The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3. Robert Vane Russell

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I’ll wait till they come back here.”

      Then he laid him down and slumbered

      By the little wailing Bindos.

      As he slept the dreadful serpent,

      Rising, came from the Black Water,

      Came to eat the callow Bindos,

      In the absence of their parents.

      Came he trunk-like from the waters,

      Came with fearful jaws distended,

      Huge and horrid, like a basket

      For the winnowing of corn.

      Rose a hood of vast dimensions

      O’er his fierce and dreadful visage.

      Shrieked the Bindos young and callow,

      Gave a cry of lamentation;

      Rose our Lingo; saw the monster;

      Drew an arrow from his quiver,

      Shot it swift into his stomach,

      Sharp and cutting in the stomach,

      Then another and another;

      Cleft him into seven pieces,

      Wriggled all the seven pieces,

      Wriggled backward to the water.

      But our Lingo, swift advancing,

      Seized the headpiece in his arms,

      Knocked the brains out on a boulder;

      Laid it down beside the Bindos,

      Callow, wailing, little Bindos.

      On it laid him, like a pillow,

      And began again to slumber.

      Soon returned the parent Bindos

      From their hunting in the forest;

      Bringing brains and eyes of camels

      And of elephants prodigious,

      For their little callow Bindos

      Wailing sadly by the sea-shore.

      But the Bindos young and callow

      Brains of camels would not swallow;

      Said—“A pretty set of parents

      You are truly! thus to leave us

      Sadly wailing by the sea-shore

      To be eaten by the serpent—

      Bhawarnāg the dreadful serpent—

      Came he up from the Black Water,

      Came to eat us little Bindos,

      When this very valiant Lingo

      Shot an arrow in his stomach,

      Cut him into seven pieces—

      Give to Lingo brains of camels,

      Eyes of elephants prodigious.”

      Then the fond paternal Bindo

      Saw the head-piece of the serpent

      Under Lingo’s head a pillow,

      And he said, ‘O valiant Lingo,

      Ask whatever you may wish for.’

      Then he asked the little Bindos

      For an offering to the Great God,

      And the fond paternal Bindo,

      Much disgusted first refusing,

      Soon consented; said he’d go too

      With the fond maternal Bindo—

      Take them all upon his shoulders,

      And fly straight to Dewalgiri.

      Then he spread his mighty pinions,

      Took his Bindos up on one side

      And our Lingo on the other.

      Thus they soared away together

      From the shores of the Black Water,

      And the fond maternal Bindo,

      O’er them hovering, spread an awning

      With her broad and mighty pinions

      O’er her offspring and our Lingo.

      By the forests and the mountains

      Six months’ journey was it thither

      To the mountain Dewalgiri.

      Half the day was scarcely over

      Ere this convoy from the sea-shore

      Lighted safe on Dewalgiri;

      Touched the knocker to the gateway

      Of the Great God, Mahādeva.

      And the messenger Nārāyan

      Answering, went and told his master—

      “Lo, this very valiant Lingo!

      Here he is with all the Bindos,

      The Black Bindos from the sea-shore.”

      Then the Great God, much disgusted,

      Driven quite into a corner,

      Took our Lingo to the cavern,

      Sent Basmāsur to his kennel,

      Held his nose, and moved away the

      Mighty stone of sixteen cubits;

      Called those sixteen scores of Gonds out

      Made them over to their Lingo.

      And they said, “O Father Lingo!

      What a bad time we’ve had of it,

      Not a thing to fill our bellies

      In this horrid gloomy dungeon.”

      But our Lingo gave them dinner,

      Gave them rice and flour of millet,

      And they went off to the river,

      Had a drink, and cooked and ate it.

      The next episode is taken from a slightly different local version:

      And while they were cooking their food at the river a great flood came up, but all the Gonds crossed safely except the four gods, Tekām, Markām, Pusām and Telengām.52 These were delayed because they had cooked their food with ghī which they had looted from the Hindu deities. Then they stood on the bank and cried out,

      O God of the crossing,

      O Boundary God!

      Should you be here,

      Come take us across.

      Hearing this, the tortoise and crocodile came up to them, and offered to take them across the river. So Markām and Tekām sat on the back of the crocodile and Pusām and Telengām on the back of the tortoise, and before starting the gods made the crocodile and tortoise swear that they would not eat or drown them in the sea. But when they got to the middle of the river the tortoise and crocodile began to sink, with the idea that they would drown the Gonds and feed their young with them. Then the Gonds cried out, and the Raigīdhni or vulture heard them. This bird appears to be the same as the Bindo, as it fed its young with elephants. The Raigīdhni flew to the Gonds and took them up on its back and flew ashore with them. And in its anger it picked out the tongue of the crocodile and crushed the neck of the tortoise. And this is why the crocodile is still tongueless and the tortoise has a broken neck, which is sometimes inside and sometimes outside its shell. Both animals also have the marks of string on their backs where the Gond gods tied their necks together when they were ferried across. Thus all the Gonds were happily reunited and Lingo took them into the forest, and they founded a town there, which grew and prospered. And Lingo divided all the Gonds into clans and made the oldest man a Pardhān or priest and founded the rule of exogamy. He also made the Gond gods, subsequently described,53 and worshipped them with offerings of a calf and liquor, and

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