she strictly enjoined on the Raja not to look behind him so as to
see her. But when they came to the sands of the rivers Sankani and
Dankani, the tinkle of the anklets of the goddess could not be heard
for the sand. The Raja therefore looked behind him to see if she was
following, on which she said that she could go no more with him,
but he was to march as far as he could and then settle down. The
two brothers settled in Bastar, where the descendants of the younger
became the ruling clan, and those of the elder were their servants, the
Parjas. The story indicates, perhaps, that the Parjas were the original
Gond inhabitants and rulers of the country, and were supplanted by a
later immigration of the same tribe, who reduced them to subjection,
and became Raj-Gonds. Possibly the first transfer of power was effected
by the marriage of an immigrant into a Parja Raja's family, as so often
happened with these old dynasties. The Parjas still talk about the Rani
of Bastar as their _Bohu_ or 'younger brother's wife,' and the custom
is probably based on some such legend. The Madras account of them
as the arbiters of boundary disputes points to the same conclusion,
as this function is invariably assigned to the oldest residents in
any locality. The Parjas appear to be Gonds and not Khonds. Their
sept names are Gondi words, and their language is a form of Gondi,
called after them Parji. Parji has hitherto been considered a form
of Bhatri, but Sir G. Grierson [420] has now classified the latter
as a dialect of the Uriya language, while Parji remains 'A local
and very corrupt variation of Gondi, considerably mixed with Hindi
forms.' While then the Parjas, in Bastar at any rate, must be held
to be a branch of the Gonds, they may have a considerable admixture
of the Khonds, or other tribes in different localities, as the rules
of marriage are very loose in this part of the country. [421]

2. Exogamous septs

The tribe have exogamous totemistic septs, as Bagh a tiger, Kachhim a
tortoise, Bokda a goat, Netam a dog, Gohi a big lizard, Pandki a dove
and so on. If a man kills accidentally the animal after which his sept
is named, the earthen cooking-pots of his household are thrown away,
the clothes are washed, and the house is purified with water in which
the bark of the mango or _jamun_ [422] tree has been steeped. This
is in sign of mourning, as it is thought that such an act will bring
misfortune. If a man of the snake sept kills