From 1963 to 1965, the author of this book managed to visit the mountains of Eastern and South-West India and to see the Indian tribes living there. For a long time these tribes, dwelling in hard-to-reach mountainous areas, were isolated from the outside world, and therefore preserved a primitive clan organization and a distinctive culture. The inaccessibility of the mountain terrain contributed to the tribes being poorly studied. L. V. Shaposhnikova was the first Soviet person to visit these tribes and to gather valuable information about them. In the small essays that make up the book, the author describes the features of the tribes’ clan structure, their history, culture, and religion, and provides numerous legends reflecting people’s psychology and their worldview.