as allied tribes; in fact, as already
stated, one general name for the tribe is Baiga." [370] It seems not
unlikely that these Bhuiyars are the Baigas of the Central Provinces
and that they went to Mirzapur from here with the Gonds. Their original
name may have been preserved or revived there, while it has dropped
out of use in this Province. The name Baiga in the Central Provinces
is sometimes applied to members of other tribes who serve as village
priests, and, as has already been seen, it is used in the same sense in
Chota Nagpur. The Baigas of Mandla are also known as Bhumia, which is
only a variant of Bhuiya, having the same meaning of lord of the soil
or belonging to the soil. Both Bhuiya and Bhumia are in fact nearly
equivalent to our word 'aboriginal,' and both are names given to the
tribe by the Hindus and not originally that by which its members called
themselves. It would be quite natural that a branch of the Bhuiyas,
who settled in the Central Provinces and were commonly employed as
village priests by the Hindus and Gonds should have adopted the name
of the office, Baiga, as their tribal designation; just as the title
of Munda or village headman has become the name of one branch of the
Kol tribe, and Bhumij, another term equivalent to Bhuiya, of a second
branch. Mr. A. F. Hewitt, Settlement Officer of Raipur, considered
that the Buniyas of that District were the same tribe as the Bhuiyas
of the Garhjat States. [371] By Buniya he must apparently have meant
the Bhunjia tribe of Raipur, who as already stated are an offshoot
of the Baigas. Colonel Dalton describes the dances of the Bhuiyas
of Chota Nagpur as follows: [372] "The men have each a wide kind of
tambourine. They march round in a circle, beating these and singing
a very simple melody in a minor key on four notes. The women dance
opposite to them with their heads covered and bodies much inclined,
touching each other like soldiers in line, but not holding hands or
wreathing arms like the Kols." This account applies very closely to
the Sela and Rina dances of the Baigas. The Sela dance is danced
by men only who similarly march round in a circle, though they
do not carry tambourines in the Central Provinces. Here, however,
they sometimes carry sticks and march round in opposite directions,
passing in and out and hitting their sticks against each other as
they meet, the movement being exactly like the grand chain in the
Lancers. Similarly the Baiga women da