The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-05-05
The Festival Of Merrlah.P njah.

Life in India describes singular and
cruel custom:
The Gonds of Canaan and Cuttack,
like the Santhalis, are savage race,
whose festival of Meriah-pujah, involv-
ing the sacrifice of human beings under
circumstances of atrocious cruelty, con-
tinued till 1913, when it was finally stop
ped by the strong arm of British
authority. The victims of this horrible
annual sacrifice were called meriahs,
and were obtained by purchase of the
Panwahs, a miserable Hindu sect in the
plains, who were the slaves of the Gonds.
The design of the sacrifice was to propl-
tiate Bura-Penpou, the earth god, and
thus to secure favorable harvest. Ac-
cording to the Gonds the earth was origi-
nally crude and unstable mass, unfit
for cultivation or for human residence.
The earth god said, ''Let blood be split
human blood-before me-" The COM
mand was obeyed, and the soil became
firm and productive. From
that time Bura-Peunou appointed
that the sacrifices of human life
should be regularly offered. When
ever field is sown with grain it must
be enriched with the blood of human
victim. During the celebration of the
sacrifice all feuds were forgotten, mirth
and riot and enjoyment reigned through
out the neighboring villages. The un-
fortunate victim was brought blindfolded
to the house of the chief priest, and was
considered a consecrated being. Every
within was INDUCED; no desire was ex-
pressed which they did not try to graf.
lily. The victims were men or women,
boys or girls, indifferently. Human
blood was the one thing necessary.
The festival usually lasted three days.
Large numbers of people from all the
neighboring villages attended, of both
sexes and of all ages. The first day was
spent in feasting, drinking and riot,
Upon the morning of the second day,
the victim was carefully washed and
dressed in new garments, whilst the
Gonds displayed all their findry in their
attire-some with bear skins thrown
over their shoulders, others ornamented
with the tails of peacocks, and others
with the plumes of the jungle fowl.
Thus decked, they danced, they leaped,
they revelled, beating drums and play
ing on species of fife. The victim was
led forth amidst this din to the place of
execution.
The grove of trees in which the sacri-
fee took place WAS considered sacred, as
we'll as the stream that ran through it
the meriah grove and the meriah stream
both being looked upon as haunted.
The victim was smeared with turmeric,
oil and ghee, and led in procession to
the sounds of discordant music, of shout
ing and merriment, round the sacred
grove.
1t was not till the third day at noon
that the doomed wretch was sacrificed.
Milk and palm sage we're allowed the
victim for food. When led forth on the
third day, the shouting and noise of
musical instruments was deafening. A
tree or bush was prepared, within which
the victim was placed, standing or
seated, for sacrifice. But as it was in
dispensable that the meriah should not
make any effort to escape, the legs and
arms were first broken, if it was sup
posed probable that any such effort
would be made. Then, fixed in the
bush, the miserable victim saw the
abbayo or officiating priest,
approach with an axe. With that axe
slight wound was given, enough to draw
blood, and the crowd, eager for blood,
rushed in with demoniacal shouts, cut
ting off portion of the flesh, and run
ming away with it, to let few drops of
the blood fall on the ncwly-sown field.
In hewing the body to pieces they took
the greatest care to avoid cutting vital
parts; the longer the sacrifice remained
alive the better for their fields.
1t was in January, just before the tu-
meric fields were planted, that the
Meriah- pujah usually took place. The
victims were devoted from infancy to
the sacrifice by the Panwahs, who lived
ii the plains below. They were sold to
the heads of the different villages, and
taken care of by the abbaya, or patri-
arch.
1t was not only in January, however,
at the planting of the tumeric, that these
horrible rites were performed. When
ever the village fields were sown with
grain, whenever national or tribal
calamities occurred, the demand was for
the Meriah-pujah to propitiate Bura-
Pennou.
For three days after the sacrifice those
who had taken part in it remained dumb,
communicating with each other only by
signs, and remaining unvisited by
strangers. Then buffalo was slaugh-
tered on the same spot on which the hui
man victim had persisted, and their
tongues were loosened again.