A correspondent sent the following report to the Madras Times, of a case of human sacrifice which occurred in the Patna Feudatory State, in the Central Provinces. The chief of the Gonds of the Alardu ground of villages was sitting by the side of a road during the Dusserah festival, talking to his uncle, a chowkidar, and a liquor-seller. Presently a strolling minstrel appeared on tho scene, and salaamed to the chief, who asked hitn if he drank liquor. The minstrel replied that Ito did, so the chief caused him to be served with some toddy, which the party had with them. The Gond chief and the liquor-seller then went into the jungle, the remainder of the party stayed talking by the side of the road. When the chief and the liquor-seller returned, the latter went up to the minstrel, and, seizing him by his hair, pulled him down. The Gond chief said to his uncle, Take your axe and cut the minstrel's throat.' Accordingly the chief's uncle sat astride the minstrel's chest, and cut his throat with an axe, the Gond ehief in the meantime holding a Iota belonging to one of the party to catch tho blood which gushed out. The minstrel died at once, and the chowkidar and the liquor-seller chopped up tho body, and, taking it a little way into the jungle, buried it there. Tho vehole party then proceeded to the temple of the goddess Duarini, which they reached about 10 P.SI. The chief, leaving tbo others outside, went in and woke up the pujali, saying, I have brought an offering of liquor for the goddess, do you pour it over her image. The pujali at first refused, but afterwards, yielding to the earnest solicitetions of the chief, took the iota and poured its contents over the stone image of the goddess. Seeing the contents were blood, be inquired frotn whence it came. The chief said it was the blood of a buffalo bull. Ile then went outside, and joining his party, they all returned home. About ten days after the murder, the minstrel's relatives, finding ' that he did not return, gave inforniation to the police, and on an investigation being held, the ' chowkidar confessed fully, and ou his confession, the chief, his undo, and the liquor-seller were brought to trial before the commissioner of the Ch'hattisgarh division, and were sentenced by him to be hanged.
Captain Postans, writing on Western India, tells us that Brahmans of the Dekhan long pre served the custom of yearly sacrificing an aged wonian, on the occasion of the. raja of Sattara's visit to tho fort of Partabghur. There is, toward the close of the 19th century, a numerous tribe of Brahmans who are still accused of the practice. They are the Kurrada, and are inhabitants of tho Konkan. They were noticed in 1808 by Colonel Walker, Resident of Baroda, and subsequently by Sir John Malcolm in his History of India, and the latest reports from that neighbourhood show the belief that the practice of sacrificing human beings still continues amongst them. The goddess of
their worship is Maha Lakshmi, to whom they believe human sacrifices are acceptable, and the more so if the victim is a Brahman learned in the shastras. Kurrada Brahmans are accused of effecting, by the secret operation of poison, that object. Clolonel Walker knew several Kurrada Brahmans who, admitting the foriner prevalence, most strongly denied its present practice, but many people would decline to eat of food prepared by a Bra.hman of this tribe, of which he himself should not at the same time partake. Sir John Malcolm also states of the Kurrada Brahmans that they had a custom at Poona of annually sacri ficing to the Sakti a, young Brahman ; and as, according to the sacred books, if the victim is unwilling, the sacrifice is forbidden, to prevent the possibility of such an occurrence, the un suspecting but devoted one is frequently the stranger, who for months, or perhaps years, had shared the hospitality of his murderer. On one such case occurring, orders were issued for the apprehension of a Kurrada Brahman and his family, who themselves were put to death, whilst every priest of the sect was expelled from the city of Poona, and their return forbidden by the heaviest penalties.—Afilman's Hist. of Jews, 4th edit., i. pp. 24, 154 ; William .Howit, The Super natural ; Bunsen, Egypt ; Georgic, lib. M. p. 5 ; Sharpe's Egypt, i. p. 163 ; Early Christianity in Arabia ; Colonel Forbes Leslie; Lubbock, Origin of Civil. ; Kenrick's Phcenicia ; .T. R. Carnac and Colonel A. Walker, Resident, Baroda, 15th March 1808, in Parliamentary Paper, 17th June 1824, p. 52 ; Abbe Domenech ; Wade's Chinese Army, p. 22; Tod's Rajasthan, i. pp. 63, 76, 373 • Cole man, Mythology of the Hindoos, p. 374 ; Nala, pp. 119, 209 ; Postans' Western India, fi. p. 173 ; Hindu Theatre, i. p. 340, ii. p. 59 ; Captain John Clune, Appendix to the Itinerary for Western India, p. 46 ; Mason's Tenasserim ; Mason's Burma ; Dr. TY. IV. Hunter, p. 30 ; Livingstone, Africa ; Malcolnz's Central India, ii. p. 209; Cal. Rev., December 1860, also January 1871 ; Wilson's Glossary ; Sonneraes Voyage, p. 116 ; Ward's Hindoos, ii. 49-58, 126, 127, iv. 370 ; Forbes' Rasamala, Hindu Annals, ii. pp. 353, 360 ; Frere, Antipodes, p. 234 •, Bryanes Mythology ; Roberts' Illustrations of the Scriptures; Moor, Oriental Fragments; Burder, Oriental Customs ; Harris' Nat. Hist. of the Bible ; Wilson's Select Works, ii. 247 ; Barth's Hindus, p. 57 ; As. Res. v. p. 369 ; Peschel ; Tod.