y recognize a supreme god in the sun, but, just as we
showed was the case with the Hindus, who ignore Brahm[=a] because they
do not fear him, so here, the Or[=a]ons do not pray to the sun, on the
ground that he does them no harm; but they sacrifice to evil spirits
because the latter are evil-doers. These savages, like the Burmese
Mishmis, have no idea of a future life in heaven; but in the case of
people killed in a certain way they believe in a sort of
metempsychosis; thus, for instance, a man eaten by a tiger becomes a
tiger. In the case of unfortunates they believe that they will live as
unhappy ghosts; in the case of other men they assume only annihilation
as their fate.[16] It is among this tribe that the mouse-totem is
found, which is Civa's beast and the sign of Ganeca.[17]

THE KOLARIANS.

The Sunth[=a]ls: These are immigrants into the West Bengal jungles,
and have descended from the North to their present site. They are
called the finest specimens of the native savage. The guardian of the
tribe is its deceased ancestor, and his ghost is consulted as an
oracle. Their race-god is the 'Great Mountain,' but the sun represents
the highest spirit; though they
worship spirits of every sort, and regard beasts as divine; the men
revering the tiger, and the women, elephants. The particularly nasty
festival called the _bandana_, which is celebrated annually by this
tribe, is exactly like the 'left-hand' cult of the Caktas, only that
in this case it is a preliminary to marriage. All unmarried men and
women indulge together in an indescribable orgie, at the end of which
each man selects the woman he prefers.[18]

The Koles ('pig-stickers'): Like the last, this tribe worship the sun,
but with the moon as his wife, and the stars as their children.
Besides these they revere Manes, and countless local and sylvan
deities. Like Druids, they sacrifice only in a grove, but without
images.[19]

All these tribes worship snakes and trees,[25]] and often the only
oath binding upon them is taken under a tree.[21] The
sun-worship, which is found alike in Kolarian and Dravidian tribes,
may be traced through all the ramifications of either. In most of the
tribes the only form of worship is sacrifice, but oaths are taken on
rice, beasts, ants, water, earth, etc. (among some P[=a]h[=a]riahs on
the arrow). Some have a sort of belief in the divinity of the chief,
and among the Lurka Koles this dignity is of so much importance that
at a c