knowledge, to prevent the Gwalior contingent, after they revolted, from joining the other in- surgents during two or three of the most perilous months of the year ; and to him was much to be attributed the maintenance of tranquillity in that part of India at a period when insurrection and attack might have proved most injurious.' Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. 153, p. 1757. This was the testimony of a gentleman who had long presided over the India Board, and to whom Major Macpherson was personally unknown. z 2 310 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. the least, no higher than his. This produced some natural expressions of disappointment. Early in 1859 he wrote 6 1 have worked my uttermost night and day, and am not ashamed to look back, and am too old for office under juniors or equals wholly undistinguished, and I want deeply rest or encouragement to go on. It were hard to live without work in England, but I should be unspeak- ably happy amongst gowans, heather, and friends fishing- rod, books, pictures, geology rising to sociology, if any- body could but get at it, perhaps a ragged school, about the surest work I know, so far as it goes, which is but a short way truly. Would no small College take me as Professor of Metaphysics ? I was once famous in it, and could teach up to Voltaire's definition of it, at least. . . . ' By the way, I am sorry to say that all my Khond diaries, &c. my private ones are burnt by the rebels ; so that I can never, as I intended, tell the tale of their religious conquest.' l During this year Sir Eobert Hamilton returned to Europe. He was succeeded in the office of Governor- General's Agent for Central India by Sir Richmond Shakespear, who, soon after assuming the office, ad- dressed the following note to Major Macpherson, with whom he was not then personally acquainted : ' I have read your Eeports, all of them, with real en- joyment ; they are admirable, and I am so taken with the one on the Mutinies 2 that .... I have learnt much from it Your judgment I admire throughout that awful period, and I am surprised that the important 1 He carried with him from India, in December 1848, in one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers, a collection of about forty por- traits of Khond chiefs, drawn by an artist whom he took to the Hills for the purpose, but he lost them on board the steamer. 2 The Report of February 10, 1858. One of the first Indian authorities of the day, to whom this report was submitted in the course of his duty, remarked ' how admirably the British representative had steered his course, with breakers ahead on almost every side. The tone, too, so good; his tools made so much of, his own part touched so modestly.' CHAP. XXIV.] LORD CANNING'S MINUTE. 341 services performed by you have not already been promi- nently rewarded. ' You may make any use you like of this note ; and if you can put me in the way of drawing attention to your services, I shall be glad to do my utmost for assuredly you have fairly won it.' At length, in the autumn of 1859, the following para- graph appeared in a very long minute l of Lord Canning's, containing a resume of the services of the various civil officers in India : '26. I recommend to the favourable consideration of Her Majesty's Government the services of Major Mac- pherson, the Political Agent at Gwalior. Holding a post of great importance, far removed from his immediate superior at Indore, and often struggling against sickness, he has discharged his difficult duties with complete success/ This commendation was regarded as very inadequate by those who were best acquainted with the affairs of Upper India. The following is the opinion of one of the most dis- tinguished of them, Mr. Harington (afterwards a member of the Governor-General's Council), who was with him in the Fort of Agra, during the year 1857 ; who heard from his own lips, at the time, all that was occurring in Gwalior, and all that he was doing to meet the course of events there ; and to whose advice it was mainly due that the Agra Government abstained from an interference in Gwalior affairs which would have been quite ruinous : ' Macpherson and I saw each other almost daily during the time that we were together in the Fort at Agra, and I not only heard from him all that is contained in his narrative of events, but I had a personal knowledge of the admirable tact and judgment which he displayed in deal- ing with Scindia, and in keeping the Gwalior Contingent 1 Dated July 2, 1859. 342 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. with its powerful artillery inactive in its cantonments until after the fall of Delhi. We owe Macpherson much much more than has been supposed, and very much more than has been acknowledged.' 1 The remainder of Major Macpherson's life was occupied with a continual endeavour to preserve to the people of Gwalior in spite of difficulties on which it would not be desirable to dwell in this place, but which were of a very trying nature the just and equable system of go- vernment which British influence had established. The opinions which he formed for himself as to the great events of the period will appear from the f oh 1 owing passages extracted from his letters : 1 Agra, 12th January 1858. ' Nobody here has an idea of the state of feeling in the 1 "With reference to this opinion of Mr. Harington's, it is proper to call attention to the following passage, in the publication entitled ' India under Dalhousie and Canning,' by the Duke of Argyll, p. 118 : ' The weakness of the native princes made their fidelity, in some cases, of comparatively little value. The only one within the limits of British India who had any considerable military force, the Maharajah of Gwalior, was unable to restrain his army from joining the mutineers. This, however, it may be said, was more our fault than his, because his troops were a Con- tingent under the old subsidiary system, and virtually formed part of the Army of Bengal. The friendly attitude assumed by the Government of the Nizam in the South of India, was the most important aid which we derived from any native state.' These remarks, proceeding from a statesman of such eminence as the Duke of Argyll, show that the facts of the case have not been made suf- ficiently known in this country. It will be apparent to the readers of these pages that the Gwalior Contingent was in no sense the army of Scindia, nor subject to his orders j yet that he did prevent it from joining the rebels for the four critical months during which such j unction would have been of momentous importance, and contrived that the junction should take place just where we desired ; also that he restrained his own army (more numerous than the Contingent, though far inferior in discipline) for nearly twelve months, and would have prevented it from joining the rebels at all, if our succour had been given in time. It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Nizam's government to maintain a friendly attitude towards us in 1857, if Scindia had either gone over, or succumbed to the anti-British party, or if his own Contingent had mutinied, like Scindia's. Had Scindia gone over, Nagpore, the Nizam's country, and Southern India must have followed him. CHAP. XXIV.] CAUSES OF THE REVOLT. 343 country, I fear. In relation to this convulsion I have gazed most intensely at the phenomena in Gwalior, and tried to record them. The difficulty passes belief. . . . * I don't know what people will say to my view .... that the primary cause of the revolt was the deep dissa- tisfaction of the army with our rule, our government, and our manners, shared with the whole population of Hin- dostan. I can get at nothing but this, I grieve to say, for a primary cause. The army was fully predisposed by this cause to revolt. It made the cartridge grievance a pretext to rise ; and the foremost malcontents, princes, &c., seized the opportunity to stimulate and head the rebellion. The soldiery had a true religious panic from a true grievance ; but had they not been ripe for revolt, they had not revolted about the cartridge, but had sought and found satisfactory explanations and assurances. But they would have no explanations, and made the cartridge the pretext for revolt. The Mahomedans, who struck for both reli- gious and secular supremacy, desired both our overthrow and our extinction. The Hindus, who happily did not make a religious contest of it, desired the overthrow of our rule, but protected life. Had the Hindus made a matter of religion of it, no one had remained to report. But Benares, Gya, &c. gave no sign. The great point was, that we had given neither by legislation, nor by mis- sionaryism, nor in any other way, religious offence which could serve the turn of the revolutionists. But people in England had better not think that they can play at prose- lytism in India at the cost of any army that they ever put on board a fleet. The army revolted in the belief that, from the paucity of our European troops, from the army's having possession of our magazines, and from the aid of chiefs and people, they must triumph. They miscalculated (1) the point of the Sikhs, who saved Delhi; (2) the Chinese expedition, which gave Havelock a force to smash the Nana ; (3) Scindia and the other princes, who had their " doots," and would stand by us till they saw further. 344 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. Had Scindia gone, not a prince would have stood for a day. I got him to act in antagonism to the revolt until the Contingent mutinied, and then to keep the Contingent quiescent until we were quite ready to crush them. . . . The army revolted in the face of matchless class advantages, because we do not even attempt to carry the mind of the people with us In the North-Western Provinces, our sales of Zemindary lands for arrears of revenue, and in satisfaction of civil decrees, have arrayed the whole country against us. 1 In- stantly on the revolt, all holders of land by our titles given on such sales were expelled. This extended to every hamlet in the country in which there has been a sale. Yet you are told the country is not against us ! Of course, the confusion from this cause alone is prodigious. Shall we vindicate our titles ? Shall we punish those who kicked them aside ? Our Amlah 2 and police as a body have proved as false as our army. Shall we go back to the old men ? or shall we try a new plan to govern the country, through the aid of the men of family, property, and real influence ? . . . Scindia has done admirably ; but he cherishes next his heart our bitterest foes the men who brought on Maharajpore in 1843, and who have now been urging him night and day to be up and at us. He listens to and pampers them, but follows the counsels of Dinkur Eao. . . .' 'Agra, llth February 1858. 6 What saved us was that the chiefs of all kinds doubted much that we should fall ; thought rather that we should triumph, arid resolved to wait till after the rains. The people therefore waited also, never rising unled. Had Delhi not fallen when it did, all had risen ; be sure of this. The population of the North-Western Provinces is tribal, unlike Bengal ; and tribes are, of course, chief-led. Were 1 See above, p. 305, where it is stated that the Gwalior code does not follow ours in this respect. * The members of the native civil establishments. CHAP. XXIV.] FUTUKE POLICY. 345 the chiefs decently treated, 1 you would have the whole population ; but without the chiefs, not a man. Everybody says the Sepoys wanted mastery ; but these Asiatics must have a tyrant, and look only to having one. Seeing we had no European army, and that they could beard the Governor-General, what could they do but rise ? If we do not bring every Sepoy, like every Thug, to justice, we shall have no safe platform here.' 1 Agra, 28th February 1858. . ... 6 1 see that * * * tells " The Times " that if we had played with landed rights in the Punjaub as in our North- Western Provinces, Havelock's battles had been fought at Calcutta ; and you may be sure he is right. I pray you not to imagine that I suppose that the army revolted only because it shared the dissatisfaction of the people with our rule ; but that it was thereby predisposed to revolt, the cartridge being but the pretext and watch- word. But the subject is endless, with a thousand sides. Every cause assigned for the revolt has tended to produce it ; but dissatisfaction with our rule, common to the army and the people, was the preliminary condition sine qua non ; and the main cause of that dissatisfaction was actual and apprehended disturbance of rights connected with the soil, of Maafee tenures, Zernindary huqs, &c. &c.' < 3rd March 1858. ' Let Lord Canning's Government answer just this one question Why, when they had before them all the warn- ings which accumulated up to the middle of April, did they not bring their European regiments down from the hills and place them over their magazines, and warn all officers to look ou f , ? Perhaps it is best as it deplorably 1 Major Macpherson does not allude to any personal ill-treatment of natives by Europeans: indeed he felt strongly the injustice of the state- ments which were so currently made in England on that subject. 346 MEMOKIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. happened, if the Government will but believe that the Mutiny arose in the villages, not in the cantonments.' 1 1 Agra, 5th March 1858. ' Are we in future to take the influential classes with us, or to crush them by brute force, and yet more de- testable degradation by Amlah tyranny ? I have never seen an officer, civil or military, of competent knowledge and manners, attempt to take those classes with him and fail. They are most ready to be honourably allied with the Government, but the terms must be those due to the whole facts of their civilisation.' 'Agra, 25th April 1858. . . . ' Lord Ellenborough is far nearer right ideas than most people ; sees that nothing saved us the other day, ex- cept that we had not done more against caste and religion ; and that if by going further in that direction we shall alienate the people more, the country will be wholly un- manageable for good to anyone. India ruled here by bayonet power, and there by platform and hustings power, will be a wretched work to have a hand in ' The people should be predisposed, through acceptable civil administration, to regard favourably the religious change proposed to them. Were not all attempts on the Khond religion vain until that was done ? And when it was effected, did not the religious change follow ? This was the whole meaning and value of the Khond experiment. That principle is now the one to be enforced. . . . Set men to manage each people, or division or denomination, 1 About this time Major Macpherson wrote : 1 You see that Lord Ellenborough quite understands that the population are hostile to us that the rising has been a revolt of the people, not of the army. I alone ventured to say this here for a long time.' 'Rawlinson [the allusion is to a speech of Sir H. Rawlinson, the dis- tinguished Oriental diplomatist and scholar, in the House of Commons] is very near my view of the thing, and will take it in fully. Nearly every one I meet now admits it.' CHAP. XXIV.] TAXATION. 