PARTS BEYOND THE INDUS.

IX.

There are four races and four creeds in the world among Hindoos and Mahometans;Selfishness, jealousy, and pride drew all of them strongly;The Hindoos dwelt on Benares and the Ganges, the Mahometans on the Kaaba;The Mahometans held by circumcision, the Hindoos by strings and frontal marks.They each called on Ram and Ruheem, one name, and yet both forgot the road.Forgetting the Veds and the Koran, they were inveigled in the snares of the world.Truth remained on one side, while Moollas and Brahmins disputed,And salvation was not attained.

God heard the complaint (of virtue or truth), and Nânuk was sent into the world.He established the custom that the disciple should wash the feet of his Gooroo, and drink the water;[175]Pâr Bruhm and Poorun Bruhm, in his Kulyoog, he showed were one.The four feet (of the animal sustaining the world) were made of faith; the four castes were made one;The high and the low became equal: the salutation of the feet (among disciples) he established in the world;Contrary to the nature of man, the feet were exalted above the head.In the Kulyoog he gave salvation; using the only true name, he taught men to worship the Lord.To give salvation in the Kulyoog, Gooroo Nânuk came.

The Punjâb is the most western locality of the Indian stock, whether we call the members of it Hindú or Tamulian. On crossing the Indus we reach a new ethnological area, only partially, and only recently British;viz., the country of the Bilúch, and the country of the Afghans. And here we must prepare for new terms; for hearing oftribesrather thancastes; and for finding a polity more like that of the Jews and Arabs than the institutions of the Brahmins.

The Bilúch.—Biluchi-stanmeans the country of theBilúch, just asHindo-stanandAfghani-stanmean that of the Hindús and Afghans. It is the south-western quarter of Persia, that is the chief area of the tribes in question. Hence, however, they extend into Kutch Gundava, Scinde, and Múltan, and the northern parts of Gujerat.[176]Between Kelat, the Indus, and the sea, they are mixed with Brahúi.

The Biluchi is a dialect of the Persian—sufficiently close to be understood by a Persian proper.

There are no grounds for believing the Bilúch to have been other than the aborigines of the country which they occupy; as their advent lies beyond the historical period; beyond the pale of admissible tradition. We may, perhaps, be told that they came from Arabia; an origin which their Mahometanism, their division into tribes, and their manners, suggest; an origin, too, which their physiognomy by no means impugns. Yet the tradition is not only unsupported, but equivocal. TheArabiathat it refers to is, probably, the country of the ancientArabitæ; and that is neither more nor less than a part of the province of Mekran, within—or nearly within—the present Bilúch domain. Hence, they may beArabite, though notArabian; or rather the oldArabitæof theArabius fluviuswere Bilúch.

But the Arabs are not the only members of the Semitic family with which the Bilúch have been affiliated. A multiplicity of Jewish characteristics has been discerned. These are all the more visible from their contrast to the manners of the Hindús. Intermediate in appearance to the Hindú and the Persian, the Bilúch "cast of[177]feature is certainly Jewish;"[49]his tribual divisions are equally so; whilst the Levitical punishment of adultery by stoning, and the transmission of the widow of a deceased brother to the brothers who survive, have been duly recognized as Hebrew characteristics. We know what follows all this; as surely as smoke shows fire. Levitical peculiarities suggest the ubiquitous decad of the lost tribes of Israel. We shall soon hear of these again.

Tribes under chiefs—hereditary succession—pride of blood—clannish sentiments—feuds between tribe and tribe—the sacro-sanctity of revenge as a duty—the suspension of private wars when foreign foes threaten—greater rudeness amongst the mountains—comparative industry in the plains—the business of robbery tempered by the duties of hospitality—black mail, &c. All this is equally Bilúch, Arabian, and Highland Scotch; and it all shows the similarity of details which accompanies similarity of social institutions. Ethnological relationship it doesnotshow.

