The consummation of the Meriah sacrifice was often attended with circumstances of the most revolting and disgusting cruelty. In some cases the event was preceded by a month's feasting, intoxication, and dancing round the Meriah. On the day before the sacrifice, the priest thus addressed the victim: "We have bought you with a price, and did not seize you; now we sacrifice you according to custom,and no sin rests with us." On the following day the victim was made senseless from intoxication, and then suffo cated; after which the officiating priest cut a portion of the flesh from the body, and buried it as an offering to the earth-god. The people, following his example, hewed the flesh from the bones, and carried the bloody trophy to their distant villages, where it was buried. In many cases the victim was not intoxicated before sacrifice; but the joints of Iris arms and legs were broken with a hatchet, in order to prevent the possibility of resistance. In 1837 gen. (then rapt.) Campbell was appointed assistant-collector in Ganjam, the adjoining district in the plains, and with varied success devoted much of his time to endeavoring to suppress the rite. He was succeeded iu 1841 by maj. (then lieut.) Macpherson, c.n. Encouraged by the success of his labors, the government in 1845 established, under Macpherson, a separate agency for the suppression of 3Icriah sacrifices in the hill tracts of Orissa, in which he was succeeded, in 1847, by maj.gen.
Campbell. who carried on, with undiminished success, the good work commenced by Macpherson, pushing his inquiries and exerting his authority among the tribes unvis ited by his predecessor; and reports have been sent in from all parts of the country, stating that for several years hardly any Meriah sacrifices have taken place in the great hill tract of Orissa. In the year 1852-53 all victims retained for sacrifice were demand ed, and in only one instance had the demand to be followed up by force. The practice of female infanticide has now also become almost wholly suppressed. The irrigation of a large portion of Orissa is provided for by an extensive and costly system of canals taken over by the government in 1863.
See Report by Lieut. ,`Pherson, 1841; An Account of the Religion of the Khonds in Orissa, idem in the Trans. of Asiat. Societies, 1851; Campbell's Personal IVarratire of Service Amongst the Wild Tribes of Khondistan, 1864; Calcutta Review, Nos. IX., Xl., XV., and XX.; Kaye's History of the Administration of the E. I. Coy., 1853; .3Iemoir: Admin istration of India During That Thirty Years, 1858; Indian Records—History of the Rise and Progress of the Operations for the Suppression of Human. Sacrifice and Female Infanti cide in the Hill Tracts of Orissa (1854); and Orissa, by W. W. Hunter, director-general of the statistical survey of India (1872).