Father P. Dehon, published in 1906 in the _Memoirs
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. i. No. 9. The tribe is also
described at length by Colonel Dalton in _The Ethnography of Bengal_,
and an article on it is included in Mr. (Sir H.) Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. References to the Oraons are contained in
Mr. Bradley-Birt's _Chota Nagpur_, and Mr. Ball's _Jungle Life in
India_. The Kurukh language is treated by Dr. Grierson in the volume
of the Linguistic Survey on _Munda and Dravidian Languages_. The
following article is principally made up of extracts from the accounts
of Father Dehon and Colonel Dalton. Papers have also been received
from Mr. Hira Lal, Mr. Balaram Nand, Deputy Inspector of Schools,
Sambalpur, Mr. Jeorakhan Lal, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Bilaspur,
and Munshi Kanhya Lal of the Gazetteer Office.]

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice_.
2. _Settlement in Chota Nagpur_.
3. _Subdivisions_.
4. _Pre-nuptial licence_.
5. _Betrothal_.
6. _Marriage ceremony_.
7. _Special customs_.
8. _Widow-remarriage and divorce_.
9. _Customs at birth_.
10. _Naming a child_.
11. _Branding and tattooing_.
12. _Dormitory discipline_.
13. _Disposal of the dead_.
14. _Worship of ancestors_.
15. _Religion_. _The supreme deity_.
16. _Minor godlings_.
17. _Human sacrifice_.
18. _Christianity_.
19. _Festivals_. _The Karma or May-day_.
20. _The Sal flower festival_.
21. _The harvest festival_.
22. _Fast for the crops_.
23. _Physical appearance and costume of the Oraons_.
24. _Dress of women_.
25. _Dances_.
26. _Social customs_.
27. _Social rules_.
28. _Character_.
29. _Language_.

1. General notice

_Oraon, Uraon, Kurukh, Dhangar, Kuda, Kisan._--The Oraons are an
important Dravidian tribe of the Chota Nagpur plateau, numbering
altogether about 750,000 persons, of whom 85,000 now belong to the
Central Provinces, being residents of the Jashpur and Sarguja States
and the neighbouring tracts. They are commonly known in the Central
Provinces as Dhangar or Dhangar-Oraon. In Chota Nagpur the word Dhangar
means a farmservant engaged according to a special customary contract,
and it has come to be applied to the Oraons, who are commonly employed
in this capacity. Kuda means a digger or navvy in Uriya, and enquiries
made by Mr. B.C. Mazumdar and Mr. Hira Lal have demonstrated that
th