LETTER FROM THE REV.

J. BUCKLEY.

Cuttack, June 4th, 1861.

THROUGH the good hand of our God upon us we have had a comparatively mild, and unusually short hot season. The rains have commenced in this part three weeks before the usual time. This is a great mercy, and calls for special thanksgiving to God. No tongue can tell what a blessing this will be to the famine-stricken districts, if they be equally favoured, which we hear is the case. Far more precious than millions of gold and silver to a distressed nation is the fruitful "rain which cometh down from heaven," (I need not in this country add, "and the snow," because we never have it,) "and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower; and bread" (in India rice) "to the eater." We all know that an abundant or deficient harvest at home involves the comfort or suffering of millions, but the tens of millions throughout India are very much more dependent on their rice than we are on bread. Let us bless the name of Him who "gives the former and the latter rain in its season ;" and who has this year most opportunely given the "former rain" unusually early. It will be a great boon to our poor Chaga christians, many of whom are suffering from the scanty harvest of last year; but how sad to think that millions and tens of millions will praise gods of wood and stone for blessings which the God of heaven has given.

We are now engaged in printing our Indian report, and I hope it will be completed in time to send home by the next mail. I am thankful to say that on making up our accounts we find that we have received at this station during the year for different

objects connected with the mission 2,800 rupees (£280). This is a very gratifying sum, and I think larger

than we have ever before received for ordinary operations; and the goodness of God is the more to be acknowledged as by an afflictive Providence we lost (for a season at least) our most liberal supporter and friend. I believe that while we are doing the Lord's work, He will raise up friends to help and encourage us. The prospect just now of obtaining much local help is less favourable than for some time past. Several liberal friends are likely soon to leave; and the Amalgamation Act will greatly diminish the number of military officers at this and other stations, but the silver and gold are the Lord's, and he who has helped us in time past will not forsake us in days to come. I should regard it as a sinful distrust of God to suppose that His cause will be impeded for lack of that "shining dust," of which we sometimes speak and sing with virtuous disdain, but which after all is essentially necessary. One sometimes wishes that dear christian friends, who often sing so heartily, that in comparison with their precious Saviour, " 'gold is sordid dust," loved this "dust" less ardently, and parted with it more freely and liberally. I have been reading with interest your sermon on the "New Testament plan of giving," and hope it will receive the practical attention which it merits, for after all there is nothing like going back to first principles, and understanding what are the directions in the Word of God. Lads at school thirty or forty years ago (I suppose they are not different now) when they had done their sums wrong, used often to be sharply told, sometimes with a stroke, to go back and look at their rule. Christians need the same admonition in relation to raising funds for the furtherance of the gospel, and if the Lord had chastised us every time we have

neglected to look at our rule, we should have had many other stripes than He has inflicted. I greatly wish that some who love the Lord would consider much more than they do, the obligation to remember the cause of Christ in their Will; but this is too wide a subject for a letter. I have, however, a strong conviction that some amongst us are not half awake to its importance, and I would fain disturb their slumbers.

We had a grand wedding in our chapel on the 24th ult. The second son of Pursua Rout, native preacher at Chaga, was married to Susannah Bie, one of the daughters of Babu Sudanund Jacheck. The scene in the chapel was a very interesting and gratifying one, and some of our European friends who were present looked on with wonder and admiration. Crowds of people were present from our different villages, all nicely dressed, and looking very happy. I suppose that at the feast, morning and evening, as many as four hundred persons must have partaken of the Babu's hospitality. As it was the Queen's birthday, we sang Makunda's hymn on the duty of christians to their governors, and when I explained in English, for the benefit of those who did not understand Oriya, that the last two verses were a prayer that Queen Victoria might long live -that her reign might be peaceful and prosperous, and that the kingdom of Christ in Orissa and other parts of the world might extensively prevail, more than one hearty amen was heard. Encouraging, however, as such scenes are, those of us who can look deeper, and who know the internal state of the church, are aware that there is cause for disquietude: still we cannot say that the former days were better than these." I was impressed the other day in reading 2 Cor. xi. 28, 29. with the deep sympathy which the apostle Paul felt in individual cases of backsliding or disorder, while "the care of all the churches" was rushing upon him every day." "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended (ensnared), and I burn not "What a sympathizing,

an

THE KHONDS.

