Mahādeva,—is told to explain the name of a famous natural cave temple (pp. 37-8). Every pontiff at Salemābād must, when enthroned, have a sālagrāma stone, named Saresvara, placed upon his head (p. 41). A good many valuable notes could probably be gleaned by a diligent searcher through such reports as this, and many casual remarks throw light on custom and belief.
Chamba is a western Himalayan State which under a single dynasty has preserved unaltered for many centuries its traditions and its customs. The splendid volume on its epigraphy issued by the Government of India, with the vigorous support of the reigning Raja, therefore of necessity contains much mythological and customary lore in the notes upon 50 ancient inscriptions, nearly all of a religious character, on rocks, slabs, images, and copper plates. The companion volume of the Report illustrates in 86 plates temples, images, excavations, and antiquities, and is a mine of information for a reader interested in India.
This account of the tribe from which one of the United States is named consists of a reprint, with full annotations and an Introduction, of a portion of a scarce publication of 1876, and contains, besides much historical and linguistic matter, some account of games (pp. xxviii-xxxi) and dances (pp. xxxii-iii). One of the Appendices gives "The Iowa Camping Circle," specifying two "phratries" and eight "gentes," each of the latter having four "subgentes." A series of such publications, at a very moderate price, will be very useful for reference and comparative study.
