35 miles, there are six tribes, i. e., Bor Duárias, Má tons, Banparas, Jobokas, Sanglors, and Lakmas, and this gives but six miles average frontage. They do not extend far into the hills, so that each may safely be said to occupy about 40 or 50 square miles. In some cases a tribe is more extensively placed ;
but again in others, as Sinyong, the entire tribe con sists of but one village. I know of no cases where one tribe has conquered and become possessed of the lands of another; hence the status quo seems of long continuance. The oldest “Nogāons,' or new villages, are not less seemingly than 40 or 50 years. “As a consequence of the above noted custom of head-cutting, and its isolating influence, few Nāgās reach the plains, but those living on the border. We thus see a community of some hundreds perched on a hill, and depending almost exclusively on their own resources, constantly fighting others similarly isolated, on all sides, yet thoroughly able to main tain themselves. Perhaps in no other part of the world can so complete a tribal isolation be seen, and subdivision carried to such an extreme.
The
available land, too, seems all taken up. To every 40 or 50 square miles there are about four villages, of perhaps one hundred families each ; yet from the nature of the case, as before stated, not more than an eighth or tenth of the land available can be cul tivated at one time, and the population would seem to have reached its maximum.
257
CORRESPONDENCE.
August 2, 1872.]
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The Banparas, like most Nāgās, use the “Jatti or spear, and the ‘dháo.’ “They also use the crossbow.
(Hap in Naga). It is not, I hear, of recent date. In
the use of the jattee they seem clumsy and bad shots ; I have tried batches of several tribes at a mark for prizes, but found them unable to reach 80 yards. Nor could they touch a sack of straw for half an hour at 60 yards, but at 40 yards one did succeed.
“They use their jatties for close work, usually from ambush, and never attack in the open. The dháo is used as a hatchet or mace, and held
by both hands. One blow is usually enough, if fairly given in a fight, as they can cut with tre mendous force. The jungle is so thick and com mon, that their warfare is wholly by ambush and
surprise, and this gives the dháo great advantages. The bow is chiefly used for game and pigs.” “There religion seems confined to the fear of a
legion of deotás or devils, and has no system, and their devils are of course on a par with their limit
ed ideas. Whatever they do not understand, is the work of a “deotá.' Every tree, rock, or path has its ‘deo, especially bor trees and waterfalls. If a
man is mad, a deo possesses him, who is propitiated by offerings of dhán, spirits, or othereatables. Deos in fact are omnipresent, and are supposed to do little
else than distress human beings. The only remedy is presents and counter witchcraft.” “There are no
regular priests, though they have ‘deoris,' men whose office it is to bury or attend to the dead.
Two or
more such men are in each village. They tie up the corpse in tocoo leaves, and put it on the ‘rūk
tääs,' where it is left till sufficiently decayed when the skull is put in the Morrang.” (To be continued.)
CORRESPONDENCE, &c. AGE OF INDIAN CAVES AND TEMPLES.
To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. SIR,-In the XXVIth number of the Proceedings of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society which has just reached this country, I perceive that Dr. Bhau Daji adheres to the assertion made by him at the meeting in July 1869, to the following effect :—“I have personally,” he says, “visited “many of the older Orissa Temples, with inscriptions “in many of then, and have also examined almost “every cave in this Presidency, as well as many in
opportunity of personally inspecting these build
ings, more than thirty years ago, the whole subject was in its infancy, and nothing had then been published that was of any real value or assistance.
Since then numberless inscriptions have been pub
lished and translated, and almost all the buildings. I then knew have been visited and described by others.
Under these circumstances, I would natur
ally expect that, with all the increased knowledge and facilities now available, any one might detect
errors in my determinations. however, be in Orissa temples.
It would hardly, I only ascribed
I have sometimes
dates to three of them :—Bhubaneswar, Kanarak,
“found Mr. Fergusson in error to the extent of one “to three centuries in respect to the age of Temples
and Jagannath. These dates I took, not from their style, but from Sterling's Essay in the XVth volume of the Asiatic Researches ; where they are recorded in evidence that seemed so clear that it will be very
“Behar and Eastern India.
“and
Caves. He generally postdated them.”
(No. XXVI. p. cxxxix). Nothing would surprise me less than that this assertion should, in some cases, at least, prove cor rect. As I stated in my “History of Architec ture” (vol. ii, p. 591), “when I visited Bhobaneswar “the subject was new to me, and I had had no “practice in inferring the dates of Hindu buildings “from their styles.” Indeed when I last had an
interesting to know how Dr. Bhau Daji can upset it. Dr. Hunter, I see, tumbles into the same pit, and it is high time we were both rescued. With regard to Temples and Caves in Western India, Dr. Bhau Daji may be in possession of infor mation not now available to the general public; but I have seen nothing yet in print that shakes my
