Jagen und Sammeln im Paradies ?

J.W. Breeks (1873)

"By the sale of the produce of the forests, such as wood, honey, and bees� wax, or of the fruits of their gardens by those who take a little pains to cultivate them, they are enabled to buy grain for their immediate sustenance, and for seed; but as they never pay attention to the land after it is sown, or indeed to its preparation, further than partially cleaning it of the jungle, and turning it up with the hoe, or, what is more common, scratching it into furrows with a stick, and scattering the grain indiscriminately, their crops are of course stinted and meagre. When the corn is ripe, if at any distance from the village, the family to whom the patch or field belongs, will remove to it, and constructing temporary dwellings, remain there so long as the grain lasts. Each morning they pluck as much as they think they may require for the use of that day, kindle a fire upon the nearest large stone or fragment of rock, and when it is well heated brush away the embers and scatter the grain upon it, which soon becoming parched and dry, is thence readily reduced to meal. This part of the process over, or as soon as the rock has cooled, the parched grain, which in the meantime has partly cleansed of the husk, is, with the assistance of a smaller stone, rubbed into meal, mixed with water, and made into cakes. The stone is now heated a second time, and cakes are put on it to bake, or when they meet with a stone which has a little concavity, they will, after heating it the second time, fill the hollow with water, with which, when warmed up, they mix up the meal and form a sort of porridge. In this way the whole of the family, their friends, and the neighbours will live, till all the grain has consumed; and it seems to be considered among them as superlative meanness to reserve any, either for seed or future nourish-ment. The whole of this period is a merrymaking time, they invite all who may be passing by to take part of the produce of the field, and join in their festivities. These families will now be invited in return to live on the fields of their neighbours; and when the whole of the grain oft the village has thus been consumed; and this, at best, is generally but a very small quantity, they have again to trust to the precarious subsistence with the produce of the forest or their gardens yield. Many of them live, for the remainder of the year, on a sort of yam, which here grows wild, and which, after the name of this peo-ple, is called the Erular root. To the use of this root they accustom they accustom their children from infancy, and when it fails them, which is sometimes the case, they have then hardly any resource from starvation. As it becomes scarce in the vicinity of their village, they wander through the forests in search of it. If they find it, or if they are successful in the chase, or in the ensnaring of wild animals, they are enabled to support themselves till the change of season again brings forth those natural productions, by the sale of which they are enabled to purchase a little grain; or as labourers are now required by the cultivators of the plain, they readily engage themselves at a reduced rate of wages. It is during the winter of their year, or while they are wandering about the forests in search of food, that, driven by hunger, the families or parties separate one from another, each eager only to satisfy his own craving. On these occasions the women and young children are often left alone, and the mother, having no longer any nourishment for their infant, anticipates its final misery by burning it alive." [Letzteres stimmt aber vermutlich nicht und ist wahrscheinlich ein gezielt ausgestreutes Gerücht über die Adivasi]