347 and under them let that people or division, if possible, govern themselves, municipally, under our high tutelage : at all events, let each officer keep his division assent- ing to, or at the very lowest fully acquiescing in, our measures. ' From what I have done, and seen done by many, I think all this is perfectly possible ; the principle being localisation, diversity, individuality of rule, as alone suited to the present condition of India. A strong Governor- General would introduce this system gradually and quietly, without any startling changes or great difficulty. The localisation of the officers would effect much. Here and there a district would soon be remarked rejoicing at the feet of its officers. If these were honoured, others would emulate them. A fair standard would be created, and we should have tolerable content over all. But the prefects must take with them the men of influence of every kind, or the State must know the reason why.' The heat of Gwalior, and the intense strain upon his mind during the Mutiny and the difficult and anxious times which succeeded, gradually wore out Major Mac- pherson's health, and this was very apparent in the autumn of 1859, when he visited Calcutta. During the winter he was deputed to conduct an intricate inquiry into the behaviour of the minister of the Eana of Dholepore during the Mutiny, a point on which the Magistrate of Agra was at issue with the Political Agent at Bhurt- pore ; the former alleging that the minister had ravaged our territory and ought to be punished, the latter that he had not committed the offences alleged, but had, on the contrary, done good service. On the 18th of December 1859, Major Macpherson wrote 'I am settling the Agra and Dholepore case in the only possible way by going to each plundered village and hearing its case in the presence of the accused. I 348 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. will do it as rapidly as possible ; but the misl * is a camel-load.' While conducting this inquiry in the pleasant cold season of the Upper Provinces, he at first felt invigorated, and somewhat rested, being relieved for the time from the anxieties of Gwalior politics. He was on the eve of completing the period of service which would entitle him to retire on a Lieutenant-Colonel's pension ; and he was looking hopefully to an early return to Great Britain. But in the midst of his investigation he was attacked by illness, and repaired to Agra, where Brigadier Showers received him with kind hospitality. At length in the beginning of April 1860, feeling worse, and believing that change would do him good, he started for Cal- cutta, intending to proceed immediately to Europe. The journey was long and fatiguing. On the way he rapidly became worse, from exhaustion and the heat of the weather. His admirable friend, the Dewan, now Eajah Dinkur Eao, met him on his way, and thinking him very ill, offered to accompany him to Calcutta ; but the proposal was declined, and he continued his jour- ney, while visions of Scotland, of streams and village greens, and children playing, flitted before his eyes, and were a relief to him during the long and weary nights of his painful travel. His brother, Dr. John Macpher- son, who went from Calcutta to Eaneegunge, then the terminus of the railway, to meet him, found him suffering severe pain and, in fact, hopelessly ill of congestion of the liver. At Dr. Macpherson's house in Calcutta he lingered for five days, conscious of the approach of death, and evincing the kindness and consideration for others which always characterised him. He was visited by his valued friend, Mr. Harington, and Sir James Outram. He earnestly urged the latter (whose own health had now greatly 1 Record. N. B. There were 66 cases to inquire into. CHAP. XXIV.] DEATH OF MAJOR MACPHERSON. 349 failed) to go home, and not to sacrifice his life by remaining too long in India. His thoughts naturally turned on the great change which was approaching, and by his own desire, some of the beautiful paraphrases appended to the Scotch version of the Psalms were read to him. While he was listening to the 14th chapter of St. John he became unconscious, and on the evening of the 15th April 1860 his spirit passed away. He was interred in the Scotch burying-ground in Calcutta. Sir James Outram (who was then, in Lord Canning's absence, President of the Council) and all the members of the Council of the Governor-General, with their Secretaries and Staff, attended the funeral. 1 The Fort St. George Government Gazette soon after contained the following announcement : ' The following letter from the Secretary to the Govern- ment of India with the Governor-General is published for general information : 'No. 1358. From Cecil Beadon, Esq., Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General, to Colonel Sir E. Shakespear, Knight, Agent to the Governor-General for Central India. ( Simla, 18th April 1860 (Foreign Department). ' gir 5 I am directed to state that the Governor-General has received with deep regret the melancholy intelligence of the death of Major S. Charters Macpherson, of the Madras Army, the Political Agent at Gwalior. * Major Macpherson's services in the Political Depart- ment through a long course of years, especially the part 1 It was also attended by his native servants, who were devotedly attached to him, and whom he had asked to come and see him buried. 350 MEMORIALS OF SERVICE IN INDIA. [CHAP. XXIV. he took in the suppression of human sacrifices and infanti- cide among the Khonds, have gained for him a high place in the long list of distinguished officers who have adorned the Indian Service, and entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the Government and the people of India. I have, &c., ' CECIL BEADON, ' Secretary to the Government of India with the 1 Governor-General.' After Major Macpherson's death his name appeared in the ' London Gazette ' in a list of new Companions of the Bath. A very gratifying letter was received by Dr. Macpher- son from Dinkur Eao, warmly dwelling on his friendship with Major Macpherson, on the great assistance which MajorMacpherson had rendered to the Gwalior State and people, on ' his abilities in transacting state affairs his firm, decided, and upright character, and his good nature and kind heart.' The sentiments with which he was regarded by his countrymen are expressed in the following passage of a letter addressed to the editor of these Memorials by his lamented friend the late Mr. Eitchie, then Advocate- General, and shortly afterwards a member of the Council of the Governor-General : 1 Calcutta, 9th May I860. ' I know no man whose loss has been felt more deeply in Calcutta, or who has carried with him to the grave more genuine esteem and regard than he has. 1 It will be most difficult to supply his place, and so I know the Government feel keenly, now that he is gone. From what Sir Bartle Frere 2 (a noble fellow, who is full of enthusiasm about your brother's services) told me, I infer that Lord Canning now sees and deeply regrets his mistake in not 1 In these lines Mr. Ritchie unconsciously anticipated what was ere long to be said of himself. 2 Then a member of the Council of the Governor-General j now Governor of Bombay. CHAP. XXIV.] DEATH OF MAJOR MACPHERSON. 351 conferring an adequate reward at once on him, for his invaluable services to the State in its hour of greatest need.' 1 Major Macpherson was eminently a practical man, but his practice was always based on carefully-considered principles, and he used to say that it was from the study of Guizot that he had learnt how to reclaim the Khonds. He certainly possessed the faculty, however acquired, of calling into play the best energies of all the natives of India with whom he came into contact, and of insensibly imparting to them, whether barbarous or civilized, more enlightened sentiments arid a higher tone of feeling. It may be stated with confidence that he invariably did what he conceived to be best for the work with which he was charged, without pausing to consider what would be said of any act, or how it would affect his own interests or his official position ; that he was ever disposed to advance the claims of others in preference to his own ; that he never forgot a kindness, nor omitted an opportunity of conferring one. If there be truth in the saying of a great man, 2 that it is a loss to mankind when any good action is forgotten, it may be deemed pardonable to have placed on record these scanty Memorials of a Service in which head and heart were alike unsparingly, and not without worthy results, devoted to the cause of humanity and of good government. 1 When Major Macpherson was on his death-bed, a letter arrived from Lord Canning, too late to admit of its contents being communicated to him, which contained the following passage : 1 7th April 1860. 1 1 desire greatly to offer you promotion, and have long considered (before the troubles of 1857 arose) that the Government is in debt to you in this respect.' 2 Johnson, in the Life of Savage. APPENDIX. A. (REFERRED TO AT PAGES 84 AND 131.) Preli/minary Statement of the Sources of Information, form- ing part of a Paper on the Religion of the Khonds, read before the Royal Asiatic Society in 1852. THE British Government first came into immediate contact with the mountain Khonds in 1835, whilst engaged in military operations for the reduction of the zemindary of Goomsur in the Gran jam district, whose rajah had rebelled and taken refuge amongst them. Upon the completion of those operations in 1837, I was employed in surveying a portion of the newly- acquired district and the unexplored tracts around it. In per- forming that duty, I was enabled to obtain a considerable amount of information respecting the language, manners, in- stitutions, and religion of the Khonds, then almost entirely unknown. That information, professedly very incomplete, was embodied in a report, written by order of the Madras Govern- ment in June 1841, and afterwards printed by the Government of India. When I returned to the Khond country in that year, as an assistant to the Agent of the Government in the Ganjam district, I found that I had previously visited only the tribes belonging to one of the two great antagonist sects into which the Khonds are divided, and that I had, thence, erroneously described the tenets and observances of that sect as constituting the whole system of Khond religion. My present object is to correct that error from the information which I have been enabled to obtain during my long subsequent connexion with A A 354 APPENDIX A. the people as a subordinate, or the chief, Agent of the Govern- ment for the suppression amongst them of the practices of human sacrifice and female infanticide. The Khond religion exists in oral traditions alone, and the priesthood by which these are preserved is neither hereditary nor strictly organised as a profession ; nevertheless, the ceremo- nials of the gods, composed of rites, invocations, hymns, legends, and recitals, form a repository of materials, doctrinal and ritual, from which the main outlines and spirit of the superstition may be authentically deduced. And, through inquiries systemati- cally addressed to the best-informed priests and laymen whose full confidence has been gained, the doctrines which do not naturally find a place in the ceremonials, and all the details of these, may be ascertained. Still, with respect to every portion of the following account of the Khond superstition, I beg that, in addition to the obvious difficulty, under any circumstances, of ascertaining and describing from oral statements the opinions, feelings, and sentiments which constitute a system of religion, the following special sources of error may be kept in view. Only the leading ideas, the chief formalities, and the most familiar and significant expressions of this religion are distinctly fixed in the minds even of the best informed of its rude professors. The details of doctrines and of rites, of legends and narratives, vary in every district, and even in different parts of the same district, according as the population belongs to one or other of the two great antagonist sects, and according to the fancies of the offi- ciating priests. Upon many subjects, for instance, there are many different legends, all equally current and equally believed, so that the one which I give is to be considered merely as a sample of those that exist. And hence, in the attempt to present in exact language and a systematic form a body of tra- ditional ideas, I fear that I have, perhaps unavoidably, imparted to the subject an appearance of theoretical completeness and consistency which does not strictly belong to it. I have to add, that these descriptions are drawn exclusively from the Khond country of the zemindary of Groomsur, and from those portions of the zemindaries of Boad, Duspullah, Souradah, and some neighbouring tracts with the usages of which I am best acquainted. All the principal legends, hymns, and recitals were taken down by me as they were spoken or intoned by well-informed APPENDIX A. 355 priests or laymen in the Khond language, and, on account of my imperfect knowledge of that language, translated line by line into Oriya and Hindostanee by persons highly qualified for the task. My late very able and deeply-lamented friend Mr. Caden- head, who was principal assistant in the Orissan Hill Agency, and a perfect master of the Khond language, also obtained these legends in it, in many cases from sources distinct from mine, and collated my versions with his own made directly from the originals. And lastly, to obtain the inestimable advantage of Mr. Cadeuhead's mature views upon every part of this attempt to describe the Khond religion, I sent a draft of it to him in India, which I received back enriched with comments upon every point on which he differed from me, or upon which he could add to my information, either from his own sources or by communicating with the late Soonderah Sing Deo, the Hindu gentleman who was principal native assistant to the Agency, and whose services in that capacity cannot be overrated. Details as to the Minor Deities, also forming part of the Paper read before the Royal Society in 1852. Pidzu Pennu, the God of Rain. PIDZU PENNU, the god of rain, being necessarily regarded as the great cause of vegetation, his worship is in practice nearly iden- tified with that of Boorbi Pennu, the goddess of new vegetation ; and his rights are generally, if not always, performed at her shrine, a stone or a tree near every village. . When it is resolved to invoke the god of rain, the elders, having made their arrangements with the priest, proceed through the village calling out, 'Vessels ho! Vessels ho!' when vessels of arrack are immediately brought out from every house. These are carried by parties of ten or twelve to the tree of Boorbi Pennu. Pidzu Pennu then comes upon the Janni, the offerings are deposited under the tree, and all seat themselves. A great Janni, with two smaller priests and some of the principal elders, then perform the following worship apart from the crowd. The Janni first calls on Boora and Tari, and then on Pidzu Pennu, and on all the other gods as Samudur Pennu, the god A A 2 356 APPENDIX A. of the sea, Loha Pennu, the god of war, and Sundi Pennu, the god of boundaries to make up, as it is considered most im- portant to do, a strong assembly of the peers of Pidzu Pennu, in the hope of their exerting the influence of their opinion upon him. The priest then says, ' Pidzu Pennu ! hear us. What have we come short in our service ? In what have we diminished ancient usage ? We say not that we have not failed towards you ; but if we have failed unconsciously, it was your part to have remembered the constant service of our fathers, and to have intimated to us our fault, not to have visited us thus in wrath. Behold your peers, Loha Pennu, &c. We have wor- shipped them even as we have worshipped you. Their favour has not diminished towards us. ' Pidzu Pennu ! is it that you have given your daughter in marriage to the son of some god who is hostile to us, or have made his daughter your son's bride, and under his influence injure us ? We men cannot comprehend your divine thoughts, but your fellow-gods, Loha Pennu, Pitterri Pennu, Soro Pennu, &c., know them and judge them. We know not, we cannot know your counsels ; but we pray you to remember, to reflect that, if you shall not give us water, half our land must remain unploughed ; that the seed in the ground will rot ; that we and our children must perish for want of food ; that our