The
author's rule of agricultural succession by primogeniture in the
Nerbudda territories has survived only in certain districts (see
_post_, Chapter 47). The land-revenue law and the law concerning the
relations between landlords and tenants have now been more or less
successfully codified in each province. Mr. B. H. Baden-Powell's
encyclopaedic work _The Land Systems of British India_ (3 volumes:
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1892) gives very full information concerning
Indian tenures as now existing, and the law applicable to them at the
date of publication.
CHAPTER 11
Witchcraft.
On leaving Jabera,[1] I saw an old acquaintance from the eastern part
of the Jubbulpore district, Kehri Singh.
'I understand, Kehri Singh', said I, 'that certain men among the
Gonds of the jungle, towards the source of the Nerbudda, eat human
flesh. Is it so?'
'No, sir; the men never eat people, but the Gond women do.'
'Where?'
'Everywhere, sir; there is not a parish, nay, a village, among the
Gonds, in which you will not find one or more such women.'
'And how do they eat people?'
'They eat their livers, sir.
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