Hislop describes the Gonds as follows: [81] "All are a little below
the average size of Europeans and in complexion darker than the
generality of Hindus. Their bodies are well proportioned, but their
features rather ugly. They have a roundish head, distended nostrils,
wide mouth, thickish lips, straight black hair and scanty beard and
moustache. It has been supposed that some of the aborigines of Central
India have woolly hair; but this is a mistake. Among the thousands
I have seen I have not found one with hair like a negro." Captain
Forsyth says: [82] "The Gond women differ among themselves more than
the men. They are somewhat lighter in colour and less fleshy than
Korku women. But the Gond women of different parts of the country
vary greatly in appearance, many of them in the open tracts being
great robust creatures, finer animals by far than the men; and here
Hindu blood may fairly be expected. In the interior again bevies
of Gond women may be seen who are more like monkeys than human
beings. The features of all are strongly marked and coarse. The
girls occasionally possess such comeliness as attaches to general
plumpness and a good-humoured expression of face; but when their short
youth is over all pass at once into a hideous age. Their hard lives,
sharing as they do all the labours of the men except that of hunting,
suffice to account for this." There is not the least doubt that the
Gonds of the more open and civilised country, comprised in British
Districts, have a large admixture of Hindu blood. They commonly work
as farmservants, women as well as men, and illicit connections with
their Hindu masters have been a natural result. This interbreeding,
as well as the better quality of food which those who have taken to
regular cultivation obtain, have perhaps conduced to improve the Gond
physical type. Gond men as tall as Hindus, and more strongly built
and with comparatively well-cut features, are now frequently seen,
though the broad flat nose is still characteristic of the tribe as
a whole. Most Gonds have very little hair on the face.