cattle must die for want of pasture ; that the sambur, the spotted deer, the wild hog, and all other game will quit our country, seeking other haunts. We pray of you to remember all this ; and that, should you hereafter, when it is too late, relent, either from pity towards us, or from desiring your own food and worship, or from doubting of your reception should you, when we are no more, seek the worship of another village we pray you to re- flect how little any gift of water will then avail, when there shall be left neither man, nor cattle, nor seed. Therefore, we now address to you these entreaties, while we also beseech all of you, ye assembled gods, to aid and enforce our prayer to Pidzu Pennu, taking to your hearts all we have said. ( Pidzu Pennu ! for you we have brought eggs, and arrack, and rice, and a sheep. Be pleased to eat, and to entertain these assembled gods, receiving from them all the credit due for the goodness of the feast. Oh, give us abundant rain, enough to melt the hill-tops. Go and fetch water for us, if need be, by force or fraud, from the stores of your friends the gods of rain. Bring APPENDIX A. 357 it in brass vessels, and in hollow gourds, and resting on the sky above our land, pour the water down on it through your sieve until the sambur, unable to live in the forests, shall seek shelter in our houses, and till the soil of the mountains shall be washed into our valleys. Strip off all old leaves and bring out new. Let the vegetation be such, that shoots springing from the newly planted melons shall follow our footsteps, and let it be of such strength that our cooking-pots shall burst next year from the force of the swelling rice. Let the bamboo sprouts shoot out rapidly. Let all the neighbouring tribes come to buy rice of us, and let them alone experience the pains of surfeit. Let there be such a gathering of the beasts of the chase in our green and favoured country, that our axes shall be blunt with cutting them up. But do you, moreover, recollect that we cannot go out in the falling floods. Then do you don your hat, and laying your stick over your shoulder, guard our unenclosed fields from both the wild animals and the tame cattle. Let our full foun- tains gush upwards. Do thus, and we will next year provide eggs, fowls, a sheep, and liquor for a feast at least equal to this, for the maintenance of your character for hospitality with your brother-gods.' They then kill the sheep, but may not eat it. Its flesh must be given to Soondies, or Groands, if any be present ; if not, it must be left on the field. Those who take part in this cere- mony, however, drink the liquor with wild shouts and dancing, and return home. The Janni and a few of the old men remain a little behind, to reply to and pacify any god who may by accident have been forgotten at the bidding of the gods, and may now demand the cause. Having gone a few steps, those elders and the priests turn back and say, 'If we have uncon- sciously omitted to do honour on this occasion to any god, we pray of the other deities to intercede for us and pacify him,' Pitterri Pennu, the God of Increase. Pitterri Pennu, the god of increase, and of gain in every shape, is worshipped at seed-time, and his worship is in each village designated from the tree, rock, or other spot where it is performed, as the 'mowa-tree' worship, the Hank-side' worship. Upon the first day of the feast, a sort of rude car is made of 358 APPENDIX A. a basket set upon a few sticks, tied upon bamboo rollers for wheels. The Janni takes this car first to the house of the lineal head of the tribe or branch, to whom it is essential that prece- dence should be given in all ceremonies connected with agri- culture, and obtains from it a little of each kind of some seed and feathers. He then takes the car to every other house in the village, which contributes the same things, and lastly, it is conducted to a field without the village, accompanied by all the young men, who beat each other and strike the air violently with long sticks. The seed which is thus carried out is called the share of the 'evil spirits, spoilers of the seed.' These are considered to be driven out with the car ; and when it and its contents are abandoned to them, they are held to have no excuse for interfering with the rest of the seed-corn. The next day the people of each house kill a hog over the seeds for the year, and address the following invocation to the god of increase: 4 Pitterri Pennu ! this seed we shall sow to-morrow. Some of us, your suppliants, will have a great return, some a small return. Let the least favoured have a full basket, let the most favoured h'ave many baskets. Give not this seed to ant, or rat, or hog. Let the stems which shall spring from it be so stout that the earth shall tremble under them. Let the rain find no hole or outlet whereby to escape from our fields. Make the earth soft like the ashes of cow-dung. To him who has no iron wherewith to shoe his plough, make the wood of the doh- tree like iron. Provide other food than our seed for the parrot, the crow, and all the fowls and beasts of the jungle. Let not the white ant destroy the roots, nor the wild hog crush the stem to get at the fruit ; and make our crops of all kinds have a better flavour than that of those of any other country. We are unskilled in adapting our seeds to different soils; give us wisdom to suit them to each other. Thou art a god created by Boora Pennu. Pitterri Pennu ! if pleased, your bounty is boundless. Be gracious to us.' After this invocation, the elders feast upon the hogs and the mowa spirit. The young men, however, in revenge for their ex- clusion from the good cheer, enjoy the privilege of waylaying and pelting them with jungle fruit, when returning from the feast. Upon the third day, the lineal head of the tribe or branch goes out and sows his seed, when all the rest may do so. APPENDIX A. OoO Klambo Pennu, or Pilamu Pennu, the God of the Ckace. The following worship is paid to Klambo Pennu, or Pilamu Pennu, the god of the chace. When the huntsmen fail to find game, the Janni is required to ascertain and declare the cause of their ill success, which he may find to be either that they have violated some law of the chace, or some of the many rules for dividing and eating the game, or that, as the hunters left the village, some one in it wept an act most offensive to the god of the chace. From some such cause he may say that Klambo Pennu, or some other god, has ordered the jungle to hide the game, or has made the arrows of the hunter pointless, or has ordered the streams to take away weariness from the pursued game ; and he will then direct some rice, an egg, and a fowl to be brought from each house for an offering to be placed on the round stones of Klambo Pennu beside the village, upon which all game is de- posited when brought in, divided into the proper shares, and often also cooked. The offering required by the priest being collected, he thus invokes the god: ( Klambo Pennu! you are our god of the chace. You gave game to our fathers, and were used also to make our arrows sure, to give force to our axes, and keenness to the mouths of our dogs ; while, at your shrine, the cooking-fire was never extinguished, and the blood never dry ! Behold it now ! Klambo Pennu ! lay aside your anger. One cannot always stay the tears of children. Who at a feast can restrain a greedy-guts ? This you know ; and why, therefore, do you record these faults against us upon your knotted strings ? l W r e speak thus, but the benefit of the chace is no less yours than ours. Let us again see the sambur and the spotted deer, and the bison, and the wild hog, and the hare, as we leave our thresholds; and when these animals hear our shout, may their limbs become disobedient, and their hearts panic-struck. Give to our arrows and our axes the poison of the first iron against our game. Make the earth preserve its footmarks. Make a cool wind ever blow from the hill and the forest upon us huntsmen. Klambo Pennu ! make your name great.' The Janni then rubs an arrow or an axe on the stone of Klambo Pennu; all do the same to their weapons, and they go 1 The Khonds keep all accounts by knots on strings. 360 APPENDIX A. out and bring home somethiDg, if it be but a small bird, from the forest. It is usual, moreover, when a hunting-party is formed, to require the priest to propitiate the god of the chace by piling the weapons of the huntsmen by a rivulet, sprinkling water over them with a handful of long grass, and sacrificing a fowl, when the god, if propitious, enables him to indicate the direction in which game is to be sought, and occasionally to devote so many head to fall. Klambo punishes the slightest infraction of the rules he has laid down for the division of game ; they are such as that the head and tail of every animal belong to the person who kills it, those being considered the most delicate portions, which he will desire to present to the old men of his family, and that the under portion of every beast belongs to the person on whose land it falls. Loha Pennu 9 the God of War (literally, God of Iron). Every village or cluster of hamlets has a grove sacred to the god of war. In it are buried a piece of iron, believed to be a relic of the iron of the time when the earth-goddess first intro- duced poison into iron amongst other evils, and an ancient bow and arrows and a war-drum of iron, or some one of these wea- pons. They appear a little above the surface of the ground, and are seen to emerge somewhat farther before a battle, sub- siding again on its conclusion. The war-god presides over con- tests between different tribes, or between Khonds and foreign enemies, but never over the contests of the people of the same tribe. He becomes highly incensed if war be not forthwith declared when the maintenance of rights requires it, and then shows his wrath by the ravages of tigers and disease. When such signs appear, the elders assemble and deliberate. The history of the past is gone over, with a view to discover the breach of the laws of war which may have offended the god ; and if in the end it is determined that there shall be war with some 6 Kassinga,' or enemy beyond the tribe, the following ceremonies are gone through. The fighting men, having first washed and dressed their hair with the care required by Khond custom, assemble and place their ornaments of war, feathers, skins, cloths, &c., before the god of war in his grove. The Janni takes a fowl, with some rice and arrack, and invokes the god, while he also calls upon all the other deities to assemble as witnesses of their proceedings. APPENDIX A. 361 He then says, ' god of war ! we have doubtless omitted to give battle, it may be through forgetfulness of your laws, or through weakness, or from considering too much the immature age of our youth, or the scantiness of our provisions ; but now, from the ravages of tigers, from the fevers, the diseases of the eye, the ulcers, and the pains in every limb from which we suffer, we conceive that you indicate to us that you have given us sufficient strength, provisions, and wisdom for war. We bring to you our weapons. You have made them strong, now make them keen. We go out to fight our enemies. Send home the erring shaft. Send our stones straight to the mark. Let our axes crush cloth and bone as the jaws of the hyena crush its prey. Make the wounds we give to gape. Let our little men slay big men. When the wounds of our enemies heal, let lameness remain. Let their stones and arrows fall on us as softly as the flowers of the mowa-tree fall in the wind. Let our wounds heal as quickly as the blood-drops from them dry upon the ground. Make the weapons of our enemies brittle as the long pods of the karta-tree. You are our war-god ; do you thus aid with your strength us and our allies (whom they name). May the weapons of all of us when we return from the fight be changed in hue. May our women be proud and happy to serve food in battle to brave men like us, so that when other tribes shall hear of their happiness and pride, they shall desire to unite their women to us. May we plunder in victory the villages of our foes of bullocks and tobacco and brass vessels, which our women may bear proudly as presents to their parents. Loha Pennu ! we worship you with fowls, and sheep, and hogs, and buffaloes. We only ask for the aid you gave to our fathers in past fights (naming them) and no new thing. We are their children.' Then all snatch up their arms, when the priest commands silence, and recites the following myth and invocation, the former containing many of the distinctive doctrines of the sect of Tari : - ( In the first time, when the god of light created the hills and the woods, and the streams great and small, and the plains and the rocks and boundaries, and the tame animals, and the game of the forests, and man, then too he made the iron of these weapons, but the hands of our forefathers did not know how to use them. 362 APPENDIX A. 6 There was a mother, Umbally Bylee, with two children, Allonguarra and Patanguarra, warriors. They came to her one day all wounded, and with bleeding breasts. She said, " What has befallen you?" They answered, "We have been fighting outside people with sword-grass." Their mother cured their wounds, and said, " That is an improper way of fighting, do not fight so again." A few days after, the children came again, covered with burs or spikes of grass as sheep are covered with wool, and said, " We have fought the outside people with bur (or spear) grass." Their mother cured them, and said, " This mode of fighting is improper. Bring the iron of the Hindu country, and make blades for axes and for arrows, and take the damun-tree for axe-handles, and make bows of the thornless bamboo, and wind skins and cloth round the body, and adorn the head with feathers, and go forth to fight. Then shall you become awakened and improved, and cloth and salt and sugar will come to you, and you will see men of different nations and different minds." And they made arrows of this form, 1 and went out to battle, and on both sides very many fell. Then the children came, and said to their mother, " mother ! we have obeyed your orders and very many have died, none of the wounded have lived ! We cannot endure the deadly keenness of this iron." She answered, " My child, it is not the fault of the weapons that all whom they wound die. The destructive (or terrible) goddess who made the iron what it is mingled in its composition no drop of pity. Heat the iron in the fire and beat it." They did so, and it became changed, and it slew only those who were ready to die. The mother then said, " Make your arrows henceforth in another form. This arrow, with whatever skill you may shoot, will slay those only who are ready to die." And this form has remained, and. to this day it has defended every man's boundaries and property and rights. ( god of war ! now give to our arms the qualities of the first merciless iron. Then shall we be rich in every form of wealth, and we will pay to you the richest worship.' The priest then cries, * Now arm and march ! ' He accom- panies the host to the enemies' boundary, over which an arrow is shot from the bundle of some one indicated by the divining 1 A drawing would be necessary to explain the difference between the two forma of arrow-heads. APPENDIX A. 3G3 sickle, and then a branch of a tree is cut and carried off from the enemies' land. The host next go to the village within whose boundary the shrine of the war-god is situated, and the village chief dresses the branch in clothes and armour, sets it up to personate one of the enemy, I believe, and calls upon the god of light and all the other gods, saying, ' Bear witness that in all these proceed- ings we have conformed to the rules of the god of war, that victory is therefore now due to us, and that our sufferings from tigers, from fevers, and from every pain ought to cease;' when all shout