KHONDS, or KUS, a people of Dravidian race living in parts of Orissa and Bengal. They are of low stature, well built and muscular and of a warlike disposition which has made them good soldiers and consequently high 1y respected by their neighbors. They are less cultured than the races by which they are sur rounded. They cling to the ancient Dravidian beliefs, in which nature worship forms the chief role. But among them almost every sect of In dia and some of the European religions have a formal hold, though even where they prevail, they are grafted on the ancient religious be liefs and superstitions. The Khonds are said to have all the virtues of races in their stage of social evolution. They are kind and generous to one another, hospitable, faithful to their friends and allies and implacable to their ene mies. In one respect they are above the moral standard of many races much more advanced than they, in that they are noted for their mo rality. Among their picturesque customs which
have now practically disappeared were their practice of capture marriages and their human sacrifices which were offered to the earth deity or to the mother of fertility and production. This latter custom seems to have been at one time common to all the Indo-European races, among whom the great Earth Mother was one of the most revered of deities, under one name or another. Pop. about 500,000. Consult Campbell, 'A Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years' Service among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan' (London 18M) ; Dalton, (Descrip tive Ethnology of (Calcutta 1872); Lewin, 'Wild Races of Southeastern (London 1870) • Reclus, 'Primitive Folk) (New York 1896 ; Roney, 'The Wild Tribes of India) (London 1882).