By Sarat Chandra Roy, M.A.

The Birhōrs are one of the wildest among the jungle tribes of Chōta Nagpur. They wander about from jungle to jungle in small groups of from three or four to at most about nine or ten families, earning a precarious subsistence by hunting, by collecting chōp creepers (Bauhinia scandens) and making their barks into ropes for barter or sale in the nearest villages or markets, and by gathering beeswax and honey when available. Like the other branches of the Munda race, to which they belong, the Birhōrs are divided into a number of exogamous totemic clans mostly named after some animal, plant, fruit, flower or other material object. The Birhōrs have, however, preserved or developed a few interesting features in their totemism which are not to be found amongst other totemic tribes in Chōtā Nāgpur and which, so far as I know, have not been recorded of any other tribe in India.

The names of Birhōr clans or gōtras, so far as I have hitherto been able to ascertain them, are the following:

1. Anḍi (wild cat).

2. Bōngă săuți (a kind of wild grass).

3. Bhat (name of a Hindu caste).

4. Bhuiya (name of a tribe).

5. Chauli Hembrom (chauli=rice; hembrom betelpalm).

6. Gerōa (a small bird).

7. Gidhi (vulture).

8. Guleria (pellet-bow).

9. Hembrōm (betel-palm).

10. Hērē Hembrōm (hēṛē=rice-husk).

11. Jegseria Läṭhā (latha a cake made of mohua

flowers).

12. Jeṭhseria (name of a place).

13. Kāwan (a newt ?).

14. Keōnduā (a kind of fruit).

15. Khāngār (name of a sub-tribe of the Munḍās). 16. Khūdi Hembrōm (khudi=broken grains of rice). 17. Ludāmbă (a kind of flower).

18. Lupung (myrobalan).

19. Maghaia Hembrōm (Maghaia=belonging to Magha

or Bihar).

20. Māhāli (name of a tribe).

21. Mūrmů (stag).

22. Mūrūm (nilgai or Portax pictu).

23. Nagpuria (belonging to the Chōtā Nagpur plateau). 24. Sādā (white).

25. Saunṛia (a kind of wild grass).

26. Shām-jhākoā (a composition used in whetting

weapons).

27. Singpuria (singhara fruit or Trapa bispinosa).

28. Tōriār (belonging to Pargana Tori in the Palāmau

district).

A few of these names, such as Nagpuria and Tōṛiār, are derived from names of localities, whereas a few others, such as Bhūiyā, Khāngār and Māhāli, would appear to be derived from names of other tribes, with whom there are reasons to believe there have been miscegenation in the past. (1)

INDIVIDUAL TOTEMS, ETC.

Sex totems and associated totems are unknown to the Birhōrs. Nor have they any individual or personal totems, properly so called, although they have a peculiar belief of a somewhat analogous nature. When a Birhōr dreams of some bird, beast, worm, reptile, or other thing in the night, and the following morning receives a visit from some friend or relative, he at once concludes that the object of his dream, whether it be a snake or

This list is not exhaustive. Sir Herbert Risley gives only eight clan names, namely, Hembrom, Jegseria, Mahāli, Nagpuria, Singpuria, Liluai, Nag and Siruar. I have not yet met with his last three.

an ant or even a rope or some other thing, must be the rais (the daemon' or 'genius') of his guest.

TOTEM BADGES.

The members of a clan do not wear any badge or distinguishing emblem or peculiar dress, nor make up their hair in any distinctive fashion, nor get representations of their totem cut or tattooed on their persons or carved or painted on their houses or on any personal belongings. But, as we shall see later on, during sacrifices to the spirits known variously as 'Oṛā-bōngās ' ('Home-gods'), Buru-bōngās (Hill-gods) or' Khünt-bhūts' (Clan spirits) some emblem of the family totem is placed by the side of the sacrificer and this emblem is always carried about with them wherever the family migrates.

TRADITIONAL ORIGIN OF PARTICULAR TOTEMS.