The wordBilúchis Persian. The bearer of the designation either calls himself by the name of his tribe, or else glorifies himself by the termUsulorPure. The tribes orkhoumsare numerous.[178]Sir H. Pottinger gives the names of no less than fifty-eight; without going into their subdivisions.

If, however, instead of details, we seek for classes of greater generality we find thatthreeprimary divisions comprise all the ramifications of the Bilúch. The first of these is theRind; the other two are theNihroand theMughsi. The daughter of a Rind may be given to a Rind as a wife; but to marry into a tribe of Nihro or Mughsi extraction is a degradation. Here the elements ofcasteintermix with those oftribeorclan.

Afghans.—Afghani-stanmeans the country of the Afghans, just asHindo-stanandBiluchi-stanmean that of the Hindús and Biluchi, respectively.

In India the Afghans are calledPatan.

Their language is calledPushtu. It is allied to the Persian—but less closely than the Bilúch.

Fully and accurately described in the admirable work of Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Afghans have long commanded the attention of the ethnologist; and all that has been said about the Judaism of the Biluchi has been said in respect to them also, though not by so good a writer as the one just quoted. No wonder. Their tribual organization, if not more peculiar in character, has been more minutely described; a[179]greater massiveness of frame and feature has been looked upon as eminently Judaic; and, lastly, an incorrect statement of Sir William Jones's, as to the Hebrew character of the Pushtu language, has added the authority of that respected scholar to the doctrine of the Semitic origin of the Afghans. Against this, however, stands the evidence of their peculiar and hitherto unplaced language. I sayunplaced, because the criticism that separates the modern dialects of Hindostan from the Sanskrit, disconnects the Pushtu and the old Persian. Nevertheless, it is anything but either Hebrew or Arabic.

Similarity of political constitution, and its attendant spirit of independence, have given a political importance to both the Bilúch and the Afghan. Each is but partially—very partially—British; and each became dependent upon Britain, not because they were the Afghans and Bilúch of their own rugged countries, but because they were part and parcel of certain territories in India. It was on the Indus that they were conquered; and it as Indians that they are British.

Four great patriarchs are the hypothetical progenitors of the four primary Afghan divisions—though it is uncertain whether any such quaternion be more of an historical reality than the four castes of Brahminism. Subordinate to these four heads is the division calledUlús(Ooloos).[180]

A minuter knowledge of the Afghan affiliations—real or supposed—is to be gained by premising thatkhailhas much the same meaning as the Bilúchkhoum, so that it denotes a division of population which we may callclan,tribe, orsept; whilst the affix -zye, meanssonsoroffspring. Hence,Eusof-zyeis equivalent to what an Arab would callBeni Yusuf; a Greek,Ioseph-idæ; or a Highland Gael,MacJoseph. All this is clear. When, however, we try to give precision to our nomenclature, and ask whether thekhailcontains a number of -zye, or the -zyea number ofkhails, difficulties begin. Sometimes the one, sometimes the other is the larger class. And akhailin one case may be divided into groups ending in -zye; in others, a group denoted by -zyemay contain two or morekhails. Each is agenericorspecificdesignation as the case may be.

However, to proceed to instances, the following groups of Afghans may be constituted.

1. Three sections—theAcco-zye, theMulle-zye, and theLawe-zye—are subdivisions of the—

2.Eusof.—The Eusof andMunderbeing branches of the—

3.Eusof-zye.—Now theEusof-zyeis one out of four divisions of the—

4.Khukkhi.—TheGuggiani,Turcolani, andMahomed-zye, being the other three.

5. Lastly, theKhukkhi, theOtman-khail, the[181]Khyberi, theBungush, theKhuttukand, probably, some others form theBerduraniAfghans.

But asBerduraniis a geographical, or political, rather than a tribual designation; as it is the name by which thenorth-eastern Afghans were known to the Moghuls; and as it is equivalent to such an expression asWesternorEastern Highlander, rather than to names so specific asCampbellorMacDonald, it may be excluded from the true Afghan affiliations.

With this deduction, however, the classification is sufficiently complex; besides which, it is, probably, much more systematic on paper than in reality. This, however, can only be indicated.

