MERIAH, the name given to the victims of sacrifice in the Khond tracts near Orissa, where young persons were sacrificed to propitiate the divinity supposed to preside over the soil. The Meriah sacrifices to the earth goddess were made amongst the Khond until the close of the Gumsur war in 1836. In Boad and Gnmsur, the form under' which the goddess was worshipped is as a bird, but in Chinna Kimmedy that of an elephant. In one place there was a pit dug, over which a hog is killed, and the Meriah's face then forced into the bloody mire until suffocated. Pieces of the flesh were then cut off and buried beneath the village idol and in the fields of the villagers. In Boad, great value was attached to the saliva of the Meriah. A Meriah Agency was instituted for the purpose of suppressing the human sacrifices, and it has nearly attained that object. The Meriah victims were natives of the low countries bordering on the Khond mountains. They were procured for the purpose by the Khond from the Pano by a regular system of crimping and kidnapping. All were acceptable, from the Brahman or Muhammadan to the Pariah, without distinction of age or sex. The greater number were very young children, who were purchased or stolen, carried to the hills, and allowed to live till some occasion called for a sacrifice. The
rescued Meriah were placed in villages of their own, on land granted them by Government, and they made considerable progress in acquiring settled and industrious habits. The Khond in habit an immense tract of mountainous country, covered with dense jungle. They are a hardy and independent race, who looked on human sacrifice as the only means of averting the anger of heaven. Meriah sacrifices in the hill tracts of Orissa have much decreased, and the Khond have been sacrificing buffaloes instead. The establishment has not succeeded in entirely preventing Meriah sacrifices even on shore, and on board the country ships plying in the neigh bourhood of the districts where the practice prevails, they were rather the rule than the exception.
The Digalo is found in Khond communities occupying the position of servant and counsellor to the Khond headman or Moliko ; he is of the Pano caste, a race possessing more cunning than the Khond, and exercising much indirect influence in consequence. They are thieves and kidnappers, and officiate as priests at Meriah rites. Their influence is exercised usually for evil.