The few legends that the Birhōrs tell about the origin of some of their clans do not point to any belief in the descent of men from their totems. All that they indicate is that the totem plant or animal had some accidental connection with the birth of the reputed ancestor of the clan. Thus, the ancestor of the Gidhi (vulture) clan, it is said, was born under a wide-spreading tree, and, as soon as he was born, the egg of a vulture which had its nest on the overhanging branches of the tree dropped down on the babe's head from the nest. Hence the baby and his descendants came to form the Gidhi clan. Similarly the ancestor of the Gerōa clan is said to have been born under the wings of a Gerōa bird, and the ancestor of the Lüpüng clan under the shade of a lupung tree. The first ancestor of the Sham-jhākoā clan, it is said, was born at a place where people were getting their weapons sharpened. The ancestor of the Khangar clan was born when his mother was pressing oil, and that of the Māhāli clan when his mother was plaiting a winnowing basket. The occupation of the Māhāli tribe, it may be noted, is basket-making, and the Khangar Munḍās are reputed as good oil-pressers. The Mahāli clan of the Birhōrs would appear to have originated from cross between a Birhōr and a Mahali as the Khāngār clan

would appear to have originated in a cross between a Khāngār Munḍā and a Birhōr. The ancestor of the Bhuiyà clan is, however, said to have purchased a brass bell from a man of the Bhuiya tribe, and thus obtained the clan name. The Chauli Hembrōm clan is said to have been the original clan of the Birhōrs, and the ancestor of this clan, it is said, rose up from under the ground with rice (chāuli) on his head. Families of the Chauli Hembrōm clan carry with them in all their wanderings one or more natural stones called Mahadeo stones believed to have risen from under ground even as their own first ancestor did, and should they happen to settle down for a time at any place, they put up these stones to the west of their settlement and there offer sacrifices to them. Men of the Hembrōm clan are believed to have uniform success in the chase and always better luck in hunting than the members of other clans. Of the Mūrum clan it is said that when their first ancestor was born, a Mūrūm (nilgai or Portax pictu) came and stood by its side, and forthwith the baby jumped up and mounted the animal which rode away with it through the woods until the babe's head-dress was caught in a chōp (Bauhinia scandens) creeper and the babe dismounted to cut down the creepers. Since then, it is said, chōp-gathering and rope-making have become the principal occupation of the Birhōrs.

RESEMBLANCE OF MEN TO THEIR TOTEMS.

But although the Birhōrs of our days do not believe in the actual descent of a clan from its totem, they appear to find some resemblance in the temperament or the physical appearance of the members of a clan to that of their totem animal or plant. Thus, it is said, people of the Gidhi (vulture) clan have usually little hair on the crown of the head; the Andi gotra men have a bald forehead; members of the Lüpüng clan are generally short but plump like the lupung fruit; the Lūdāmbā gotra as well as the Mahali gotra people are short and lean; members of the Hērē Hembrom clan are thin and short; the Chauli Hembrōm men often have matted hair; people of the Gerōa clan, it is said,

have generally no nails on their toes and their teeth decay prematurely; the people of the (Jegseria) Laṭhā clan are said to be generally tall and the hair on the sides of their head are said to fall off at an early age; people of the Mūrūm clan, who are said to be generally of medium height, and those of the Bhuiya clan, who are said to be generally tall in stature, are both irascible in their temperament; people of the Sham-jhākoā clan are said to be generally tall and thin, and people of the Khāngār clan are said to walk with an inward bend in their legs. It need hardly be said that these fancied resemblances to their totems are more often than not discredited by facts.

TOTEM TABOOS.

As with other totemic peoples, a Birhōr must abstain from killing, destroying, maiming, hunting, injuring, eating or other wise using the animal, plant or other object that forms his clan totem, or anything made out of or obtained from it; and, if possible, he will also prevent others from doing so in his presence. Some of the clans carry the principle to curious extremes. Thus, the men of the Mūrum clan cover their eyes when they chance to come across a Mūrūm stag. Birhōrs of the Khāngār clan abstain from cleansing the hair of their head 'with oilcakes, because oil-pressing was the occupation of their Khangar ancestors.

It is worthy of note, however, that all these totem taboos have to be strictly observed only by married men, for it is only after marriage that a Birhōr is considered to become a full member of his clan. Eating, killing, or destroying one's clan totem is regarded by the Birhōr as equivalent to killing a human member of his own clan, and the reason usually assigned by the Birhōr for abstaining from, or preventing others from, killing or destroying his totem is that if the totem animal, plant, or other object, diminishes, the clan too will suffer a corresponding decrease in number. Although it is believed that a particular clan will multiply in proportion as the totem species or class multiplies, no Birhōr clan resorts to any magical process, like the Australian Intichiuma ceremonies, for the multiplication of its