and say, ' To suffer death we do not object, but, gods ! let us not be mutilated in battle. We are the children of such and such great ancestors (naming them). Ye gods! raise our name by giving us victory.' They then take the dressed-up branch and throw it down at the shrine of the god of war, and it is to be observed that they must give their enemies full time to complete similar rites before they attack them. The following worship is paid to the god of war when peace is made. When parties are tired of a contest and wish for peace, they make known their desire to some friendly tribe, who send three or four old men to act as mediators. These first visit one of the parties and ascertain its feelings, and then proceed to the other to persuade them to peace. These generally reply in this strain, ' Peace and war are not in our hands, but in the hands of the god, and if he requires war, the arrows will fly of their own accord from our bows.' The mediators reply that this is true, but pray of them if the arrows shall not so fly that they will put all hostility out of their minds and worship the gods, and they add a proposal to ascertain the will of these in their pre- sence. The mediators further persuade them to send word to their enemies that they are going to make that inquiry, and that they propose they should do the same, each side sending two old men to witness the ceremony And observe the minds of their opponents. In the first place a basket of rice is set out in the house of the Janni or of the chief, and the iron arrow of the god of war is placed upright in it. If it remains erect the war must pro- ceed. If it falls, as it is very apt to do, the peace worship may proceed. In this case the whole population go out into the plain, with the priest carrying some rice and two eggs. He 364 APPENDIX A. calls upon LohaPennu and invokes the presence of all the other gods, and says, * Loha Pennu ! you aided us in this fight to prevent our dishonour, or because your will was war, or that our enemies might not rise upon our heads, or you engaged us in this war to prevent us from being occupied with the service of pernicious gods, or your reason is one proceeding from your divine mind which is hid from us, or perhaps you preferred that we should die by war rather than in any other way, or it may be that the smiths, the weavers, and the distillers solicited you apart for their benefit that there should be war, or it may have been that you were angry that our arms hung rusty in our houses, or it may be that the jungle yams complained that they were being extirpated in the forests, where all penetrate fear- lessly in time of peace? or did the honey-bees complain that they had no life from persecution in the leisure of the long peace ? or the bullocks that they were dying beneath the yoke in clearing new land ? or did the beasts and birds of the forest complain that they were suffering extirpation ? or is it that the paths to our friends' houses are worn into stream-beds by the feet of passers to and fro, and that they prayed for war ? or is it your reason that there have been breaches of solemn engage- ments? From whatsoever cause, and through whomsoever whether smith, honey-bee, breach of engagement, &c. this war arose, all now seek peace. This is the disposition of our minds. Do you make plain to us the meaning of the signs of your will.' They now fill a dish with hog's fat, and stick a cotton-wick in it. If the flame burns straight, it is for war ; if not, for peace. They now also turn upside down the earthen vessel used in worship, put some rice upon the bottom of it, try if an egg will stand in the rice, and say, ' god of war ! explain these signs ; but if they are for peace, do not thereupon become inattentive. Give us full strength to the very end, until we and our enemies, to the last man, have laid down our arms ; and do you support us in future, through all generations, as you do now. If we shall have peace now, we will provide liberally for your worship, and increase your service. We your servants pray you to make the minds of all consent to this peace. Do you ascertain dis- tinctly the minds of our enemies, and of their gods, and act accordingly. And let there be perfect harmony in our hearts ; and may our feet raise such a cloud of dust in the peace-dance, APPENDIX A. 365 that it shall not settle in three days, even though the skies should flood the earth. Loha Pennu ! upon that day let there be no rain, and no trouble in childbirth.' No new answer is required from the god, but the negotiations proceed through a long course until both hosts join in the peace- dance, which rages for three or four hours. All are frantic with excitement, conceiving it to be inspired by the god, and that it would be impious to resist it. The joy of the peace-dance is regarded as the very highest attainable on earth, and the ex- haustion which follows it is considered to demand fifteen days' repose. The following is the conclusion of the ceremonial of peace- making as it was performed by the tribes of Darungabadi and Grrundabadi in 1845, after a long period of destructive war. These tribes are of the sect of Boora, and it will be observed that they expressly ascribe to him the introduction of the sanc- tions of peace. The Janni having prepared a mixture of water and the earth of a white ant's hill, said, 'Let the warriors of both sides attend. Let the assembled multitudes listen. The beginning of our feud was this. Loha Pennu said to himself, " Let there be war ;" and he forthwith entered into all weapons, so that from instruments of peace they became weapons of war ; he gave edge to the axe, and point to the arrow ; he entered into all kinds of food and drink, so that men in eating and drink- ing were filled with rage, and women became instruments of discord instead of soothers of anger. Our abundance of the blessings of peace was given to others, and the means of war alone abounded with us. We forsook love and friendship, and were filled with enmities. So great wars arose. Loha Pennu being satisfied with bloodshed, weapons having become blunt with slaughter, and the earth fat with blood, Boora Pennu wills that the solemn obligations which he appointed in past time to allay the wars and animosities produced by Loha Pennu shall now be entered into, and I now therefore administer those obliga- tions. Let the sharpness of weapons cease ; let the wrath which enters into man with food and drink cease ; and let man resume love and friendship. And do thou, O Pitterri Pennu ! (goddess of increase) be gracious to. us, and increase and mul- tiply our people, and thou - - be thou far from us.' The Janni then sprinkled the parties making peace with water and earth. 366 APPENDIX A. Sundi Pennu, the God of Boundaries. The following is the common strain of invocation addressed to Sundi Pennu: '0 Sundi Pennu! keep disease from our boundary, the disease epilepsy and disease of the eye, of the arms, of the legs. Let not the hostile gods of other countries cross our boundary, nor allow the tigers nor the snakes to cross our limits. Do you attract the water of higher countries to our boundary, and do not let stray our useful animals or our game, but do you let pass easily all noxious beasts. Permit not our tame cattle to pass our boundary, but make them grow large within it, like the swelling bitter gourd. ( You were always wont to do us these favours ; now, for a small reason, your heart is changed. I, your servant, pray you to dismiss that feeling from your breast. I present to you this fowl, this egg, and this arrack. Moreover we pray you to re- member, god of boundaries ! that it is your part to meet and conciliate the hearts of all who approach Us. I now go. Do you give a propitious answer, so that henceforth I may have to render you worship in pleasure, not in pain.' The priest then makes the offering of a fowl or a goat at a point upon the boundary fixed by ancient usage, and generally where a path crosses it. The god of boundaries is necessarily considered a deity com- mon to any two parties whose lands may adjoin. When these parties are at war, each invokes the god to bear witness to the justice of its cause, and to favour its arms ; and, as both may not propitiate him on the same day, the battle is postponed, if necessary, to enable them to do so upon successive days. This god, in a fight, sends the arrows of their enemies to the hands of the party whom he may favour, closes their wounds that they may not gape fatally, and saves their battle-food from being lost in the confusion of the field and from turning sour. The Worship of the Second and Third Classes of Inferior Deities. The slight and unfrequent worship of the second class of inferior gods the deified and sinless men of the first age appears to require no notice beyond what is given in the state- ment of the tenets of the Khonds. I proceed to describe the worship paid to the third class of inferior gods the minor APPENDIX A. 367 deities, who fill nature and preside over the details of human life. Idzu Pennu, the House-God. Idzu Pennu, or the house-god, is the god of every household. He is propitiated by the offering of a hog or a fowl, with rice and arrack, on every occasion of general sacrifice by a tribe or village, and also when the master of the household transacts any private business of importance, as the settlement of a mar- riage, or any considerable sale of property. The household god, if favourable, increases the grain stored in the garner ; and he is specially invoked at all domestic ceremonies, as namings, and at marriages, which every minor deity also is prayed to bless with the benefits in his special gift as the god of boun- daries to take care that the bride passes safely from her father's to her husband's house, and the god of streams to provide that water may abound at her new home. To Jori Pennu, the god of streams, to Soro Pennu, god of hills, and the other minor local gods, the following is the com- mon style of address, while the offerings are fowls, eggs, rice, and arrack : * god of streams ! you visit us with evils, withdrawing your favour on account of our sins. We cannot say that we are faultless, but we have been unable to afford to you a large and full supply of food in worship. Were we, god of streams, constantly to expend our means upon your rites, and upon those of all the other gods, we should lose our lands ; and then, we pray you to consider, where would be your worship? Con- sidering this, we are unable to spend much upon your rites. Oh, receive this apology. We now make small offerings of a fowl or an egg, according to our ability; accept of them gra- ciously. Look with favour upon us, on our wives, and our children, on our cattle, our sheep, our pigs, and their offspring. Do not let them be hurt in going to the water (or to the hill, if the hill-god be addressed), (rive us increase of wealth. Ac- cept our worship graciously, and give us your blessing.' Nadzu Pennu, the Village-God. Nadzu Pennu, the village-god, is the guardian deity of every hamlet. He is the great object of the familiar worship of the Khonds; the prosperity or ruin of villages is in his hands, 308 .APPENDIX A. and his patronage is implored for almost every undertaking. This deity is familiarly approached by all, at his shrine, which is simply a stone placed under the great cotton-tree which stands in or near every village. That tree, it m?ay be observed, is planted at the foundation of each village, and is regarded with feelings of veneration which may be best understood from the following ceremony, which takes place amongst the sect of Boora Pennu at the foundation of every village, or upon changing the site of an old one. O o On the day fixed for the caremony, the village Janni brings from the jungle the stem of a young cotton- tree, six or eight feet long, having its root and top cut off, but with all its twigs carefully preserved, and the long sharp thorns, which the young branches of this tree bear but the old ones lose, unbroken. The priest, upon entering the village, says to the young tree, 6 1 bring you, by the order of Boora Pennu, who commanded us to build this village, as did also such and such gods 'naming ten or twelve others. The people of the village are now as- sembled, with dancing and music and fermented rice, and a hole is dug, in which the tree is planted. A day or two afterwards, the Janni, having ascertained whether the god requires the sacrifice of a hog or a buffalo, and the animal being duly provided, again meets the assembled villagers by the young tree, when the following rude masque is gone through. An old man, of stupid and clownish look, comes out of the village to where the people are assembled, and, with a surprised and puzzled air> asks the Janni, ' What, I pray you, may be the meaning of the planting of this stick?' The priest replies, ( If you don't know, friend, you must as- suredly be a great block a mere jungle-stick, yourself, And how, friend block, may I ask, did you find legs to bring you hither? You must have acquired them in some wonderful way. But since you are come to us, I will enlighten you, and make a man of you. Know, then, that when Boora Pennu first ordained that villages should exist, he gave us the tree which you now see planted, for a model in all these respects. That our families should spread like the branches of this great tree, strongly and widely. That our women should resemble its lovely and glowing red flowers. That, as the birds are attracted by the love of those sweet flowers, so the youths of neighbouring tribes should come, attracted by our young APPENDIX A. 369 daughters. That, as of the flowers of this tree not one falls barren, but all unblighted bear fruit, so should it be with our women. That our sons should, in their youth, be rough, sharp, and keen like the young branches of this tree, which are covered with thorns ; but that, as those thorns disappear with age, so should they become smooth and cool when youth is past. And lastly, this tree is given us as an example that we should live as long as it, a most long-lived tree. Boora Pennu thus ordained, and gave us this model tree.' The old man then says, ' And for what purpose, I pray, is this hog, or buffalo ? ' The priest replies, ' One places things which are of value on a stand. We place flesh upon leaves, rice in vessels of earth or of metal ; a man rests upon a couch ; and this animal is an offering upon which the commands of the deity may rest.' Then the victim is killed, and some of its dung mixed with straw is put upon the cut top of the tree. Sugu Pennu or 8-idruja Pennu, the God of Fountains. The gods of fountains are objects of the most anxious wor- ship. When a spring dries up the priest is instantly sent for, and implored with the most liberal promises of reward to bring back the water. He first attempts to propitiate and move the god of the spring ; and if he fails to do so, tries the following process. He plucks the cocoon of a wild silkworm from a bamboo-tree, and having emptied it, steals in the dead of night to some living fountain, to try by secret invocations to induce its god to transfer a portion of its waters to the deserted spring ; and this he does at the imminent risk of his life, if his errand should be discovered by the proprietors of the waters which are to be wiled away. The priest, after muttering for a long time alone over the spring, fills the cocaon-shell from it, and returns to the dry fountain, repeating prayers as he goes, which, if favourably heard, will make a stream of water follow his footsteps underground. The chief of the village, with a party of its elders, who have fasted the preceding day, await his return at the dry well, the presence of women at which would be fatal, while that of youths is also interdicted. The deserted basin is now cleared out, and the cocoon cup of water is placed in it. The priest sacrifices a sheep or a hog to Sugu Pennu, and he, if become propitious, either restores the spring at once, or gives BB 370 APPENDIX A. signs of satisfaction from which its reappearance may be con- fidently hoped. Joogah Pennu, Goddess of Smallpox. Joogah Pennu, the goddess of smallpox, is a dread power, which cannot he appeased by any worship, and for which the Khonds have no distinct place in their mythology. This deity in her wrath ' sows smallpox upon mankind as men sow seed upon the earth.' When this disease appears in a village, all desert it save a few who remain to offer continually the blood of buffaloes, hogs, and sheep to the terrible power. The people of the neighbouring hamlets can but attempt to prevent her ap- proach by barricading the paths with thorns and deep ditches, and boiling upon them cauldrons of stinking oil. 371 APPENDIX B. (REFERRED TO AT PAGE 136.) Note upon General Campbell's Strictures on the Account of the Khond Religion. CAPTAIN MACPHERSON'S account of the religion of the Khonds is strikingly confirmed in many of its features (as has been shown in the notes appended to it by the Editor of these Memorials) by the statements of those who have subsequently travelled among other barbarous races. Nor does it less correspond with the observations of earlier travellers. It also fulfils the con- ditions laid down by philosophers who have reflected upon the natural history of religion. Thus, M. Gruizot says, in f his Meditations on Christianity ' f In the different pagan religions, whether of character gross or learned, we have deifications of the different forces of nature or of men themselves.' l 6 All religions have given a prominent place to the problem of [the] existence and the origin of evil; all have attempted its solution. The good and the evil genius, Ormuzd and Ahriman, * * * * all are so many hypotheses to explain the conflict between good and evil, between order and disorder, in the world and in man.' 2 G-eneral Campbell, however, is never tired of sneering at Captain Macpherson's account of the Khond religion. Yet one might suppose that it came before the public sufficiently ac- credited. The sources from which it is derived (though not the conscientious labour devoted to acquiring the information embodied in it) are carefully and modestly indicated in the Introduction, 3 to which particular attention is solicited. Captain 'English edition, London, 1864, p. 256. 