The following description of the Korkus is given by Major Forsyth
in the Nimar Settlement Report of 1868-69, with the addition of
some remarks made by other observers. The Korkus are well built and
muscular. The average Korku has a round face, a nose rather wide but
not flat like a negro's, prominent cheek-bones, a scanty moustache
and his head shaved after the Hindu fashion. They are slightly taller
than the Gond, a shade darker and a good many shades dirtier. In
the wilder parts one may come across some quite too awful Korkus,
from whom an intervening space of fifty yards is an insufficient
protection, though strange to say there are no less than six words
in their language which mean 'to wash'; one to wash the whole body,
one the limbs, one for the face, one for the mouth, one for the hair
and one for the clothes, besides a word for scouring the body with a
stone and another word for bathing in a stream. Their habitations on
the other hand present quite a contrast to their individual want of
cleanliness. They build their villages of a close bamboo wattle-work
and with almost Swisslike neatness, a picturesque site being usually
chosen, and the plan being one long street with a wide open roadway,
or several such parallel with each other. The villages are kept
remarkably clean, in striking contrast to the habitations of other
aboriginal tribes. The average village contains about twenty huts,
and it is the custom to bind these so closely together that forest
fires often sweep through a whole village before a hut can be removed
to check their course. The average hut is about fifteen feet square
with a rather flat roof covered with loose grass over a layer of leaves
and pressed down by outside poles. No nails are required as the posts
are bound firmly together with bamboo or creeper fibre. The inmates
generally sleep on the ground, and a few low stools carved from teak
wood serve them for pillows. Every village has a few pigs and fowls
running about, both of which are eaten after being sacrificed. The
Korku is an adept in the crude process of distillation in which
the only apparatus required consists of two gharas or earthen pots,
a hollow bamboo, some mahua flowers, water and a fire. By this means
the Korku manages to produce liquor upon which he can effectually get
drunk. They are by no means particular about what they eat. Fowls,
pork, fish, crabs and tortoise are all consumed, and beef and rats
are eaten in some localities but not in others. The Ruma and Bondoya
Korkus eat buffaloes, and the latter add monkeys to an already
comprehensive dietary. The lowest caste with whom they are said
to eat are Kolis. They do not eat with Gonds. Gonds, Mangs, Basors
and a few other low castes take food from them and also, it is said,
Bhils. The Korkus will freely admit members of the higher castes into
the community, and a woman incurs no social penalty for a liaison
with a member of any caste from which a Korku can take food. But
if she goes wrong with a low-caste man she is permanently expelled
and a fine of Rs. 40 is exacted from the parents before they are
readmitted to social intercourse. In the case of adultery with a
member of the caste, if the husband does not wish to keep his wife,
the offending parties have a lock of hair cut off and give a dinner,
and are then considered to be married. But if the husband does not
turn his wife away, he, on his wife's account, and the seducer must
give a joint dinner to the caste. They have a tribal council or
panchayat which inflicts the usual penalties for social offences,
while in very serious cases, such as intercourse with a low caste,
it causes the offender to be born again. He is placed inside a large
earthen pot which is sealed up, and when taken out of this he is
said to be born again from his mother's womb. He is then buried in
sand and comes out as a fresh incarnation from the earth, placed in
a grass hut which is fired, and from within which he runs out as
it is burning, immersed in water, and finally has a tuft cut from
his scalp-lock and is fined two and a half rupees. The Korkus as a
race are very poor, and a poor Korku manages to exist with even less
clothing than a poor Gond. A loincloth of the scantiest and a wisp
of turban coiled on the top of the head and leaving the centre of the
skull uncovered form his complete costume for dry weather. Sometimes
a large brass chain is worn in the turban or attached to the waist,
and to it are suspended a flint and steel and a small dry gourd full
of cotton--the implements for obtaining fire. It is also common to
wear a large brass ring in one ear. A special habit of the Korku in
Nimar, Major Forsyth states, is to carry a small bamboo flute behind
the ear like a pen, from which he discourses a not unpleasant strain,
chiefly when drunk or engaged in propitiating Bagh Deo, Devi or any
other dread power whom he reverences. The women as a rule wear only
a dirty white sari and are loaded with cheap ornaments. Necklaces of
beads are worn on the neck, covering the chest, while the arms and
legs are weighed down with brass and iron.