throng stopped their gyrations round the stupefied beast, too much exhausted and frightened to offer any resistance, and, falling on its neck and body, began to smother it with caresses and endearments, and, to a low plaintive air, crooned and wailed over it, the following dirge, of which I append a rude translation. Tradition says that they used to sing it, with slight variations, over their human victims before the sacrifice:-- Blame us not, O buffalo! Thus for sacrificing thee, For our fathers have ordained This ancient mystery. We have bought thee with a price, Have paid for thee all thy worth. What blame can rest upon us, Who save our land from dearth? Famine stares us in the face, Parched are our fields, and dry, Death looks in at ev'ry door, For food our young ones cry. Thadi Pennoo veils her face, Propitiate me, she cries, Give to me of flesh and blood, A willing sacrifice. That where'er its blood is shed, On land, or field, or hill, There the gen'rous grain may spring, So ye may eat your fill. Then be glad, O buffalo! Willing sacrifice to be, Soon in Thadi's meadows green, Thou shalt brouse eternally. After the Khonds had been chanting this sacrificial hymn for some time, the buffalo was untied from the carved post, and led, with singing, dancing and shouting, and with the noise of many musical instruments, to a sacred grove a few hundred yards off, and there tied to a stake. As soon as it had been firmly tied, the Khonds threw off all their superfluous clothing to the large crowd of womankind waiting near, and stood round the animal, each man with his hand uplifted, and holding a sharp knife ready to strike at a moment's notice, as soon as the priest or Janni had given the word of command. The Janni, who did not differ outwardly from the others, now gave the buffalo a slight tap on the head with a small axe. An indescribable scene followed. The Khonds in a body fell on the animal, and, in an amazingly short time, literally tore the living victim to shreds with their knives, leaving nothing but the head, bones, and stomach. Death must, mercifully, have been almost instantaneous. Every particle of flesh and skin had been stripped off during the few minutes they fought and struggled over the buffalo, eagerly grasping for every atom of flesh. As soon as a man had secured a piece of flesh, he rushed away with the gory mass, as fast as he could, to his fields, to bury it therein according to ancient custom, before the sun had set. As some of them had to do good distances to effect this, it was imperative that they should run very fast. A curious scene now took place, for which we could obtain no explanation. As the men ran, all the women flung after them clods of earth, some of them taking very good effect. The sacred grove was cleared of people, save a