om:
When a man is at the point of death or actually dead, they sometimes
set fire to the hut in which his body is lying and run away, no doubt
to save themselves from being haunted and troubled by his spirit,
to the attainment of which end so large a part of funeral ritual is
everywhere directed.

The following short account of them by Colonel Dalton may be reproduced
for reference: [493]

"The name Saont or Saonta directs us to the Santal branch of the Kols,
and, as I have already noticed, there is in Sarguja a small tribe so
called. They are the sole inhabitants of the magnificent tableland
forming the southern barrier of Sarguja, called the Mainpat or more
correctly perhaps the Manipat. They are a small tribe living scattered
over the vast area of the plateau in about a dozen hamlets, and they
are strong in the belief that they were especially created to dwell
there, or that they and the plateau somehow sprang into existence
together, and cannot be separated. I saw a number of them when I
was last in Sarguja, and from their features I should be inclined
to class them as Kols, but they have some customs and notions which
they must have derived from the Dravidian Gonds. They acknowledge
Dulha Deo as a household god, and follow the customs of the Gonds
and other southerners in their marriage ceremonies.

"They worship the sun as Bhagwan, and like the Kharias offer sacrifices
to that luminary in an open place with an ant-hill for an altar. The
Mainpat is their Marang Buru, and as it is 16 miles long, 12 miles
broad, and rises 3850 feet above the sea-level, it is not unworthy
of the name, but they do not use that or any other Kol term. The
great Mainpat is their fatherland and their god. They have it all to
themselves except during the summer months, when it becomes a vast
grazing field for the cattle of Mirzapur and Bihar.

"The Saonts are armed like the Korwas with bows and arrows, and the
peculiar battle-axe of the country, but it is against the beasts of
the forest that these weapons are used. Formerly the Mainpat was a
magnificent hunting field, especially noted for its herds of antelope
and gaur. The late Maharaja of Sarguja strictly preserved it, but on
his death it fell into the hands of his widow, a very money-loving
old lady, who allowed it to become one of the great grazing tracts,
and the pasturage alone gives her an income of L250 a year; but the
wild animals have in consequence withdrawn from it.

"Th