Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/400

KONDH referred to above are made from sāmbur (deer:Cervus unicolor) bones, and stuck in the hair of male Kondhs. Porcupine quills are sometimes used by them as hairpins. The following brief, but interesting summary of the Kondhs of Ganjam is given by Mr. C. F. MacCartie.* "The staple food of the Oriyas is rice, and of the Khond also during the two or three months that succeed the harvest. In February, they gather the crop of hill dholl, which, eked out with dry mohwa (Bassia) fruit, fresh mangoes, and mango stones ground to a sort of flour, pull them through the hot weather, with the help of various yams and edible roots that are plentiful in the jungles. When the south-west monsoon sets in, dry crops, consisting of millets, hill paddy, and Indian corn, are sown, which ripen from August on, and thus afford plentiful means of subsistence. The hot weather is generally called the sukki kalo, or hungry season, as the people are rather pinched just then. Turmeric is perhaps the most valuable crop which the Khonds raise, as it is the most laborious, in consequence of the time it takes to mature — two full years, and the constant field-work thus entailed, first in sheltering the young plants from the sun by artificial shade, and afterwards in digging, boiling, and burnishing the root for market. Tobacco is raised much as in the low country. It is generally grown in back-yards, as elsewhere, and a good deal of care is devoted to its cultivation, as the Khonds are inveterate smokers. Among the products of the jungles may be included myrabolams (Terminalia fruits), tassar silk, cocoons, and dammar, all of which are bartered by the finders to trading Pānos in small quantities, generally