2 P. 56. 3 See above, Appendix A. In letters written in 1843, Captain Macpherson says ' It is very difficult to learn the traditional lore correctly, and to B B 2 372 APPENDIX B. Macpherson had for many years made the Khonds his con- stant study, and he justly regarded their religion as precisely that with which the Agent for the abolition of their chief re- ligious rite was mainly concerned. He was well acquainted with the Oriyah language, though General Campbell is pleased to deny this, as he denies to Soondera Sing with equal in- justice a due acquaintance with Hindustani. Mr. Cadenhead, whose views are likewise represented in this paper, is rightly styled by Greneral Campbell ('Personal Narrative' of 1864, p. 86) a ' most able and talented officer.' He knew not only the Oriyah but also the Khond tongue, with which the Greneral does not apparently claim any acquaintance. Soon- dera Sing having passed his youth among the mountain Khonds, was thoroughly acquainted with their religion : a man incapable of misleading others or of being deceived himself upon this subject, and certainly not equal to the invention of a system which should so strikingly correspond with those which are found existing among races at a parallel stage of civilisation in other parts of the world. Baba Khan's good faith in the matter is as incontestable as his singular intelligence, though his task was merely to discover the depositaries of this lore, and to bring them to Captain Macpherson. But it will be seen, on turning to the Introduction, that the information was not adopted at secondhand, but was taken down by Captain Macpherson personally from the speakers, and in many cases was corroborated by information which Mr. Caden- head obtained from distinct and independent sources. 1 ascertain its true sense, as the common priests are not well informed, and those of age and repute are nearly intangible.' . . . ' I have greatly extended my knowledge of the Khond people, and the interest of the subject has grown wonderfully at every step. I find that the country is as rich in religious legends as Arcadia in its prime. There is much floating poetry, too quite as good as that of any rude people, and there are very good bold invocations of the gods.' And again : f I have at last got materials with which I could make a kind of Khond book if I had a mind at ease at home. My informa- tion is still very defective on many points, and totally undigested. The diffi- culty of getting it you cannot conceive.' Captain Macpherson, therefore, was perfectly aware that he had undertaken no easy task. Having accordingly bestowed much time, labour, and thought upon the subject, he is entitled to be heard in preference to General Campbell, who, as will presently appear, did not persevere in the inquiry. 1 General Campbell informs us that the late Captain Frye 'gives four short lines in the Khond language as the creed of the people, and describes their ceremonial in half a page.' Captain Frye could not have meant to APPENDIX B. 373 The most prominent of General Campbell's own remarks must now be considered. First, he asserts that in the paper which he is criticising, 'the author represented the Khonds as a refined people overflowing with the most ingenious ideas.' l . The paper with the exception of the Introduction, which is merely geographical and historical is printed verbatim in the present work. The reader may ascertain for himself whether it contains any such representation, or anything that can afford the slightest warrant for General Campbell's statement. The next objection is, that ( one of its most remarkable fea- tures was the number of deities with which the Khonds were said to be provided.' 2 It has been shown 3 that they have this in common with other very rude nations. Among them, as among the Canaan- ites of old, who were further advanced in civilisation, ' human sacrifices, licentious orgies, and the worship of a host of divinities were associated.' 4 But what does General Campbell himself say on this subject? He tells us: 'The sacrifice in Chinna Kimedy is not offered to the earth alone, as in Goom- sur and Boad, but to a number of deities, whose favour is essential to life and happiness-, of these Manicksoro god of war, Boro Pennoo the great god, Zaro Pennoo the sun-god, hold the chief place.' 5 ' In Jeypore " the blood-red god of battles, Manecksoroo," (thus they style him) is the deity whom they seek to propitiate by human victims.' 6 intimate that four lines and half a page adequately represented the su- perstitions of so many wild tribes spread over a territory 300 miles long. General Campbell says in an official report: l Lieutenant Frye is labouring- very zealously in the acquisition of the language. His chief difficulty lies in procuring a Khond, or indeed anyone, who is in the least acquainted with the religion they profess, or can give any tolerable account of their habits and manners.' This was written on the 17th March 1849, when General Campbell had nearly completed the second year of his second term of service among the Khonds the first having extended over five years. But the reference to Captain Frye proves too much, for the General says a great deal more about the Khond religion than Captain Frye. 1 Personal Narrative,' p. 160. 2 Ibid. p. 161. 3 Supra, pp. 92-96. 4 See Dean Stanley's ' Lectures on the Jewish Church,' p. 209. 5 ' Personal Narrative,' p. 120. General Campbell is speaking only of those deities to whom he believes that human sacrifice was offered. 6 < Personal Narrative,' p. 52. 374 APPENDIX B. ' They had heard reports, spread by evil-disposed persons, that I was collecting Meriahs, for the purpose of sacrificing them on the plains to the water deity, because the water had dis- appeared from a tank which I had constructed.' l 6 Whenever a child is born, a priest, or dessawry, as he is called in that part of the country, is summoned, and consulted by the parent as to the future prospects of the new-born infant. The astrologer, for such is the pretended avocation of the priest, professes in a mysterious manner to consult the horoscope, and he also produces a kind of book (called punjee) formed of dried palmyra-leaves, on which are scribbled some sentences in the Hindu character, intermingled with rudely drawn figures of mythical deities, demons, and devils, representing after their fashion good and evil spirits. Certain mumblings and other ceremonies, calculated to inspire the parents with a deep feeling of awe and reverence for the astrologer, are then gone through. An iron or bone style is finally inserted at random between the leaves of the book, and the fate of the unconscious baby is determined by the figure and words to which the style points. If the deity or sign thus capriciously selected represents good, the life of the little one is spared,' 3 &c. &c. So that General Campbell likewise must believe that the Khonds, like other barbarians, have a multitude of deities. But then he does not like to see any attempt to classify them. He continues : ' The mythology attributed to the Khonds of Orissa must be considered marvellous when their present state of semi-barbarism and gross ignorance is borne in mind. They are furnished with a pantheon in which there are deities of various degrees of power, in a kind of railway classification. The first class con- sists of gods of rain,' 4 &c. &c. If we take General Campbell's words literally, it might seem as if he thought that polytheism is a sign of civilisation. The real objection, however, involved in this oddly-worded passage would seem to be, that the Khond system, as represented by Cap- tain Macpherson, is too complicated for a people so uncivilised. But the examples which have been given, especially that taken from Captain Burton's work, 4 abundantly show that a classified pantheon is not incompatible with barbarism and ignorance. In- 1 ' Personal Narrative/ p. 129. 2 Ibid. p. 148. See above, p. 72. 3 Ibid. 4 See above, p. 91. APPENDIX B. 375 deed, the marvel would be if all the deities were of equal rank and power. But what has the General told us ? 'That certain specified gods hold the " chief place," or in other words consti- tute the first class, among a number of deities, whose power is essential to life and happiness ! ' l The Introduction to Captain Macpherson's paper distinctly avows that the completeness and system were inevitably greater on paper than in reality ; as is the case with every account of the Greek, the Roman, or the Hindu gods in short, with every attempt to reduce to writing that which previously existed only in oral tradition. General Campbell's next sneer is directed against the Khond doctrine regarding the soul : ' These poor and ignorant people, according to the account here furnished, are not only rich in deities, but as marvellously rich in souls, every Khond being gifted with four, and very remarkable souls they are. No. 1 is capable of beatifica- tion ; No. 2 is attached to a tribe, and re-born in the tribe in a manner impossible to be explained ; No. 3 endures sufferings and transmigrations, sometimes quits its corporeal tenement to hold communion with a god, and sometimes to enter the body of a tiger ; and No. 4 becomes extinct at its owner's dissolu- tion.' 2 It is not easy to find a parallel for all the vagaries of savage minds, but other wild races besides the Khonds have very com- plicated and technical systems of doctrine and practice on many subjects, such as Tapu in New Zealand and Fetish in Africa: and with regard to the soul, many of them hold opinions as strange as those which General Campbell deems so inconsistent with the simplicity which he would expect to find in the Khond doctrines. Thus we learn that in the sorcerer's art in New Zealand there was a modification of the Pythagorean doctrine of Metempsycho- sis, in which two living bodies are supposed to change souls with each other : 3 that the Tonguese restricted the possession of a soul to chiefs and gentry but the Fijians go further, allow- ing it not only to all mankind, but to animals, plants, and even houses, canoes, and all mechanical contrivances : 4 that the 1 See App., p. 373. 2 ' Personal Narrative/ p. 162. See above, p. 91. 3 Thomson's < Story of New Zealand/ vol. i. p. 118. 4 'Mission to Viti/ p. 398. 376 APPENDIX B. aborigines of the countries bordering on the Straits of Malacca believe in the immortality of the soul, though some of them seem to have doubts as to the preservation of their individual identity, and look upon life as a simple element in creation, distinct from substance, which on death will return to a common source to be distributed as required : l and that in the country described by Captain Burton, the departed often returns to earth in the body of a child, and yet remains in Deadland. 2 Greneral Campbell too has furnished us with a striking proof of the accuracy of one of the statements which he derides. He says that a Khond, whom he had induced to join his corps of Sebundies, joined in repelling an attack, in which two or three of the assailants were shot ; that he became strongly imbued with the idea that one of them was possessed of the power of the ' phulto-bag,' and would certainly destroy him and all his family ; that subsequently ' this poor fellow was seized by a tiger and cruelly mutilated. He shortly afterwards died from the effect of his wounds ; but before he expired he said that he was one of those who had fired and killed a Khond at Oorladoney, and that this Khond had assumed the form of a tiger, and so avenged himself. It would have required a miracle to have persuaded his friends that his fate was but a strange coincidence.' 3 Another sneer is levelled at the account of the priesthood : ' It is also asserted . . . that a priesthood exists, which in its organisation and labours corresponds with the elaborate system of idolatry provided for this semibarbarous people. According to this narrative the priest much resembles the medicine-man of the North American Indian, seeking to discover, by certain mystic arts, the cause of the malady he may be called upon to cure, which he usually attributes to the displeasure of some god, or the magic of some enemy whom the patient has offended.' 4 Now, it being admitted that certain practices are carried on among the North American Indians, why should we refuse to believe that anything of a similar kind exists among other semibarbarous tribes? It is not clear whether the Greneral means to deny the existence of a priesthood, or the employment 1 < Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India,/ by John Cameron, Esq. London, 1865. See above, p. 134. 2 Burton's ' Mission to the King of Dahomey/ vol. ii. p. 158. * < Personal Narrative/ p. 242. 4 Ibid. p. 165. APPENDIX B. 377 by the priest of mystical arts. The former seems scarcely pos- sible, as priests are mentioned by himself. 