Note 28 — S

Concerning the performance of sacrifices, Mr. Fawcett writes that “the Saoras say they never practiced human sacrifice. Most Saora sacrifices, which are also feasts, are made to appease deities or Kulbas that have done mischief. I will first notice the few which do not come in this category. (a) The feast to Jalia when mangoes ripen, already mentioned, is one. In a village where the sun, and not Jalia, is the chief deity, this feast is made to the sun. Jalia does not trouble the village, as the Kudung meets him outside it now and then, and sends him away by means of a sacrifice. [Sacrifices and offerings of pigs or fowls, rice, and liquor, are also made at the mahua, hill grain, and red gram festivals.] (b) A small sacrifice, or an offering of food, is made in some places before a child is born. About Kolakotta, when a child is born, a fowl or a pound or so of rice, and a quart of liquor provided by the people of the house, will be taken by the Kudang to the jungle, and the fowl sacrificed to Kanni. Blood, liquor, and rice are left in leaf cups for Kanni, and the rest is eaten. In every paddy field in Kolakotta, when the paddy is sprouting, a sacrifice is made to Sattīra for good crops. A stick of the tree called in Uriya kendhu, about five or six feet long, is stuck in the ground. The upper end is sharpened to a point, on which is impaled a live young pig or a live fowl, and over it an inverted earthen pot daubed over with white rings. If this sacrifice is not made, good crops cannot be expected. [It may be noted that the impaling of live pigs is practiced in the Telugu country.]28 When crops ripen, and before the grain is eaten, sacrifice is made to Lobo (the earth). Lobo Sonnum is the earth deity. If they eat the grain without performing this sacrifice, it will disagree with them, and will not germinate properly when sown again. If crops are good, a goat is killed, if not good, a pig or a fowl. A Kolakotta Saora told me of another sacrifice, which is partly of a propitiatory nature. If a tiger or panther kills a person, the Kudang is called, and he, on the following Sunday, goes through a performance, to prevent a similar fate overtaking others. Two pigs are killed outside the village, and every man, woman, and child is made to walk over the ground whereon the pig’s blood is spilled, and the Kudang gives to each individual some kind of tiger medicine as a charm. The Kudang communicates with the Kulba of the deceased, and learns the whole story of how he met his death. In another part of the Saora country, the above sacrifice is unknown; and, when a person is killed by a tiger or panther, a buffalo is sacrificed to the Kulba of the deceased three months afterwards. The feast is begun before dark, and the buffalo is killed the next morning. No medicine is used. Of sacrifices after injury is felt, and in order to get rid of it, that for rain may be noticed first. The Gōmango, another important man in the village, and the Kudang officiate. A pig and a goat are killed outside the village to Kitung. The blood must flow on the stone. Then liquor and grain are set forth, and a feast is made. About Kolakotta the belief in the active malevolence of Kulbas is more noticeable than in other parts, where deities cause nearly all mischief. Sickness and death are caused by deities or Kulbas, and it is the Kudang who ascertains which particular spirit is in possession of, or has hold of any sick person, and informs him what is to be done in order to drive it away. He divines in this way usually. He places a small earthen saucer, with a little oil and lighted wick in it, in the patient’s hand. With his left hand he holds the patient’s wrist, and with his right drops from a leaf cup grains of rice on to the flame. As each grain drops, he calls out the name of different deities, and Kulbas, and, whichever spirit is being named as a grain catches fire, is that causing the sickness. The Kudang is at once in communication with the deity or Kulba, who informs him what must be done for him, what sacrifice made before he will go away. There is, in some parts of the Saora country, another method by which a Kudang divines the cause of sickness. He holds the patient’s hand for a quarter of an hour or so, and goes off in a trance, in which the deity or Kulba causing the sickness communicates with the Kudang, and says what must be done to appease him. The Kudang is generally, if not always, fasting when engaged in divination. If a deity or Kulba refuses to go away from a sick person, another more powerful deity or Kulba can be induced to turn him out.