7. Khans or Kaiile, the last of the seven deities (Sat dervala), is worshipped under the saj tree (Pentaptera tomentosa.) Kodo Pen is besides these seven, and is the horse-god, common to tho Gond and Kur. Mr. Driberg supposes him to preside over a village, and thus he would correspond to Nadzu Pen of the Kond. But Mr. Hislop conjectures he may be the god of crops, Kodo, the Paspalum frumen taceum, being the grain chiefly cultivated by the Gond. In the wilder villages near the Mahadeva Hills, Kodo Pen is worshipped by new comers near a small heap of stones, through the oldest resident, with fowls, eggs, grain, and a few copper coins, which become the profits of the officiating priest.
Mutua or Mutya Dewa, among the Kurku, is a heap of small stones inside the village, besmeared with sandur, red lead. Ho is associated with the prosperity of the village, and is worshipped with a goat, cocoanuts, limes, dates, and a ball of sandur paste.
Pharsi Pen or Pharsa Pot is represented by a small iron spear-head. This name may possibly be connected with Barchi (Hindi), a spear ; and he rnay be identical with the Loha Pen of the Kond, the iron god or god of war. Pharsa, Gondi, also means a trident, which is an ancient Tartar weapon. He is worshipped every third or fourth or fifth year, at full of the moon Vaisakh, and on the occasion people assemble from great distances, and offering is made of a white cock, a white he goat, and a white young cow. The ceremonies are conducted vtith great secrecy, and no Hindu or Gond woman even is allowed to be present. He is apparently the same as Dula Dewa, the god of the battle-axe of the Gaiti Gonds, who repre sent Dula, Dewa by a battle-axe fastened to a tree. While Barra De wa requires the sacrifice of a living animal, a fowl, a goat, a pig, on public occasions, Dula Dewa is a household god, to whom at all times rice, flowers, and oil can be offered.
Hardal, Amarkantak, is worshipped as tho cholera god ; but Mr. Hislop supposed this to be another name for Budhal Pen. Tho Kurku style him Lala Hardal, and he possibly is the same as the Gohem of the Chaibassa Kol.
Bangarani is probably the god of fever, as among the Kol of Chaibassa, where he is associated with Dichali and Gohem, as also with Chondu, the god of itch, and Negra, of indigestion.
Bhiwasu or Bhim Pen is, in the Mahadeva Hills, the god of rain, where a festival lasting for four or five days is kept in his honour at the end of the monsoon, when two poles, about 20 feet high and 5 feet apart, are set up, and a rope attached to the top, by means of which they climb to the top of the pole, down which they then slide. Offer ings of fowls, eggs, and gmin are presented to him. All over Gondwana he is generally worshipped under the form of an unshapely stone covered with vermilion, or of two pieces of wood standing from three to four feet above ground, liko those set up for Bangamm. Before these tho Moria Gond regularly perform worship previous to sow ing. A littlo S.W. from Bajar Kurd, however, and north of Parsenni, is a formed idol of Bliiwasu, 8 feet high, with a dagger in one hand and a barchi (javelin) in the other. A Bhumuk is tho pujari or officiating priest, and the people worship on Tuesdays and Saturdays, making offerings of hogs, he-goats, cocks, hens, cocoanuts. At an annual
feast the potail gives two rupees, and Hindu culti vators rice ; the pnjari takes a cow by force from the Gowar and offers it to Bhim Sen, in presence of about twenty-five Gonds.
Sasarkasul is a pool in the Mahur jungle, where the Pain-Ganga is said to be engulfed. The Naikude Gond repair there, in pilgrimage, at the month Chaitra, to a hug,e stone that rises in a gorge, and goes by the ilium of Bhitn Sen, before which Naikude Gond mingle with Raj Gond and Kolam in worship. Towards evening the wor shippers cook a little rice, and place it before the god, adding sugar. Then they smear the stone with vermilion and burn resin as incense ; after which all offer their victims, sheep, hogs, and fowls, with the usual libations of armck. The pnjari appears to be inspired, rolls his head, leaps wildly about, and finally falls down in a trance, when he declares whether the god has accepted the services or not At night, drinking, dancing, and beating tomtoms goes on, and in the morning they rettum home after an early meal. Those unable to leave home perform similar rites beneath a mahwa tree.
Waghoba, the tiger god, is worshipped by the Naikude Gond, and under the name of Bag Deo by the Kurku.
Sultan Sakada is worshipped by the Knr.
Sakai Dena or Sakra. Pen, the chain god, is worshipped in Seoni and elsewhere.
Sanyal Pen or Sanalk, tho spirits of the departed, are worshipped or propitiated for a year after death ; but persons of note, headmen of villages, or priests, are treated as gods for years or genera tions, and sacrifices are usually offered at their sthapana or shrines of earth.
The Gonds of Mandla have tho Lamjina Shadi, in which tho betrothed lad serves an apprentice ship for Ilia future wife. A Gond girl, however, may exercise her own will and run off with a man ; but it is quite allowable for her first cousin or the man whom she has deserted to abduct her from the man whom she has chosen. Tho Shadi Bandhoni is a compulsory marriage. In tho Shadi Baitho, a woman goes to a man's house. Widows remarry either to,a younger brother of their deceased hus band, or to some other man.
To burn dead men is deemed the most honour able mode of disposing of the remains; women aro always buried. When the father of a family dies, if well to do, they clothe the corpse in a new dress,and bury or burn the remains ; his spirit is sup posed to dwell in the house till it be released. Till released, the spiritis the only object of worship in the house. After tho funeral, a piece of turmeric and a pice are tied up in a cloth And suspended to one of the beams of the house. When the time comes to lay the spirit, the cloth is removed, and, with a portion of the flesh of a goat or a pig, is offered to the village deity. A feast is given to the relatives and elders, and the release is complete.— Central Provinces Gazetteer,. Sir Walter Elliot, in Journal Ethn. Soc. ; Coleman, Myth. Hind. p. 297 ; Latham's Ethnol.; Mr. Logan, in Jo. Ind. Arch., 1853, p. 201 ; Malcolm's Central India, i. p. 361 ; Dalton's Ethn. of Bengal ; Mr.(Sir George) Camp bell, Ethn. of India, in Jo. B. As. Soc. ; Report of Ethn. Committee of the Central Provinces, 1868, p. 7 ; Rev. Mr. Hislop's Notes ; Wilson.