THE Khonds inhabit the hill districts on the borders of Orissa and Ganjam. Their country naturally divides itself into two parts; lying as it does partly above, and partly below the Ghaut range. In the lower districts the hilly wastes, clothed with deep woods and interspersed with extensive valleys and undulating downs gradually come down to the level plains of Orissa near the sea. From these the higher districts are separated by the steep and precipitous ghauts; and form an extensive plateau above them, somewhat similar to that of Mysore, stretching far away into the territories of Central India. These hill regions, termed Máliás, are distinguished by different names. Bordering on the Orissa territory and the river Mahanuddy, lie the Boad Máliás; next toward the south the Goomsur Máliás, including Hodzoghoro, the Bara and Atharo Mutahs, and Chokapad; south of these are the Surada and Corada Máliás; and west of those, the extensive Máliás of Chinna Kimedy.

These are the chief divisions of the Khond country. Of these only the Surádá Máliás entirely, and Goomsur partially, lie below the ghauts: the rest are entirely above them.

The country thus divided presents a varied aspect to the traveller's eye. Below the ghauts, the villages are somewhat scattered; the valleys appear poor, bleak, and barren; water is less abundant than in the higher lands; the country displays no varieties of scenery; and the hilly slopes under the great range are thickly covered with the dammer tree and the bamboo. The districts on the plateau above are far more picturesque. The table-land is much broken by valleys, sometimes deep and rugged, and is crossed by ridges of hills of varied height, some being 4000 feet above the sea. Many parts are bare of wood; in others are groups of forest trees; in others a jungle, rich in flowers; the valleys and glens furnish sites for the villages and fields for culture; while in the higher and deeper recesses of the hills thick forest grow, inhabited by the tiger and the bear. In the Máliás of Chinna Kimedy a thick forest of timber trees covers the whole surface, and extends westward without a break for more than a hundred and forty miles. Portions of this forest have been cut down by the people, and the cleared land in the valleys cultivated. The soil is everywhere fertile; and if the land were all cleared, and the numerous waterfalls and springs properly turned to account, it would yield the most abundant harvests. Numerous vegetable products are raised, which furnish materials for traffic in the plains.

The people are in general divided into two great classes; those living on the lower ranges of the ghauts, and those in the districts above them. The former are called Bennia Khonds; the latter, the Malia, or highland Khonds. The Bennia Khonds were apparently permitted by their Hindoo conquerors to retain their lands on a rent tenure, or on that of feudal service to their zemindars. Living nearer the plains, and in subjection

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to Hindoo governors, they have of course been brought into constant intercourse with the Hindoos who people them; they attend the markets and bazaars, and witness much of a life and habits different from their own. The consequence has been a partial adoption of Hindoo manners. The most changed among the Bennias are very like the Hindoos; and between them and the pure Khonds may be seen all grades in the change from the habits of the latter of those of the former. They wear the Hindoo dress, speak the Oriya language, build houses after the Hindoo plan, use the Orissa plough, refuse to cul. tivate turmeric, drink milk, eat ghee, and abstain from the barbarous practice of dancing, of which their less refined countrymen are extravagantly fond. They have even adopted Kali as one of their deities; while the Hindoos in the same districts have adopted the Khond god, and call him Khondini. In the worship of the deity both people unite together; while the Khond priest and the Brahmin serve together at his altar.

The Malia Khonds, on the other hand, living on the plateau and in the valleys above the ghauts, exhibit all the characteristics of Khond society in their purest form. They have, it is true, always been in intercourse with the zemindars of the lower country; sometimes making a raid or foray into their territories to levy black mail, but acting usually as independent allies and friends, never as subjects. Separated from the Hindoos of the plains by the broad belt of hill zemindaries, filled with men like themselves, and shut out by their inaccessible hills and jungles from all attempts at conquest, they have remained the same people in manners and pursuits for many hundreds, it may be thousands, of years.

The dress of the Khonds, both male and female, is very scanty, and resemble that of the poorer Hindoos. The men wear their black and shiny hair in a knot fastened by an iron pin above the forehead or on the side of the head: both men and women wear ornaments of iron or bone, or of dyed wood. Agriculture is considered the