sustained enquiries spread over a long period of years, and for such work the agency of a Society like ours is highly suitable. If all our members make the best use they can of the opportu nities that come to them there can be no doubt that our Society will fully justify the objects for which it was established. I would specially urge junior officers of my own service to take an active part in ethnographic research. No civilian can be a really successful officer unless he understands the habits and mentality of the people of his district, and nothing will tend to such an understanding more than sustained enquiries regarding their language, manners, customs, rites and superstitions. Such enquiries moreover bring their own reward, for they give an added interest to official tours and develop one's powers of observation and mental alertness. And now, Gentlemen, I must bring to an end these brief notes of the work done by our Society during its first year of existence, and these somewhat discursive suggestions for future action. I thank you for the patience with which you have listened to me. I regret that in my present position I have not the leisure necessary to enable me to take a more active part in your researches, but I can assure you that they will always receive my most sympathetic attention, and that I will at all times do everything in my power to promote the interests of our Society and to assist it in the work which it has undertaken to do. LEADING ARTICLES. I.-The Traditions of the Santals. By the Hon'ble Revd. A. Campbell, D.D. THE traditional lore of the Santāls has been handed down orally from generation to generation, and as was inevitable in the absence of written documents, there are often several versions of the same event, but it is remarkable that the main features are always present, whether the story be told on the banks of the Ganges, in the North, or in the jungles of Orissa, in the South. The following account of their traditions, which deal with the creation of the world, and the migrations, etc., of the Santāls, is the result of the collation of their traditions as delivered by several Santal sages, and the order observed in the sequence of the narrative is that supported by a majority of the most intelligent of them. In the beginning was Thakur Jiu. There was no land visible, all was covered with water. Then Thakur Jin's servants said to him, "How shall we create human beings?" He replied, "If it be so desired, we can create them." They then said, "If you give us a blessing (or the gift), we shall be able to do so." Thakur Jiu then said, "Go, call Malin Budhi. She is to be found in a rock cave under the water." When she came she received the order to form two human beings. Some say she made them of a kind of froth which proceeded from a supernatural being who had his residence at the bottom of the sea, but others that she made them of a stiff clay. Thakur Jiu was a spectator of what was being done. At length Malin Budhi made the bodies of two human beings, and laid them out to dry. In the meantime Singh Sadom (Day-horse) passed that way and, trampling them under foot, destroyed them. After an interval Thakur Jiu demanded of Malin Budhi if she had prepared them. She replied, "I made them, but I have many enemies." Thakur Jiu enquired who they were, and she replied, "Who, but Singh Sādom!" Thakur Jiu then said, "Kick the pieces into the Sōrā Nãi and the Samud Nai." (Here the following is sung by the reciter, "Oh! The Day-horse, Oh! The Day-horse, The Day-horse has gone to the river Gāng, Thakur Jiu then said to Malin Budhi, "I again give you a blessing, go make two human beings." Having prepared them she went to Thakur Jiu who said, "Well, have you got them ready?" She replied, "They are ready, give them the gift of life." He said, "Above the door frame is the life (or spirit) of birds, do not bring that; upon the sanga (cross beam) is the life of human beings, bring it." So she went, but being of low stature she could not reach the sanga, so she brought the bird's life from above the door, and no sooner had she given it to them, than they flew up into the heavens, where they continued to course about, whether for twelve years or twelve months is doubtful. The names of the birds were Hās and Hasin. At length the desire to breed came upon them, and they went to Thakur Jiu and said, "You gave us being, but we cannot find a place on which to rest." He replied, "I will prepare a place for you." Living in the water were Sōle Häkō (Sole fish), Kātkōm (Crab), Lendet Kuar (Prince Earth worm), and Lendom Kuar. Thakur Jiu having called them ordered them to raise the earth above the water. Sõle Häkō said, "I will raise the earth above the water," but after repeated trials he was obliged to own his inability to do so. Then Kātkōm came, and said, "I will do it," but he also failed. Lendet Kuar then came and undertook to accomplish it. He put his head under the water, and swallowed earth which passing through him fell upon the surface of the water, but immediately sank to the bottom again. Then Lendom Kuār said, "Within the water resides Kāchim Kuār (Prince Tortoise); if we fasten him at the four corners with chains, and then raise the earth on his back it will remain, and not fall into the water again." Having secured Kachim Kuar with chains Lendet Kuar raised the earth on his back, and in a short time there was an island in the middle of the waters. Thakur Jiu then caused a Karam tree* to spring up, and at the foot of the Karam tree he caused Sirōm grasst to grow. He then caused Dhobi grass‡ to spring up, after which he covered the earth with all kinds of trees and herbs. In this manner the earth became firm and stable. Then the birds Has and Hasin came and alighted on the Karam tree, and afterwards made their nest among the Sirōm grass at its foot. Here the female laid two eggs, and Raghop Buär ca me and ate them. Again she laid other two eggs, and again Raghop Buår came and devoured them. Then Has and Hasin went to Thakur Jiu and informed him that Raghop Buar had twice eaten their eggs. On hearing this Thakur Jiu said, "I shall send some one to guard your eggs." So calling Jaher-era, he committed the eggs of the birds Has and Hasin to her care. So well did she perform her task that the female was allowed to hatch her eggs from which emerged two human beings, a male and a female, whose names were Pilchu Hāṛām and Pilchu Budhi. Thakur Jiu constituted Marāng Buru (Great Spirit?) their guardian. (Here the reciter sings, "Hãe, hae, two human beings, Hãe, hae, are born in the water, Hãe, hãe, how can I bring them up? "My mother gave me birth among the Sirom grass, My father had his dwelling at the Karam tree foot.") Here they resided subsisting upon the grain of the grasses Suntu bukuc' § and Sama,|| and Marang Buru came Adina cordifolia Hook f. Benth. † Andropogon muricatus, Retz. § Eleusine Egyptiaca, Pers. |