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the Indian Antiquary. The Factory then experimentally started was soon given up, owing mainly to the cost and danger of transport of the goods, and was not again started as a permanent Factory until several years later.

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Mr. S. C. Hill has contributed a Memoir of Major Randfurlie Knox who died in 1764 A. D., and whose tomb stands on the bank of the Ganges in the compound of the Patna District Judge's Court. This Memoir of " the truly gallant major tains all the information regarding his career that can be collected from historical works and official records in the India Office and the British Museum. The Memoir gives a vivid picture of the training of the cadets of the Royal Artillery and of the conditions of life in the Army in India in those days.

Knox's march from Calcutta to Hajipur, to relieve Patna, was a wonderful feat, and one which would now seem almost impossible considering the conditions under which it was made.

"The length of this march is given as 300 miles, and it was made in the intense heat of the Indian April, the roads were tracks enveloped in clouds of dust, the wide sandy banks of the Ganges had to be crossed twice, yet Knox, marching every yard of the way on foot to prevent any grumbling on the part of his men, carried his party through in less than thirteen days."

Examples of illustrations by the Court painters of Akbar in a unique History of Timur and his descendants, which belonged to the Emperor Shah Jahan and is now in the Khuda Baksh Library at Patna have been given in the June Number and have been described by Khan Sahib Abdul Muqtadir.2 The Illustrations are signed by the artists. It is interesting to note that in some cases separate artists were employed for the drawing and for the painting of the picture.

Mr. Jackson is making progress in editing the portions of Buchanan Hamilton's Journal which relate to Bihar districts which will be of considerable interest to this province.

1 J. B. O. R. S., Vol. III., p. 90.

• Ibid, p. 363.

A Pandit has been appointed to prepare a Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Puri district, and 1,710 manuscripts in the Puri district have already been catalogued. Sir George Grierson suggested a search for two important Manuscripts named respectively the "Prākṛita Sarvasva " and the "Brihat Katha" of Mārkaṇḍeya Kavindra. A manuscript copy of the former work has now been secured and attempts are being made to secure a copy of the latter manuscript. A report from the Pandit as to the total number of works on each subject hitherto catalogued by him, with special notice of particularly valuable manuscripts is awaited. For conducting similar work in Bihar, Government have given a grant of Rs. 800 and arrangements have been made in consultation with the Mabaraja Bahadur of Darbhanga to employ a suitable Pandit and start work at once. Mahamahopadyaya Hara Prasad Shastri has kindly offered to give necessary directions to the Pandits.

The Maharaja Bahadur of Darbhanga has communicated a valuable paper on the marriage customs of the Maithil Brahmins, 1 of which he is the head. Similar papers on the domestic usages and ceremonies of different sections of the Hindus would be useful for comparison with one another and with the rules laid down in the Shastras and also with such usages amongst the aboriginal races. The results of such an inquiry might show whether the existing domestic usages and practices of different Hindu castes in so far as they differ from the rules laid down in the Shastras have any connection with similar usages among the aboriginal tribes, and whether they have been influenced by them. Social contact may account for some common usages but not for all. Such an inquiry is now desirable; as the aboriginal tribes are rapidly modifying their old usages and are gradually becoming Hinduized. Unless action is now taken to record their soon be customs and usages, much valuable material will irretrievably lost to science.

J. B. Q. R. S., Vol. III., p. 515.

The cultivators' methods of dealing with insect-pests have been described by Mr. H. L. Dutt1 and their methods of treating plant diseases by Mr. S. K. Basu. The appearance or disappearance of insect-pests is ascribed to the influence of supernatural agencies and the measures taken against them are therefore pujās and mantras. The cultivators appear to consider insects to be a lawabiding class; as Mr. Dutt notes that" Another general remedy agains all insects much in vogue in Bihar, is to plant a bamboo pole in the affected area and to hang a notice on it on a sheet of paper, requesting the insects to leave the field and to go back to their homes. This notice must contain the names of the zamindar, the owner of the fiel, and the insect. Some mantras are recited when the notice is hung up. ""

3

In this province, which contains so many different races and tribes, the field of Folklore is, naturally, large. Mr. Sarat Chandra Mitra has recorded a Folk-tale of a new type from North Bihar, and compa ed it with two variants current in Chittagong, and in other parts of Eastern Bengal, respectively. The comparison is interesting. And Babu Sukumar Haldar has recorded a number of Riddles and Auguries current among the Hos.4

The Birhors and the Asurs are two very interesting tribes dwelling in the hills and jungles of Chota Nagpur and the Feudatory State of Sarguja. As yet very little is known of them except that they are of migratory habits and are of more primitive habits than the aboriginal tribes like the Mundas, the Santals and the Oraons, with which we are more familiar.

