Outsiders are admitted into the tribe in some localities in Bastar,
and also the offspring of a Gond man or woman with a person of another
caste, excepting the lowest. But some people will not admit the
children of a Gond woman by a man of another caste. Not much regard
is paid to the chastity of girls before marriage, though in the more
civilised tracts the stricter Hindu views on the subject are beginning
to prevail. Here it is said that if a girl is detected in a sexual
intrigue before marriage she may be taken into caste, but may not
participate in the worship of Bura Deo nor of the household god. But
this is probably rather a counsel of perfection than a rule actually
enforced. If a daughter is taken in the sexual act, they think some
misfortune will happen to them, as the death of a cow or the failure
of crops. Similarly the Maria Gonds think that if tigers kill their
cattle it is a punishment for the adultery of their wives, and hence
if a man loses a head or two he looks very closely after his wife,
and detection is often followed by murder. Here probably adultery was
originally considered an offence as being a sin against the tribe,
because it contaminated the tribal blood, and out of this attitude
marital jealousy has subsequently developed. Speaking generally, the
enforcement of rules of sexual morality appears to be comparatively
recent, and there is no doubt that the Baigas and other tribes who have
lived in contact with the Gonds, as well as the Ahirs and other low
castes, have a large admixture of Gond blood. In Bastar a Gond woman
formerly had no feelings of modesty as regards her breasts, but this
is now being acquired. Laying the hand on a married woman's shoulder
gives great offence. Mr. Low writes: [91] "It is difficult to say what
is not a legal marriage from a Gond point of view; but in spite of
this laxity abductions are frequent, and Colonel Bloomfield mentions
one particularly noteworthy case where the abductor, an unusually ugly
Gond with a hare-lip, was stated by the complainant to have taken off
first the latter's aunt, then his sister and finally his only wife."