Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/281

 KORKOOS. (404)

HE Korkoos inhabit, for the most part, the wild forest tracts of Baitool and Hooshungabad, and by the census, are returned as 39,114, probably about 40,000 souls. They are nearly allied in character and habits to the Gonds, Bheels, and other forest tribes, and yet are entirely distinct from them in many respects, and the tribes do not intermarry. Korkoos are more migratory than Gonds, and less given to settled pursuits; but they make excellent farm servants, and are both truthful and honest. In appearance they much resemble the Gonds, in the flatness of their faces and prominence of their cheek bones, agreeing with the Mongolian type of feature. They worship Sooryadeo (the sun), and once in three years every family offers in sacrifice a white goat and a white fowl, outside the village, with its face turned to the east. Some rude figures of Hunooman, the monkey deity of Hindoos, are seen about these villages; but, as in the case of the Gonds, do not obtain much reverence. The chief belief is in the power of good and evil sprites and demons, who frequent woods, glens, waterfalls, and the like remarkable natural objects. Their priests are called bomkas, and are elected from among themselves, and perform the necessary sacrifices, especially in cases of sickness, which is believed to proceed from the ill will of the soul of some deceased ancestor; and to ascertain this is the bomka's especial province. A handful of grain is waved over the sick man, which is carried to the bomka, who makes a heap of it on the floor, and holds over it a lighted lamp, suspended from four strings, swinging it gently as he repeats the names of the patient's ancestors. If the lamp stops at any particular name, inquiry is made as to the propitiatory offering, which may be a fowl, a goat, or a pig, &c., and the sacrifice is made. Bomkas are chosen from the villagers, who all sit in a row, a measure is rolled before them, and the person before whom it stops is the bomka to be.

Although Korkoos can hardly be considered to possess "caste," yet they can become polluted in many ways. Smoking out of a stranger's hookah, liasons with foreign women, and the like, can be propitiated by fines of goats, pigs, or chickens.