1 The account which he gives of the priest or dessawry (cited App., p. 374), speaks of pretensions which are very much the same with those which he refuses to believe ; and 6 the officiating zani or priest,' men- tioned at p. 211 of the 'Personal Narrative,' would seem to be a personage of the same class. Again, says General Campbell, ( according to this autho- rity, there is a particular form of worship to every god, with particular traditions respecting him or her, all of which are given in detail, as well as ceremonials for the different seasons ; ' 2 which, we are given to understand, is very absurd. Yet having so said, General Campbell himself gives us in detail the par- ticular ceremonial and form of worship for the god Manick- soro, ending thus : ' The officiating zani, or priest, standing on the right side, repeats the following invocation,' 2 &c. Here fol- low, in minute detail, the invocation of the god, the address to the victim, and an account of the remainder of the sacrificial cere- monies ! and elsewhere he records sundry particular traditions. It has been sufficiently shown in the present Note, and in the references appended to the text, that, in almost every one of the points selected for attack, Captain Macpherson is supported either by ariose parallel in the religion of some rude people, or by the express testimony of General Campbell. In- deed, after the citations that have been made, one might almost class General Campbell among the believers in the existence of the religious system set forth by Captain Macpherson. But no : although his own work affords ample and (as being involuntary) valuable confirmation, he will have none of it. He never heard anything like it from his Meriahs 3 or destined victims not, perhaps, exactly the class whom the Khond priesthood would be likely to take into their counsels on this subject. ' He has reason to believe that he possessed the confidence of the chiefs and priests to an extent never before possessed by a European (!); nevertheless he is not in a position to publish such a complete system of mythology as that to which he has been obliged to draw the reader's attention, or anything in the slightest degree resembling it? 4 1 < Personal Narrative/ pp. 163, 168, 211. 2 Ibid. p. 211. 3 Ibid. p. 163. 4 Ibid. p. 168. 378 APPENEIX B. The truth is that General Campbell's want of information is completely accounted for by a circumstance recorded in his printed ( Narrative' of 1861, and in that Narrative only. c I made many efforts,' he says, ' to acquire correct informa- tion on this point ; but I met with so many contradictions, and such vagueness and variety of opinion, that / abandoned the attempt, satisfied that their so-called religion was probably a corruption and admixture of Buddhism and Hinduism, or other ancient systems brought from the plains, from whence, as I have already said, the Khonds originally came 'I 1 1 'Narrative of 1861/ p. 24. 379 APPENDIX C. (REFERRED TO AT PAGES 247, 248.) Recovery of the Meriahs. GENERAL CAMPBELL has not been consistent in his statement of numbers. In the anonymous pamphlet published in 1849 l (for which the General has now publicly declared himself re- sponsible), 2 it is said that when Captain Macpherson was removed from office, late in March 1847, upwards of 120 of these Meriahs remained in the hands of their rebellious masters; 3 that Captain Macpherson had only obtained the redelivery of from 45 to 50 of the surrendered Meriahs ; 4 and that ' when Colonel Campbell assumed charge of the Agency, in May 1847, the victors still rejoiced in the possession of upwards of 120 of the living tro- phies of their victory.' 5 In the 'Narrative' of 1861, the General says: f In February 1848, 140 of the victims unhappily extorted from Captain Macpherson were still in the hands of the Khonds.' 6 In the ( Personal Narrative' of 1864 the numbers are swelled to 170 : c I crossed over [in 1847] into the Boad country, where peace had not been perfectly restored, and the surrendered vic- tims still remained in the hands of the wild tribes of the district. The great feat to be achieved here was to get back the 170 victims.' 7 In the 'Narrative' of 1861, he says that in 1847 three of the redelivered Meriahs ' were cruelly sacrificed ere I could save them;' 8 and in the 'Personal Narrative ' of 1864, ( As a tangible proof of their sincerity, they delivered up every Meriah in their possession. Three of the victims, out of the 170 formerly sur- rendered, had been cruelly slaughtered, in the vain hope of 1 See Appendix F. (Correspondence.) 2 Ibid. 3 P. 116. 4 p. 117. 5 p. 131. P. 67. 7 < Personal Narrative,' p. 94. 8 P. 105. 380 APPENDIX C. propitiating their deity, and preventing the success of our efforts. With these exceptions, I got back all who had been redelivered; the total number rescued in Boad during these operations being 235.' 1 Here we have three several printed statements, for all of which the General is responsible, and each differing from the other 120, 140, 170. But Captain Macpherson had recovered between 60 and 70 before his removal from office, as appears by a letter addressed by him to Mr. Commissioner Grant : 2 so that the true number could not have been even the smallest of the three men- tioned by General Campbell. Captain Macpherson calls the original number 172 in his official letters; and, considering the General's inconsistent way of stating the numbers, and his evident readiness to believe the story (for he refers to it again and again in his Narratives, conceiving it to tell against Captain Macpherson), the sacrifice of three of these Meriahs could not be regarded as an ascertained fact, even were it not contradicted by the positive official statement of an officer whose authority on Khond subjects General Campbell at least ought not to dispute. The late Captain Frye is specially commended by General Campbell. Towards the end of 1849, the General tells us, he handed over the charge of the Agency (on proceeding to the Cape of Good Hope) to Captain Frye, who indeed appears, from other passages in the ' Narrative,' to have owed his appointment to the General's own recommendation. ' This admirable officer,' he adds, e had always taken the deepest interest in our labours, and, being an Oriental scholar of the highest rank, had occupied himself most zealously in the acquisition of the Kbond lan- guage ; ' 3 and at p. 1 68 he is quoted as an authority on the subject of the Khond religion. Captain Frye states, in an official report drawn up by him after a very long tour which he made in the Khond country as Agent, and which ended on the 6th April 1850 : ' According to the Khond system of worship, a Meriah once shown to the Government is considered unfit for sacrifice : there is no instance on record of a Meriah so shown being regarded otherwise than as the ward of the Government.' 4 1 ' Personal Narrative/ p. 111. 2 Dated 29th January 1848. 8 ( Personal Narrative/ p. 193. 4 Selections from the Records of the Government of India, No. V. (Calcutta, 1854), p. 114. The case of the rescued ward of Government, who APPENDIX C. 381 But if three wards of the Government three of that par- ticular set of wards of the Government who had been redelivered, and upon whom public attention had been so much fixed had been sacrificed in 1847, as General Campbell says, 1 how could Captain Frye, with the recently published anonymous pamphlet of 1849 before him, officially state in 1850 that there was no instance on record of such an event ? was sacrificed by authority of Sam Bissye, is no exception j for that sacrifice was sanctioned by Sam Bissye, the chief agent of the Government. 1 ' Personal Narrative/ p. 233. 382 APPENDIX D. (REFERRED TO AT PAGE 250.) GENERAL CAMPBELL says ('Personal Narrative,' p. 88): 'Scarcely had this first concession of the surrender of the victims been made, when, flashed with such a success, the Khonds again attacked his camp, which was then retiring on Goomsur. They now demanded that this imbecile Rajah, who was then accom- panying Captain Macpherson, and whom the Khonds supposed to be a prisoner, should be made over to them. To pacify them, a second concession was made, and the Rajah was sent back with them to Boad.' Now, not only has Captain Macpherson minutely recorded, in the report cited in the text (of May 17, 1841 ), the whole of the events of this period, but his relations with the Rajah became soon after the subject of a searching public investigation. The whole of them were minutely scrutinised ; yet no such occurrence as the surrender of the Rajah in consequence of an attack, or of threats, was ever alleged to have taken place. Captain Macpherson says, in a paper submitted to Mr. Grant, the Commissioner of Inquiry : ' The Rajah and Kurtivas had accompanied me to Kunjeur at their own request, and declared anew there that they certainly could and would bring in all, or at least a great portion, of the Khonds and victims within three days.' It is obvious that the Rajah and Kurtivas could not now be useful to the Agent, except in bringing the Khonds to a right state of mind. But the writer of the anonymous pamphlet published by General Campbell in 1849, does not assert that 'the Khonds again attacked the Agent's camp, which was then retiring on Goomsur.' He says, ( Shortly after the arrival of the Agent and his camp at this place [Kunjeur, in Goomsur] it was reported that the exulting mob, armed with bows, arrows, and battle- axes, was at Sangrimendi, meditating the forcible recovery of their Rajah, whom they supposed to be a prisoner. Whatever APPENDIX D. 383 may have been the circumstances which induced his attendance on the Agent, or of his early dismissal, we were not careful to learn ; suffice it to say that the Boad potentate, with his uncle par nobile fratrum ! for the pacification of a storm raised, as the Agent tells us, by their own intrigues, was hurried back into the Boad Maliahs.' Here the insinuation is (for nothing is directly stated) that the Agent dismissed the Kajah in consequence of its being re- ported that the ( exulting mob ' was at Sangrimendi, some miles from his camp a suggestion not consistent with the General's present assertion that they attacked his camp. If the author of the pamphlet, in whom General Campbell reposed so much con- fidence that he published 1 his production without having read it, and considered himself responsible for it although he ' did not know anything of its contents until after its publication ' 2 if this writer, who may almost be termed the General's alter ego, was not careful to learn in 1849, when he tells us that he was employing himself on the spot in a most elaborate self-imposed inquiry into these events, by the testimony of numerous eye- witnesses, how can it be known now? And why was he not careful to learn this, when he was careful to pick up everything he could think likely to operate to Captain Macpherson's disad- vantage ? Even the f Narrative' of 1861 scarcely goes so far as to assert that the Khonds actually attacked the camp. It states (page 54) that ( the Khonds pursued the Agent, and, being joined by some of the Goomsur tribes, demanded the freedom of the Boad Eajah, which was yielded them; and the retreat continued till the arrival of reinforcements from the plains, when the Khonds were driven away.' This is the third version for which General Campbell is re- sponsible. But the redelivery of the victims occurred on the 14th of March; the Agent retired to Kunjeur on the 15th; and it is on record 3 that he was at Kunjeur on the 19th, and there and then repulsed an attack of some of the Boad Khonds so that the retreat cannot have been f continued,' as asserted by General Campbell. 1 See below, App. p. 393. 2 See below, App. p. 399. 3 Official Report, dated 17th May 1846. 384 APPENDIX E. (REFERRED TO IN CHAPTER xx.) CAPTAIN MACPHERSON, when he was made acquainted with the Brigadier-General's charges, applied for an opportunity of vin- dicating himself and his assistants and servants, and prayed that the inquiry might extend to every act of his adminis- tration. A very long investigation accordingly took place, before a Commissioner specially appointed for the purpose Mr. Grant (now Sir John Peter Grant, K.C.B.), a distinguished member of the Civil Service, who subsequently filled the office of Lieu- tenant-Governor of Bengal. When the charges, however, had almost been gone through, and Captain Macpherson's measures in the low-country had been inquired into, and when his policy towards the hill -tribes, the ground which promised him the most certain and signal triumph, remained to be inquired into, where he had from the first demanded that it should be examined, and where alone it could be effectively examined in the Hills, among the Khonds themselves, and in the presence of the persons accused the inquiry was cut short by Colonel Campbell, to whom after a few weeks the Brigadier-General had given over charge of the Agency. Colonel Campbell ! declared that, for political reasons, Captain Macpherson must not appear in the Khond country. Next it turned out that political reasons prevented Colonel Campbell from sending down any one witness from the Hills, ere yet the country had been crushed under the feet of Sam Bissye, whom Colonel Campbell was engaged in restoring. 2 Captain Macpherson then agreed to take his chance of the 1 November 1847. The Commissioner was holding his court at Now- gaum, in the low-country of Goomsur, near the foot of the Hills. The ex- Agency had of course attended him. 2 ' Sam Bissye,' says General Campbell (' Personal Narrative,' p. 92) ' well knew how to govern these people, and how to make himself both feared and respected. His will emphatically was law.' APPENDIX E 385 evidence of such Khonds as could be collected in the low- country, from the fairs and upon the roads. Mr. Grant had about a hundred of them before him, and their evidence was uniformly favourable to the late Agency. Colonel Campbell next declared that it was politically neces- sary that Captain Macpherson's two late chief native officers should leave Goomsur. This requisition was obeyed, and they were sent away ; the irresistible belief in the minds of the Khonds being that they were sent away in disgrace through the influence of Sam Bissye ; although they had not yet had an opportunity of examining their witnesses in answer to the charges made against them, and their assistance was required for the defence of the late Agency. Finally, Colonel Campbell required that Captain Macpherson should himself quit Groomsur even the low-country : his Assistants were in like manner excluded. Under these circumstances, Colonel Campbell's atti- tude could only be considered by the people to be one of open antagonism to the late Agency, and it might seem that there could be little chance of the delivery of free and fearless testimony. Situated as Colonel Campbell was with respect to Captain Macpherson, it is not too much to say that, however necessary he may have deemed these successive demands for the exclusion of those whose conduct was under investigation (Captain Mac- pherson emphatically declared that there was not the smallest ground for any one of them, nor did they, it is believed, receive any countenance from the Commissioner), they at least imposed it upon him, as an indispensable condition to a favourable esti- mation of his motives upon this occasion, that he should for ever after abstain from acts indicating personal hostility to Captain Macpherson. The course which he actually took was so extraordinary that no less authority than his own would suffice to authenticate the statement of it : it is therefore recorded in his own words. 