On the N.E. frontier of British India, several Mongoloid races sacrifice htunan beings till now. The object of the Kuki inroads on the plains is not plunder, for which they have—never beeu known to show any desire, but they kill and carry away the heads of as many human beings as they can seize, and have been known, in one night, to carry off fifty. These are used in certain cere monies performed at the funerals of their chiefs, and it is always after tho death of 0110 of their rajas that their incursions occur.
In Manipur, Cachar, and Assam, according to the Calcutta Review for 1860, the offering of human sacrifices was still continued. By the records of tho Sudder Nizamat AdaInt of Chitta gong for 1852, some inen of tho Toonia Joont MaltaIs were tried for murder by sacrificing. This is a forest tract in the hills, and inhabited by tho Mug, Chuknia, Reang, Tiperah, and other races, all more or less nomadic. The placo of sacrifice was a cleared spot in the jungle, and staked round with bamboos about 6 feet high. The sacrificial pole, tho Pilule bans, are bamboos scraped and stripped at the edges, the hanging strips giving a rude notion of ornament. These sacrifices gener ally occur once a year. During its celebration at Agartollah, a gun is fired every evening at sunset, when every person hurries to his home. The Kuki and all the hill tribes worship local deities, said t,o be 14 in nutnber.
According to Dr. W. W. Hunter, the Hull are a helot raco spread over all Bengal, who take their name from the original &kali word for man, Had,' and who have supplied such terms as hadd, base, low-born ; hadduk, a sweeper ; hunda, hog, blockhead, imp; hudduka, a drunken sot, etc. ; also hadi, in low Bengali hadikath, is the name of a rude fetter or stock, by which the landholder used to confine his serfs until they agreed to his terms. It means literally the helot's log ; it was also used for fastening the head of the victim in the bloody oblations which the Aryan religion adopted from the aboriginal races, especially in the human sacrifices to Kali, to which the low castes even now resort in times of special need. In an account of the last human offering,s to Kali, during the famine of 1866, it waa mentioned that the bleeding head was found fuced on tho harcat, i.e. helot's log.
In a war between two Arab chiefs, in the time of Belisarius, but which was carried on without the interference of either Persia or Romc, the son of Iloreth fell into the' power of the Mender of IIirah, who sacrificed him to Uzza, the deity wor shipped by his tribe. Al-Aeu of the ancient
Arabs, is the same with the lingam of the Hindus, and to this emblem human sacrifices still occur.
Human sacrifices till lately were common with the Garo as offerings to the manes of deceased chiefs. The Burmese stopped the practice amongst the Chutia. It was annual, and the victims had to be provided by a particular tribe, who were rewarded by being exempted from service and taxes. The Koo Karen are reputed to torture human victims in the same manner as they torture tho Gayal, by despatching it with numberless spear wounds. The Bhuiya of Keon jhur Hills, in the Tributary Mahals of Boma and Gangpur, and Bamra, so late as 1st May 1868, performed a human sacrifice.
So late as 1850, the July number of the Calcutta Review (p. 423) remarks that 'in Bengal, in the worship of the bloody Kali, all castes mingle together, and, after a libation of ardent spirits to the goddess, drink spirits and eat flesh, as their fathers did in the Vedic times. It is practised also to this day in the foul and secret rites of tho Tantra. A festival held in honour of Kali is called also Kali-puja, as the Dasra in honour of the same deity, under tho name of Durga, is called also Durga-puja and Durgotsava.' The body of a man, named Rama, resident of the village of Narsipur, in the Slibuoga district, was found in a small temple on the 18th of February 1875. lio was a linr;ayet worshipper of Siva, aged about 22 years, of a retiring disposi tion, and given to reatling religious books. The teniplo is a small, low building cut into the hill, and consisting of three rooms: first the outer ono supported on pillars, then an inner square one, and inside! this again the very small ono or sanctum, containing the lingam. In the iniddle room tho body was found lying on a blanket, nit its right side. Tho arms were crossed on the chest, the last joints of the five fingers of the left hand were cut off, and were in front of the idol, between it and the door, arranged in a line ; and still nearer the door, in front of the idol, blade toward it, was found a kudigol or sickle-shaped knife, besmeared with blood. Two days previous to the discovery of the body, two pujali came to the temple, and on attempting to open the door, they were warned by a voice from within to be off, that there were scenes of wonder being enacted inside which it would not be well for them to witness, and so they left.