Babu Sarat Chandra Roy has for some time past been making a detailed investigation into the customs and social organization of the Birhors with a view to preparing a monograph on them. The results of his inquiries are being published serially in the Journal. Two of these papers were published in 1916, and

1 J. B. O. R. S., Vol. II., p. 560.

2 Ibid, p. 564.

3 Ibid, p. 378.

lbid, pp. 276 and 279.

showed that the primitive institution known as "Totemism" survives amongst this tribe in a more primitive form than in the other aboriginal tribes hitherto studied in India.1 In two more papers 2 published in the Journal for 1917, Babu S. C. Roy shows that, like their totemism, the socio-economic as well as the matrimonial and kinship organization of the Birhor tribe are more primitive than those of the more well-known Indian aboriginal tribes. Thus, the marriage of first cousins, which appears to have once been in vogue amongst tribes practising clan-exogamy, but is no longer allowed in such Indian aboriginal tribes as we are familiar with, is still permissible amongst the Birhors, at least theoretically under certain conditions.

3

During a recent visit to Chota Nagpur, Babu S. C. Roy commenced studying another tribe known as the Asurs and found that the totemistic beliefs of this tribe are even more primitive than those of the Birhors, and it is expected that a thorough study of the totemic system of the Asurs may provide fresh data calculated to throw some light on the origin, or at any rate the development and decay, of totemism. Among certain Asurs, Babu S. C. Roy found the same belief which the eminent anthropologist, Sir James Frazer, found amongst certain Australian tribes and designated as "individual totemism," in which every individual acquires his own totem which may be different from that of his parents. It is again to be expected that an exhaustive study of this tribe and of similar other tribes, such as the Korwas of Chota Nagpur and Juangs of the Orissa Feudatory States, may supply new anthropological data.

It is necessary, too, that specimens should be collected of such primitive appliances, instruments, ornaments, and articles of domestic use and objects used in magic, as are still in partial use though in course of being substituted by corresponding articles used by more civilized people. For example, the fire drill, which is not even known by name to many other tribes, is still in partial

1 J. B. O. R. S., Vol. II., P. 250 and p. 457.

2 J. B. O. R, S., Vol. III., p. 363 and p. 543.
3 Ibid, p. 567.

use among certain jungle tribes of Chota Nagpur, and a variety of the bow, known as the bagh dhanu, with which tigers are shot, may also be seen in the hands of jungle tribes in the Chota Nagpur Hills. Since the recent establishment of a Provincial Museum we are endeavouring to make a collection of such articles.

Since our last annual meeting additions have been made to our collection of ornaments and other articles of the Copper Age, besides a number of bronze ornaments and a few bronze utensils and some old pottery found in what are known in Chota Nagpur as Asur graves. As, however, no bronze weapons or implements have yet been found, there are not yet sufficient grounds to predicate the existence of a bronze age following the copper age. Such investigation as Babu S. C. Roy has had time to make would seem to show that a thorough investigation of these Asur sites may yield a rich harvest of early antiquities.

The Provincial Coin Cabinet has now been attached to the Patna Museum, and the report of the Coin Committee for the past year will be incorporated with the Museum report.

A number of silver punch-marked coins have been found in Patna. They will be described in the next Number of the Journal. There has also been an interesting find at the Cape Copper Company's Mines at Rakhā, in Singhbhum, of a number of copper coins of the type which is known as " Puri Kushan ". These coins, which are found on the east coast from Balasore in the north to the mouth of the Godaveri, are crude copies of the coins of the Kushan Emperors. The present find is interesting, apart from other considerations, as indicating their existence in another locality. The coins have been presented to the Museum by Mr. Olden, the Manager of the Cape Copper Company. They will be described in the Journal. Seven coins of alloyed gold of Govinda Singh of the Rahtor dynasty of Kanauj (1106-1132 a. D.) have been found at Khukra Toli in Ranchi; and a number of copper coins of Ibrahim Shah (1400-1440 A. D.) and Mahmud Shah (1440-1458 A. D.), Sultans of Jaunpur, have been found in the same district.

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