1 Mr. Grant afterwards visited the Goomsur Hills, being inter- dicted by Colonel Campbell from entering Boad. He was not attended by a single member or servant of the late Agency, or by any one on their behalf; such attendance being pro- hibited by Colonel Campbell. In due time he made his Report, which formed the basis of the final decision of the Government 1 See Appendix F. C C 386 APPENDIX E. upon the case contained in a Resolution of the Governor- General in Council, dated 7th October 1848, and in a letter of the Court of Directors of the 25th September 1850, in which that Resolution was reviewed, and a judgment not less favourable to the ex-Agency was pronounced. General Campbell has been pleased to epitomise the charges, in a paragraph which will be cited. They in truth took a larger range than would appear from his statement, extending to every part of the conduct of the late Agency and its servants ; and as might have been expected under the circumstances Mr. Grant, a very acute man, coming to inquire and to criticise, and conducting his inquiries under the difficulties above referred to and the Government adopting his reports, did not approve of everything that had been done : but the result was that while high praise was awarded to the conduct of the two Assistants, Mr. Cadenhead and Mr. Pinkney (upon whom necessarily a less degree of responsibility rested than upon their chief), the Go- vernment at the same time recorded its opinion, that ( Captain Macpherson had, with a very little exception, cleared himself and his administration of all General 's 1 accusations,' and it informed the latter officer (who had reiterated his charges) ' that every allegation of the slightest importance set forth in his letter had been fully disproved in the course of the inquiry conducted by Mr. Grant.' The Government at the same time declared that it was ' to be regretted, that putting confidence in General - 's repre- sentations, since ascertained to have been unfounded, his measure of removing the Agency officers of his own authority received the approbation of the Government.' This, seeing that Governments never retract and never are in the wrong, seems a tolerably near approach to a confession of error. General Campbell's summary runs thus: 'Major- General 3 reported, on the 20th March, that he wished to give all the assistance in his power to Captain Macpherson to give effect to his measures for the restoration of tranquillity; but no change had taken place in the aspect of affairs, and he had come to the conclusion, after communicating with many 1 The officer designated as General is net General Campbell, but the Brigadier-General who made the charges. 2 A mistake for Brigadier-General. APPENDIX E. 387 influential persons, and from actual observation, that tranquillity would not be restored under the present Agency, owing to the extreme hatred manifested throughout these districts against Captain Macpherson and his establishment the result, as is generally stated, of the offensive conduct of the Agency towards the inhabitants of these Mootahs, and above all the harsh and cruel measures resorted to whenever it has been necessary to display the power, as it is termed, of the Government against any of these ignorant and deluded people.' 1 The following extracts from the Resolution of 7th October 1848 show how these matters appeared to the deciding au- thority : 6 Mr. Grant ' (says the Governor-General in Council) e was led to believe, from what he saw of the Goomsur Khonds, that both Captain Macpherson and his native officers were much liked by them; and there was, he says, the same negative evidence as regards the seven lowland Mootahs attached to the Agency viz., the absence of all complaint against them. 'The direct evidence of the very good feeling towards the ex-Agency of the respectable and peaceable classes (village- renters and merchants) of the low-country, Mr. Grant describes as most convincing. ( The conclusion of the Commissioner's investigation, embraced in his 13th Eeport, which the Governor-General in Council has now reviewed, is a testimony emphatically favourable to Captain Macpherson and his establishment 2 : ' " On the whole subject I must report the result of my inquiry to be a conviction that no hatred was felt in the districts under the Meriah Agency against Captain Macpherson or his esta- blishment, and neither his conduct nor theirs had been op- pressive to the inhabitants of those districts; and that no reason existed for fancying that the feelings of the people towards the ex-Agency would have interfered with the return of the country to permanent tranquillity under them. On the other matters in question, my conviction is that a great change for the better in the aspect of affairs was in active progress during the period between the 14th of March, when General 1 ' Narrative ' of 1861, p. 58. 2 Mr. Grant wrote to the effect that he believed that no Agency in India could have come so triumphantly through such an ordeal in respect of these inquiries, c c 2 388 APPENDIX E. went to GKillery, 1 and the 20th of March, when he wrote his accusatory letter ; that before Greneral left the village of Grullery, the people who were living there equalled about two- thirds of its original population, of whom the greater num- ber were people just returned ftom the jungles; that when Greneral - - wrote his accusatory letter it was premature to say that there was no prospect of the return of the people in the jungles, notwithstanding Captain Macpherson's proclama- tion, because of the dispersion and distance of the absentees and there was a good prospect of the return of the greater part of those still absent, because a large proportion of the original absentees had already returned within the last few days; that there was not a spirit of universal distrust in the minds of the people of the said districts against the locally- constituted authorities, and no wish for their removal ; and that at the time in question much progress had been made towards the settlement of the low-country of Groomsur." f The charges of inhumanity as affecting Captain Macpherson the ex- Agent, Mr. Cadenhead the Principal Assistant, or Lieu- tenant Pinkney the Assistant including the allegation in rela- tion to harsh and cruel measures resorted to by way of coercion, and the general character of the field-operations of the Agency, have been searchingly and comprehensively investigated in the 8th, 9th, and 12th Keports to Mr. Grant. The Grovernor- Greneral in Council has no hesitation in pronouncing these charges to have been throughout most unmerited Even where the burning of villages was resorted to under specific authority from Captain Macpherson, with the explana- tion which the Grovernment has now received of the transaction, this officer must be relieved from the blame formerly imputed to him ; 2 since there was a manifest necessity for the punishment of the rebel party to which these villages belonged, however much any necessity for the adoption of such a mode of punish- ment may be to be deprecated.' 3 1 A village in the Goomsur low-country. 2 No blame had ever been imputed to him. 3 Another paragraph of the Resolution may be cited : 'The Governor- General in Council has considered Mr. Grant's 13th Report with the close attention which it deserves, not only as a judicial examination of the grounds (alleged and assumed) on which General must be held to have founded his opinion that such was the hatred of the people to Captain Macpherson's Meriah Agency that the tranquillity of the country APPENDIX E. 389 To advert to the history which General Campbell has taken upon himself to give of the events of 1847. He says : f The policy pursued by General was most successful : the removal of Captain Macpherson and his establishment at once put an end to the opposition to Government, tranquillity was restored, and nothing remained but the embers of the dis- turbance kept alive by Chokro Bissye.' 1 This is a little modified in the ( Personal Narrative' of 1864 : ' Greneral quickly marched into the disturbed districts, and through his judicious measures tranquillity was so far restored as to render it possible again to renew operations against human sacrifices, which from first to last had been the sole object the Anglo-Indian Government had in view.' 2 Mr. Grant's report, adopted by the Government of India, gives a very different account of matters : 6 1 have pointed out that the result of the course of policy adopted by General - has been the burning by rebels in the course of a year of a much larger number [than 35] of loyal villages, many of them burnt at night, with destruction of property and some loss of life. could not be restored while the authority was in his hands, but as an instructive narrative of circumstances which indicate what was the real condition of the feelings of the people in the low-country of Goomsur towards the Government and the officers of the ex-Agency at the time of General ? s assumption of power, the classes (the Paiks and Khonds of the low-country) concerned in the rebellion, the influence of the Paiks, what may be supposed to have been the object which they and the Khonds had in common respecting a restoration of the Rajah of Goomsur, and the movement, not confined to the division of Goomsur under Captain Mac- pherson on the contrary (as principally instigated by the disaffected ad- venturer Chokro Bissye, who had no exclusive design on Captain Macpher- son's division of the Goomsur low-country), simultaneously breaking out within Mootahs belonging to the Ganjam Agent's division; and which further establish the misapprehension and deception whereby the General was induced to make his accusatory representations respecting the conduct of the local authorities to the Madras and Bengal Governments.' 1 < Narrative ' of 1861, p. 59. 2 Page 91. What this means is not very clear. Captain Macpherson had rendered up Goomsur wholly reclaimed (see above, p. 212) j and as to Boad, we are told in the ' Narrative ' of 1861, that up to the latter part of February 1848 the Khonds of Boad ( had been triumphant.' Operations against the sacrifice, therefore, according to General Campbell, were at this time un- necessary in Goomsur j and if any took place in Boad, they must have been wholly unsuccessful. 390 APPENDIX E. ' The indiscriminate release without trial of the prisoners in confinement has had deplorable consequences in respect of the peace of the country generally, and the safety of loyal indi- viduals especially. 'The people of Chokapaud, who were then [at the time of Captain Macpherson's dismissal] in rebellion, remained in re- bellion until the other day ; and all, or nearly all, who were not then in rebellion went into rebellion a few days after General - - took charge, and so remained till the other day.' * To return to General Campbell's statements : ' The corrupt practices of the native establishment of the late Agency made it impossible to employ any of them?* This is very explicit, and relates to another matter on which one might have supposed that General Campbell could not well be mistaken, as the constitution of his native establishment rested entirely with himself. But what says the Government Eesolution ? ' The third man in rank, by name Sookoomaram, and a few others were reappointed to office by Colonel Gampbell(\) which could not have happened if Colonel Campbell had considered their original removal a just and necessary measure.' 3 Mr. Grant considered that several members of the native establishment of the Agency, including Baba Khan and in a less degree Soondera Sing, had been guilty of extortion. Such a charge might easily be brought, easily be backed by testimony, and easily be believed, against the members of any native esta- blishment when turned out of office ; for the exaction of irregular gains, though not universal, is yet of very frequent occurrence among all classes of the natives of India, from the reigning prince to the messenger upon four rupees a month. The Agency servants, however, complained that, owing to their second expulsion from Goomsur by Colonel Campbell in No- vember 1847, before their witnesses could be examined, they had been precluded from making their defence : and Mr. Grant himself reported that in the Hills they were generally liked and well spoken of, that in the plains there was no complaint against them, and that no Agency in India could have come so 1 This was "written on the 15th June 1848. 2 ' Narrative ' of 1861, p. 63. This assertion is not repeated in the ( Personal Narrative/ but, like the rest of the l Narrative' of 1861, it stands unretracted. 3 Eesolution of 7th October 1848. APPENDIX E. 391 triumphantly through such an ordeal as they were subjected to. These findings do not seem consistent with the supposition of any very serious corruption. Without going into detail on this subject, it may be remarked that Soondera Sing and Baba Khan were the leading instruments of an Agency of which ' mildness ' was emphatically declared by Mr. Grant to be the 'characteristic'; that they had adhered to it with inflexible constancy, under many dangers and sufferings, and that they had greatly promoted its success by their zeal and their abilities. Even were it possible as, for the reasons stated, it is not to arrive at any certain conclusion regarding these charges, and were that conclusion unfavourable to them, it would be unfair to judge them, as General Campbell has done, by a standard of morals which he well knows to be inapplicable. Soondera Sing was a high-bred Hindu gentleman of spirit and ability, and of manners befitting his station ; and it is un- questionable that he retained in a most remarkable degree to the day of his death the respect and affection of his own countrymen. Baba Khan was associated with Soondera in all things, and though his school-education had, like that of most Mahomedans, been neglected, he spoke many languages, and was very able and intelligent. He filled at the time of his death the respectable office of Tahsildar of Nellore. These men died prematurely, worn out in the public service. Captain Macpherson and Mr. Cadenhead publicly acknowledged the value of their assistance, and would have disclaimed any credit them- selves of which an ample share was not awarded to Soondera Sing and Baba Khan, their zealous instruments and coadjutors. The Hindu and the Musulman in their short day served God according to their measure ; and General Campbell would have done well, instead of reiterating his harsh and vindictive accu- sations against them, to dwell less on the alleged frailties and more upon the undoubted merits of two men who contributed so largely to the work of humanity. 392 APPENDIX F. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN CAMPBELL, C.B., AND THE EDITOR OF THESE MEMORIALS. I. Mr. Macpherson to General Campbell. 6 Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Gardens : March 7, 1868. Sir, A work bearing your name as author, and those of Messrs. Hurst & Blackett as publishers, but purporting to be printed for private circulation, was reviewed in the ' Edinburgh Evening Courant' of the 28th ult. The review contains state- ments professedly founded on the work in question, and reflecting upon the conduct of the late Major Macpherson, although he is not named in the review. The book was noticed some time ago in the London ( Spectator,' in a review of similar purport. I am the eldest brother of Major Macpherson. Upon the ap- pearance of the review in the ( Spectator ' I wrote to Messrs. Hurst & Blackett (being unacquainted with your address), and asked them to submit to you my request to be favoured with a copy of the work. They have since informed me that they forwarded my application, but I make no doubt that it has failed to reach you. Under these circumstances I now renew my request ; and I hope that it will be convenient for you to ac- cede to it at an early date, since, independently of the newspaper notices which have put an end to all privacy, I might have fairly claimed to see, even while its circulation was private, a book which appears to contain reflections upon the conduct of my brother, whom you succeeded in office. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM MACPHERSON. P.S. A copy, if sent to 6 Duke Street, Edinburgh, will reach me. Major-General John Campbell, C.B. APPENDIX R 393 II. General Campbell to Mr. Macpherson. 120 George Street, Edinburgh : March 9, 1863. Sir, I have this day received yours of the 7th, and, as re- quested, have forwarded a copy of my book to 6 Duke Street. Messrs. Hurst & Blackett made no communication to me respect- ing your wish to have a copy of the work, which was written solely for private circulation amoDg my friends ; nor had I any knowledge whatsoever of the reviews of the book which you mention until the papers in which they appeared were forwarded to me casually by a friend ; nor do I know who the writers are. Had my permission been asked to review or notice the work in any manner, I should most certainly have refused my consent. