13. Last human sacrifices.
In his Ethnographic Notes in Southern India Mr. Thurston states:[9] “The last recorded Meriāh sacrifice in the Ganjam Māliāhs occurred in 1852, and there are still Khonds alive who were present at it. Twenty-five descendants of persons who were reserved for sacrifice, but were rescued by Government officers, returned themselves as Meriāh at the Census of 1901. The Khonds have now substituted a buffalo for a human being. The animal is hewn to pieces while alive, and the villagers rush home to their villages to bury the flesh in the soil, and so secure prosperous crops. The sacrifice is not unaccompanied by risk to the performers, as the buffalo, before dying, frequently kills one or more of its tormentors. It was stated by the officers of the Māliāh Agency that there was reason to believe that the Rāja of Jaipur (Madras), when he was installed at his father’s decease in 1860–61, sacrificed a girl thirteen years of age at the shrine of the Goddess Durga in the town of Jaipur. The last attempted human sacrifice (which was nearly successful) in the Vizagāpatam District, among the Kutia Khonds, was, I believe, in 1880. But the memory of the abandoned practice is kept green by one of the Khond songs, for a translation of which we are indebted to Mr. J. E. Friend-Pereira:[10]
At the time of the great Kiābon (Campbell) Sāhib’s coming, the country was in darkness; it was enveloped in mist.
Having sent paiks to collect the people of the land, they, having surrounded them, caught the Meriāh sacrificers.
Having caught the Meriāh sacrificers, they brought them; and again they went and seized the evil councillors.
Having seen the chains and shackles, the people were afraid; murder and bloodshed were quelled.
Then the land became beautiful; and a certain Mokodella (Macpherson) Sāhib came.
He destroyed the lairs of the tigers and bears in the hills and rocks, and taught wisdom to the people.
After the lapse of a month he built bungalows and schools; and he advised them to learn reading and law.
They learnt wisdom and reading; they acquired silver and gold. Then all the people became wealthy.