ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
force on the Simháchalam hill during the two chief festivals at the famous temple there. The great bulk of the second and third class cases are, however, heard by the tahsildar- and sheristadar-magistrates at Narasapatam, the stationary sub-magistrates at Pálkonda and Yellamanchili, and the deputy tahsildars in charge of the other (zamindari) divisions in the district.
The Divisional Magistrates and the District Magistrate (and also the Treasury Deputy Collector) have the usual first-class powers and the Court of Session possesses the same authority as elsewhere throughout the non-agency portion of the district.
Of the grave crime committed in the district, that which has attracted the most attention is the former practice of meriah, or the sacrifice of human victims to propitiate the Earth Goddess and other deities. Its existence was discovered by Mr. Russell,the Special Commissioner, in 1836. Enquiries showed that it was common in Jeypore. By Act XXI of 1845 an officer called the Agent for the suppression of Meriah Sacrifices was placed in charge of the country where the custom prevailed, both in this and other Provinces. The first Meriah Agent was Captain Macpherson, whose monograph on the Khonds is so well known, and the Agency continued in existence until 1861. The following account in Mr. Frazer's The Golden Bough well summarizes, from the reports of these Agents and others, the chief characteristics of the custom: —
'The sacrifices were offered to the Earth Goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu,1'[1] and were believed to ensure good crops and immunity from all disease and accidents. In particular, they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour without the shedding of blood. The victim or Meriah was acceptable to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a victim — that is, the son of a victim father — or had been devoted as a child by his father or guardian. Khonds in distress often sold their children for victims, 'considering the beatification of their souls certain, and their death, for the benefit of mankind, the most honourable possible,' A man of the Panua (Páno) tribe was once seen to load a Khond with curses and finally to spit on his face, -because the Khond had sold for a victim his own child, whom the Panua had wished to marry. A party of Khonds, who saw this, immediately pressed forward to comfort the seller of his child, saying, "your child has died that all the world may live, and the Earth Goddess herself will wipe that spittle from your face." The victims were often kept for years before they were
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- ↑ 1 Not exclusively, as will appear below.
