ORIGIN: Khond (India)
TYPE: Vegetation Goddess
INFORMATION: Worshipped by the Khonds in Bengal. She was the receipient of human sacrifice to ensure good harvest, particularly of the spice turmeric, and as a protection against disease and infirmity. The sacrificial victim or meriah, was useful, often kept for years as a holy person before death and was always either the offspring of a previous sacrificial victim, or purchased from impoverished families for the purpose. He of she was generally strangled, sometimes in the fork of a tree, after days of festivities. In other instances the victim was cut up alive.