A "Women's Hunt" in Bengal.

Evening Star, Issue 7831, 12 February 1889, Page 4

A "Women's Hunt" in Bengal.

At the last meeting of tho Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal a description was given of a peculiar custom among tho aboriginal tribes of Kanchi, a group of hamlets in Chota Nagpore. It is known as the Era Sendra, or women's hunt. On the present occasion the object was to expel the cholera demon, and it is usual when any great calamity overtakes the land for the women to dress themselves up in men's clothes, arm themselves, and go out to hunt, not in the jungles, but in the nearest villages east of them. They chase pigs and fowls, and everything they kill is theirs. They also levy blackmail from the heads of the villages for the purchase of liquor. The villagers cannot prevent the slaughter of their animals, but the head men generally compromise matters by giving the huntresses a pig and paying a small sum Toward evening the hunting party retires to a neighboring stream, where they cook and eat the meat and drink the liquor. They eat nothing after this meal, but batho and return home. Men are not allowed to accompany them on such occasions, and they conduct themselves for the time being in a very masterful and masculine manlier. They are decked out in coats and all the finery they can borrow from their husbands and sweethearts, and they flourish their spears, axes, and sticks, beat their iron drums, dhout, sing hunting songs, and dance just as tho men do. The ceremony begins in the west, and each village that has been visited goes out on a similar excursion to its neighbors, but always to tho east. By this means it is supposed that tho evil spirit is safely conducted out of the district without offending its dignity. One village near Ranchi is an exception. It is called Maliadaiva, or devoted to Mahadev, and there the Amazons are not allowed to enter, as it is supposed to be under tho special protection of its patron saint. If cholera appears there, it is because the Mahadev is offended, and he must be propitiated before it can disappear.