Several instances are known also of the Banjaras having practised
human sacrifice. Mr. Thurston states: [213] "In former times the
Lambadis, before setting out on a journey, used to procure a little
child and bury it in the ground up to the shoulders, and then drive
their loaded bullocks over the unfortunate victim. In proportion to
the bullocks thoroughly trampling the child to death, so their belief
in a successful journey increased." The Abbé Dubois describes another
form of sacrifice: [214]
"The Lambadis are accused of the still more atrocious crime of offering
up human sacrifices. When they wish to perform this horrible act, it
is said, they secretly carry off the first person they meet. Having
conducted the victim to some lonely spot, they dig a hole in which they
bury him up to the neck. While he is still alive they make a sort of
lamp of dough made of flour, which they place on his head; this they
fill with oil, and light four wicks in it. Having done this, the men
and women join hands and, forming a circle, dance round their victim,
singing and making a great noise until he expires." Mr. Cumberlege
records [215] the following statement of a child kidnapped by a Banjara
caravan in 1871. After explaining how he was kidnapped and the tip
of his tongue cut off to give him a defect in speech, the Kunbi lad,
taken from Sahungarhi, in the Bhandara District, went on to say that,
"The _tanda_ (caravan) encamped for the night in the jungle. In the
morning a woman named Gangi said that the devil was in her and that
a sacrifice must be made. On this four men and three women took a boy
to a place they had made for _puja_ (worship). They fed him with milk,
rice and sugar, and then made him stand up, when Gangi drew a sword and
approached the child, who tried to run away; caught and brought back
to this place, Gangi, holding the sword with both hands and standing
on the child's right side, cut off his head with one blow. Gangi
collected the blood and sprinkled it on the idol; this idol is made
of stone, is about 9 inches high, and has something sparkling in
its forehead. The camp marched that day, and for four or five days
consecutively, without another sacrifice; but on the fifth day a young
woman came to the camp to sell curds, and having bought some, the
Banjaras asked her to come in in the evening and eat with them. She
did come, and after eating with the women slept in the camp. Early
next morning she was sacrificed in the same way as the boy had been,
but it took three blows to cut off her head; it was done by Gangi, and
the blood was sprinkled on the stone idol. About a month ago Sitaram,
a Gond lad, who had also been kidnapped and was in the camp, told me
to run away as it had been decided to offer me up in sacrifice at the
next Jiuti festival, so I ran away." The child having been brought
to the police, a searching and protracted inquiry was held, which,
however, determined nothing, though it did not disprove his story.