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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1885.
themselves in order to extort presents from in white garments, and having lovely faces, their neighbours as the price of immunity from but hideous backs and inverted feet. But as a their ravages. Trial by ordeal is also resorted general rule, the tribes not only believe in to by the Gonds for the conviction of a persona future life, but are able to tell something suspected of witchcraft; but it is so arranged more definite of its nature. The Abors think as to make escape impossible in any case. that the character of the future state is deterThe woman is securely bound and thrown into mined in some degree by present conduct, but deep water. If she swims, she is guilty; if this advanced conception is perhaps due to the she sinks, she is drowned. Or the witch is Hindús, whose god of the dead they have beaten with castor oil rods; if she feels pain, it borrowed. Their neighbours the Miris share is proof of guilt. Women, and those not al- the same views, and bestow unusual care upon ways the old and ugly, are more often suspected the bodies of the dead. They are completely of the black art than men are.
dressed, and supplied with cooking vessels and We have reserved to this place an impor- every appliance for a journey, and are placed tant feature of the religion of the aboriginal in graves lined with strong timbers to protect tribes of India, namely, their views concerning them from the pressure of the earth. The future life and the customs connected there- Eastern Naga tribes believe that the future life with. While it is true that savage races is like the present one, or on the whole rather generally have held to the survival of the soul more to be desired. Their belief in immortality after death, their notions regarding the charac- is shown by the care with which they place in ter of the future life and its bearings upon the the grave the belongings of the dead. The present existence have greatly varied. Among residence of the disembodied spirit is not necesthe lowest tribes the fatore life has been com- sarily a distant region, The Någas suppose that monly imagined to be a continuation of the the soul hovers about its former abode, and present life, though under conditions more considerable anxiety is felt for its convenience. favourable for physical enjoyment. In a more Captain Butler mentions an instance where a advanced stage of society, where the moral native was buried midway between two villages powers have reached a fuller development, men in which he had resided at different times in have looked upon that life as an opportunity to order that his soul might most conveniently balance the accounts of this life, to render to visit either. Some tribes place the body in a every man according to that he hath done. wooden hut, in the wall of which an aperture is We therefore proceed to inquire with much made for the ghost to pass to and fro. When interest what these tribes have to say concern- a Garo dios, his soul goes to Chikmang, one of ing the world of the dead. The Chulikata the highest mountain peaks in their country. Mishmis deposit in the grave with the dead his Food is provided for the journey, and dogs are weapons, clothes, and ornaments, and some slaughtered to track out the path for him. food; but they affirm that this is done only as Formerly slaves were killed at the grave to a mark of affection, and not with the idea that attend persons of note, but the custom was he can make any use of them. They declare stopped by order of Government. A choice that there is no future life, but that they and offering on such occasions, and probably for the gods whom they worship have but a the same purpose, used to be heads of Bengalis temporary existence. The Joanga also are said from the plains. An incident observed by to have no expectation of survival after death. Colonel Dalton shows that the Gåros believe The Mundas have a vague notion that the not only in the survival after death of the souls ghosts of the dead hover about, and they some- of men and animals, but in that of inanimate times set apart food for them in the house. objects. Witnessing the faneral of a young The same vagueness of conception is characteris- girl, the friends were observed to break all the tic of the Orkons. They say that those who earthen vessels placed on the grave. In answer have been killed by tigers are transformed into to inquiry he was told that only in this way that animal; also that the ghosts of women who could they be used by the girl, that for her the have died in childbirth hover about graves, clad pieces would reunite. In other words, the
* This is the universal Indian belief in the chupel.-ED.
