This speech being concluded, the head of the victim is severed from the body, and allowed to hang from the post until it is eaten by wild beasts. The knife is also suspended from the post, and allowed to remain there until the three additional sacrifices have been offered, when it is removed with many ceremonies. Eight of these posts were found in the village, and were all destroyed.
It is this mode of sacrifice which is shown in the [illustration] on page 1387. In the centre is seen the aged priest in the act of sacrificing the Meriah, which in this case is a young girl. Her head is supported by her long hair, which is tied to the top of the post, and her body is held horizontally by the four assistants, who each grasp a hand or a foot. On the right hand is shown a post, to which hangs the head of the first sacrificed Meriah, and on the other side is another victim bound by the hair to the post, waiting until the priest had completed the sacrifice in which he is engaged.
One circumstance connected with the Meriah sacrifice is rather remarkable, namely, the indifference to their fate that seems to possess the victims. One young man, a Meriah, said that it was better to be sacrificed among his own people, and to give them pleasure, than to live upon the plains. The natives believe that this indifference is caused by the Meriah food, a mixture of rice, turmeric, and other ingredients, prepared with certain magical ceremonies. Even the Meriahs themselves have this belief. For example, three young women were hired by a seller of salt fish to carry his goods among the Khonds, and when he got them there, the treacherous dealer sold not only the fish but the women. Twice the victims attempted to escape, but were recaptured, and after the second attempt, the Khonds fed them on Meriah food, when they became reconciled to their fate, and made no further efforts to escape.
Other ties seem to have their effect on the Meriahs. Sometimes a man wishes to buy a Meriah, that being a very meritorious act; but the cost is so great, amounting on an average to sixty-five rupees, that the Khond is almost reduced to poverty. Under such circumstances, he is unable to marry, inasmuch as he cannot pay the heavy price which is demanded of a bridegroom. Accordingly, he buys a Meriah girl, and takes her as his wife until the time when she may be required for sacrifice.
It has already been mentioned that children are sold by their parents as Meriahs. This seems so cruel and heartless a system, that some explanation ought to be offered. It is very seldom that such a purchase is made, unless the parents be very poor, and fear that they shall not be able to provide their children with food. In such cases they argue that it is better for the child to be nourished and kindly treated, and then to die as a sacrifice to the deities, than to perish by degrees of starvation. Moreover, it is considered rather a meritorious action for a parent to devote a child to the gods, and, when it is done, the parents are very proud of such children, and regard them with respect and admiration as belonging to the deities.
Another reason for the continuance of the Meriah sacrifice is the slight regard in which the Khonds hold human life, sacrificing that which we consider as priceless because they are indifferent to it, not only with regard to others, but with regard to themselves.
That the custom of propitiating the deities of agriculture with living sacrifices should be entirely abolished could not be expected, and General Campbell found that the best mode of extinguishing human sacrifice was to induce the Khonds to substitute that of a beast. This was done in many cases, the sacrificers apologizing to the god for the substitution, and begging him, if he should be angry, to vent his wrath, not upon them, but upon the foreigner who had suggested the alteration. He had no objection to this arrangement, and as the crops turned out well afterward, it was to be supposed that all parties, the gods included, were satisfied.
A very similar custom was once prevalent among certain tribes of the Lower Amazon. The name of these tribes was Tapuyos, but this title has now been given to all the inhabitants of the Lower Amazon district. Prisoners taken in war by them were reserved for sacrifice. They were treated with extreme kindness, fed in the most liberal manner, so that they might be plump and fat, and were provided with wives. They were generally allowed to live for several years, until their wives had borne children. They were then taken to the place of sacrifice, and killed with a single blow of a club; their children being carefully reared, for the purpose of undergoing a similar fate after they had grown up.
Even without reference to the Meriah system, the Khonds are in the habit of killing their female children. This custom has arisen partly from the fear of poverty, and partly from the system on which marriages are conducted. The Khonds dislike marrying among themselves, and seek their wives among distant tribes, alleging as a reason that they can purchase them at a cheaper rate. But General Campbell tried to show them that if they were to rear their own female children, they would find them much cheaper as wives, and recommended them, as a beginning, to marry their Meriah women, for whom a high price had already been paid.
In some of the hills of Chinna Kimedy, children of both sexes are put to death. As soon as a child is born, a priest is called to ascertain whether it is to live or die. To effect this purpose, he employs a plan very like the “Sortes Virgilianæ.” He produces a book, and, after some prayers, thrusts an iron style at random among the leaves. He then reads the passage to which the style points, and if it be unfavorable, the child must die, or the fields would bear no more crops.