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, J. CAMPBELL. W. Macpherson, Esq., 6 Stanhope Street. III. Mr. Macpherson to General Campbell. G Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Gardens ; March 16, 1863. Sir, I have to thank you for the copy of your ' Narrative,' which you were so good as to send to Duke Street in compliance with my request. At page 202 I observe the following pas- sage : ( By the kind permission of Lord Dalhousie, I published an answer to a tissue of gross misrepresentations which appeared in the Calcutta Review.' As I am not aware of the existence of any publication which bears your name besides the ' Nar- rative,' I beg leave to enquire whether the answer to which you refer is an anonymous pamphlet, entitled ' The Khond Agency and the Calcutta Review being a Reply in Refutation of the Misrepresentations and Distortions of Facts contained in several Articles on Khond Affairs, published in Nos. IX., XI., XV., and XX. of the Calcutta Review (Madras, 1849)'? If this is not your answer, I shall feel obliged if you will afford me such information as may enable me to obtain a copy of the answer. As the manner in which you mention Lord Dalhousie's name might seem to imply that his Lordship in some degree lent his 304 APPENDIX F. sanction to the contents of your publication, I shall esteem it a favour if you will acquaint me with the exact terms in which his permission was conveyed. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM MACPHERSON. Major-General John Campbell, C.B. IV. General Campbell to Mr. Macpherson. 120 George Street, Edinburgh : March 17, 1865. Sir, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday. The passage which you quote from page 202 of my f Narrative' has reference to the pamphlet entitled 'The Khond Agency and the Calcutta Eeview,' &c., for the publication of which and the use of official papers I received the permission of the Grovernor-Greneral of India, Lord Dalhousie ; through the usual official channel ; but I do not mean to imply that his Lordship approved or otherwise of the contents of the pamphlet, copies of which were at the time sent to the late Major Mac- pherson, the leading Indian periodicals, the anonymous writer in the ( Calcutta Review,' the several Governments of India, and the Court of Directors ; the latter stating in reply that they did not approve of officers noticing anonymous reflections on their official conduct, and that I ought to have rested satisfied with the approval of my superiors, or words to that effect, I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J. CAMPBELL. W. Macpherson, Esq., London. V. Mr. Macpherson to General Campbell. 6 Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Gardens, W. : March 31, 1863. Sir, I have received your letter of the 17th inst., in which you inform me that the pamphlet entitled ( The Khond Agency and the Calcutta Review,' &c., is the answer to which you APPENDIX F. 395 referred as having been published by you. As both your works relate to the delicate subject of the comparative merits of your- self and Major Macpherson, and abound in strictures upon his conduct, it is remarkable that the pamphlet which was published does not bear your name ; while the ' Narrative,' which does bear your name, has not been published. Although you say that you had the permission of Lord Dalhousie for the publi- cation of the pamphlet, and for the use of official papers, I cannot suppose that you mean to intimate more than that Lord Dalhousie gave you permission to use official documents in replying to the * Calcutta Eeview.' The pamphlet in question relates in great part to transactions in respect of which no ob- servations touching your conduct had been made in the ( Calcutta Review ; ' and not only is it not professedly yours, but it con- tains passages calculated to impress the reader with the belief that the work, whoever was its author, could not have been written by yourself. Thus at p. 7 it says ' Our immediate business, however, is with the measures pursued by Captain (now Lieutenant- Colonel) Campbell, and their results. And with the mass of evidence before us, to which we would now respectfully direct the attention of our readers, we cannot hesi- tate to affirm that to him belongs the credit of having laid the foundation of successful operations in the Groomsur Maliahs,' &c. And at p. 61 'For a succinct account of Captain (now Lieute- nant-Colonel) Campbell's labours among the Khonds of Groom- sur, we would refer our readers to the clear and satisfactory statement which he gave in to Mr. Commissioner Grrant. This document well deserves a careful perusal.' In each of these passages a judgment professedly coining from a different quarter is delivered in favour of Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell. No reader could feel at liberty to suppose that the object of these commendations was himself the giver. I understand you to intimate that you transmitted your pamphlet to the Court of Directors, and that the Court stated in reply to your communi- cation that it disapproved of officers noticing anonymous reflec- tions on their official conduct, and that you ought to have rested satisfied with the approval of your superiors. I also gather from your letter that the Court expressed these opinions without adverting to the fact that your pamphlet was itself anonymous, and was full of reflections upon the official conduct of others (which conduct was at that moment passing under the review of 306 APPENDIX F. the Court), and without noticing the delusive passages to which I have referred. That this should have been so does appear to me so extraordinary, that I cannot but suppose that the matter needs some explanation, or some additional statement, to place it with sufficient clearness before the mind of the reader. On the publication of the pamphlet, Mr. Cadenhead, late Principal Assistant in the Hill-Tracts of Orissa, applied to the Government of Bengal for leave to reply to its misstatements. That per- mission was refused ; and the refusal was confirmed, on appeal, by the Government of India, which (according to the recollec- tion of a person who saw the correspondence) assigned as the ground of its decision, that Mr. Cadenhead's re-employment in the Political Department (whence he had, in common with Major Macpherson and the whole Hill Agency, been removed upon charges made by General 1 ) was itself a sufficient refutation of anonymous accusations. 2 Major Macpherson, in a memorandum which, upon his return to India in 1853, he sub- mitted to Lord Dalhousie, represented that immediately upon his leaving India his character (recently cleared of the charges of General by a solemn decision of the Government) had been assailed anew in an anonymous pamphlet (meaning the pamphlet of which you have avowed yourself the author), having the colour of support from official papers, and reproducing against him the exploded accusations of General - as if they had never been adjudicated upon, mingled with aspersions as groundless as those ; and that this pamphlet had been in- dustriously circulated in India and in England. ' Confiding,' he added, 'that the ultimate vindication of my character is safe with the Government which I have served, and believing that I shall best meet their views by abstaining from doing anything to keep alive the controversy on Khond affairs, to which I never contributed a single line, and which, in its origin and spirit, cannot but be regarded as discreditable to humanity, I have 1 The officer designated as General is the Brigadier-General who made the charges against the Agency in 1847. 2 The Editor of these Memorials has been informed, since the date of this correspondence, that Mr. Cadenhead's application was not for leave to answer the pamphlet, but for protection by the Government against such attacks from a quarter apparently official, and that the reply was that Mr. Cadenhead had not made out a case for the interference of the Government. This probably meant that, the pamphlet being anonymous, the Government could not assume that it emanated from an official source. APPENDIX F. 397 remained silent.' The Government justified his confidence by employing him in offices of honour and difficulty in which he was enabled to render eminent service to the State ; and the controversy seemed to have passed into oblivion. But since his death you have come forward to assail his memory. For the sake of his reputation, and of the reputation of his colleagues Mr. Cadenhead and Major Pinkney, C.B. who have like him descended into the grave, honoured and lamented, I desired to see your ' Narrative.' I find in it a series of statements, to which might well be applied the language used by yourself with reference to articles in the ' Calcutta Review,' well known to have been written by a man of the highest character, the Eeverend Dr. Duff. But I will not now examine your assertions in detail, for I observe in the work an omission which, added to the facts already noticed, appears to me to render further comment use- less. At p. 58 you cite and adopt a portion of a report written by General - , whose name I regret to see introduced by you into this controversy, as I have little doubt that his mistakes arose mainly from his being less conversant with civil duties than with those of his own profession. In the passage cited, Major Macpherson and his whole Agency are charged with very serious offences. What will your readers think when they learn the fact which you have withheld from them that these charges have been refuted that Major Macpherson and his colleagues demanded an enquiry into their truth and that after a protracted investigation, conducted by one of the most distinguished public servants in India, Mr. (now Sir John) Grant, every one of the accusations which you have seen fit to reprint as if they stood uncontradicted, was pronounced by Mr. Grant, by the Government of India, and by the Court of Directors, to have been quite undeserved ? Having noticed this grave suppression, I hold myself discharged from the duty of remarking further upon your ' Narrative.' But I cannot help adding that if your ( modest appreciation of your own success ' is the correct appreciation, it is strange that persons so well acquainted with Indian affairs as Dr. Duff and Mr. Kaye (see Kaye's ' History of the Administration of the East India Com- pany,' second edition, page 493) should have attributed mainly to Major Macpherson's exertions the progress which had been made in the suppression of human sacrifices; and that they should be supported in this opinion by the authority of the 398 APPENDIX F. India House, which, long after the close of your service in Orissa, dealt with the subject, as you will see by the following extracts from a ( Memorandum (prepared at the India House) of the Improvement of the Administration of India during the last Thirty Years ' (ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 12th February 1858) 1 Lord Canning too, upon Major Macpherson's death, directed the Secretary to the Grovernment of India to address to the Grovernor-Greneral's Agent for Central India a letter, in which the following passage occurs : 6 Major Macpherson's services in the Political Department through a long course of years, especially the part he took in the suppression of human sacrifice and female infanticide among the Khonds, have gained for him a high place in the long list of distinguished officers who have adorned the Indian Service, and entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the Grovernment and people of India.' I need not add that I consider myself at liberty to give publicity to the correspondence which has passed between us. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM MACPHERSON. Major-General John Campbell, C.B. General Campbell to the Editor of the ' Edinburgh C our ant' 29 Old Burlington Street, London, W. : 2 April 7, 1863. Sir, I observe that you have published in your paper of the 4th inst. a correspondence which has passed between Mr. Macpherson and myself, and I have to request that you will favour me with space for a few brief observations. I most indignantly repel the insinuation contained in the following passage in Mr. Macpherson's letter : ' As both your works relate to the delicate subject of the comparative merits of yourself and Major Macpherson, and abound in strictures 1 The extracts are liere omitted, because they have been printed at p. 282 of the present work. APPENDIX F. 399 upon his conduct, it is remarkable that the pamphlet which was published does not bear your name, while the " Narrative" which does bear your name has not been published.' Of the ( pamphlet' commented upon by Mr. Macpherson - apart from the official letters and papers it contains / did not write a line, nor did I know anything of the contents of the pamphlet until after its publication; but it was well known that I was responsible for it, and that I courted, nay challenged, refutation if that were possible of the facts stated therein. I stand fast by the truth of every statement contained in my 'Narrative;' and although it was only written for my family and friends, I may now think it right to make it public, as has frequently been suggested to me. It was not necessary to drag the names of Dr. Cadenhead and Major Pinkney into this discussion as has been done. The latter gentleman has not been named by me, and the former only with respect; neither is Major Macpherson's success in another sphere of duty questioned. This bitter controversy was simply a personal matter between Major Macpherson and myself as to whom belonged the chief merit of the suppression of human sacrifice in Groomsur ; for at that period with the exception of Boad the other districts afterwards operated upon by me had not been entered, and the origin of the dispute will appear in the following extracts from a letter, quoted from the ' pamphlet,' which in 1847 I addressed to a high official, through whom it passed to Major Macpherson, then not many miles from my camp, in reply, as will be seen, to statements made by him : Para. 23. ( I here assert that, aided by the intrepid old chief Sam Bissye Bahadur Bukshi, I put an end to the public per- formance of the Meriah sacrifice among the Khonds of Groomsur, and that up to the end of 1841, when I last visited them, the cruel rite had not been publicly performed.' [See above, p. 156. ED. MEM.] Para. 30. ( If Captain Macpherson had refrained from at- tempting to exalt his own reputation at the expense of mine, and if he had confined himself to the vindication of his own policy without nullifying my past and present measures, I would have remained silent, and in silence suffered the obloquy that has for years been cast upon my honest endeavours to pave the way for the ultimate extinction of a revolting rite. But 400 APPENDIX F. Captain Macpherson lias thought good, officially, to announce to you my entire "failure" in the Meriah cause. In public jour- nals I have often read similar statements, but I have passed them by unnoticed ; the intimation publicly communicated to you cannot be treated in like manner, and I will hope that in this recorded intimation of my " failure and his success," sub- mitted to you by Captain Macpherson, you will discern both the cause and the apology for whatever of egotism may belong- to this paper.' I may observe that I feel confident the historian whose name is mentioned by Mr. Macpherson will yet be satisfied that he has unintentionally I doubt noi done me some injustice. I remain, &c. 5 J. CAMPBELL. LOKDOW BY SPOXTISWOODK AMD CO. UEW-STBEET 8QUABB F. /\-.?>-.--" J *.\ / ,/""'"' \ ^ s~-'' ^ / ? 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