Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects, 1. köide

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Trübner & Company, 1880
 

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Page 141 - Take and eat, heretofore you have eaten and drunk with us, you can do so no more ; you were one of us, you can be so no longer ; we come no more to you, come you not to us.
Page 140 - I cannot learn the cause of the great difference. A youth who has no means of discharging this sum, must go to the house of his father-in-law elect, and there literally earn his wife by the sweat of his brow, labouring, more judaico, upon mere diet for a term of years, varying from two as an average to five and even seven as the extreme period. This custom is named Gaboi by the Bodo — Gharjya by the Dhimals.
Page 118 - They never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain in the same village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse of four or five years they frequently return to their old fields and resume their cultivation if in the interim the jungle has grown well, and they have not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence of appropriation other than possessory ; and if, therefore, another party have preceded them, or if the slow growth of the jungle give no sufficient promise...
Page 138 - Dhami and Ojha. The Dhami (seniores priores !) is the district priest. The Deoshi, the village priest ; and the Ojha the village exorcist. The Deoshi has under him one servitor called Phantwal. There is a Deoshi in nearly every village. Over a small circle of villages one Dhami presides and possesses a vaguely defined but universally recognised control over the Deoshis of his district.
Page 133 - The god who has possessed the sick man is indicated by the exclusive vibration of the pendulum towards his representative leaf, which is then taken apart, and the god in question is asked what sacrifice he requires — a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck, to spare the sufferer ? He answers (the...
Page 117 - Dhimal people is that of erratic cultivators of the wilds. For ages transcending memory or tradition, they have passed beyond the savage or hunter state, and the nomadic or herdsman's estate, and have advanced to the third or agricultural grade of social progress, but so as to indicate a not entirely broken...
Page 114 - Tamilian face, a somewhat lozenge contour caused by the large cheek bones, less perpendicularity in the features to the front, occasioned not so much by defect of forehead or chin, as by excess of jaws and mouth ; a larger proportion of face to head, and less roundness in the latter; a broader, flatter face, with features less symmetrical, but perhaps more...
Page 149 - Its taste is a bitterish sub-acid, and it is extremely like the Ajimana of the Newars of Nepal. Brewing and not distilling seems to be a characteristic of nearly all the Tamulian races, all of whom drink and make beer, and none of them spirits. The Bodo and Dhimal process of making this fermented liquor is very simple. The grain is boiled ; the root of a plant called Agaichito is mixed with it ; it is left to ferment for two days in a nearly dry state ; water is then added quantum suffidt ; the whole...
Page 136 - Nbbni madai. The blood of the sacrifice belongs to the gods, the flesh to his worshippers ; and these now hold a high feast, at which beer and tobacco are freely used to animate the joyous conclave, but not spirits, nor opium, nor hemp.
Page 139 - Hindus wisely and decorously attach much discredit to the parent who takes a " consideration " for the grant of his daughter in marriage. No such delicacy is recognised by Bodo or Dhimal parents, who invariably demand and receive a price, which is called Jan in the language of the former, and Gandi in that of the latter people. The amount varies from ten to fifteen rupees among the Dhimals, from fifteen to forty-five among the Bodo.

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