The valley of Peshawar is the valley of theGuggiani, andMahomed-zyeAfghans.

The parts round it belong to theEusof-zye, theOtman-khail, theTurcolani, theMomunds, and theKhyberiof the Khyber Range and Pass. These last fall into theAfridi, theShainwari, and theUruk-zye. Their country is chiefly to the north of the Salt Range.

The river Kúrúm gives us the two valleys of Dowr and Bunnú[50]—theBunnúchibeing as pre-eminently[182]a mixed, as the mountaineers around them—theVizeri—are a pure branch. These, and others, appear to belong to the greatKhuttukdivision.

Thesouth-eastern Afghans are calledLohani; and, as a proof of this designation being of the same geographico-political character asBerdurani, the Khuttuk Afghans are divided between the two sections; at least the particular Khuttuks calledMurwutiare mentioned as Lohani, though the Khuttuk class in general is placed in the Berdurani branch. The chief Lohani Afghans are theShiráninear the Tukt-i-Solimán mountain, and theStoriáni(Storeeanees,Oosteraunees) conterminous with the most northern of the Bilúch.

Of these the Búgti and Murri are the chief populations of the frontier; whilst theNútkani,Kúsrani,Lund,Lughari,Gurkhari,Mudari, and others, help to fill up the Muckelwand (or the parts immediately along the course of the Indus), and the Bilúch portions of Múltan.

The Brahúi.—The Brahúi, with whom it has been stated that the Bilúch are intermixed, are pastoral tribes, with a coarser physiognomy, and a stouter make than their neighbours. Their language also is different. A specimen of it may be found amongst the well-known and important vocabularies of Lieutenant Leach; and this forms the subject of a memoir of no less a scholar than[183]Lassen. Without placing it, he remarks that the numerals areSouth-Indian (or Tamulian) rather than aught else. He might have said more. The Brahúi is a remarkable and unexplained branch of the Tamul; but whether it be of late introduction or indigenous origin in the parts where it now occurs is uncertain. The mountains between Kutch Gundava and Mekran seem to form the area of the Brahúi; some eastern branches of which population I presume to be British, mixed with Bilúch.[51]

Ceylon.—The inhabitants of the northern part of Ceylon speak the Tamul language, and are Brahminists in creed. They are not, however, the true natives of the island. These latter use a Hindú tongue, called theSinghalese. Its philological relations are exactly those of the Mahratta, Bengali, and Udiya,—neither better nor worse defined, more or less unequivocal. Some make it out to be of Sanskrit, others of Tamulian origin. All that is certain is, that it is more Sanskritic than the proper Tamul, and more Tamul than the Bengali. It iswritten; and embodies a copious, but worthless literature, its alphabet being derived from that of the Pali language.[184]

This introduces a new characteristic. The Pali has the same relation to Buddhism, that the Sanskrit has to Brahminism. It is the language of the Scriptures, the priest, and the scholar, and, although, at the present moment, it is as little recognized as a holy tongue on the continent of India, as the Greek of the New Testament is at Rome, it divides with the Arabic and Latin, the honour of being the most widely-spread literary language of the world. All the forms of Buddhism in the transgangetic peninsula are embodied in Pali writings. So are those of the Mongols; and so, to a great extent, those of the Tibetans as well. This makes the language and the creed nearly co-extensive. In China, however, and Japan, where great changes have taken place, and where either the development, or the deterioration of Buddhism has gone far enough to abolish the more palpable characteristics of the original Indian doctrine, the Pali language is no longer the medium. Itisso, however, for the vast area already indicated.

In Buddhism, as opposed to Brahminism, there is a greater tenderness of animal life in general, whilst less respect is paid to the ox-tribe in particular. There is less also of the system of caste; and, in consequence of this, fewer of those elements of priestly influence, which originate in the ideas of the hereditary transmission of sacro-sanctitude.[185]Buddhism, too, has the credit of running further in the dream-land of subjective metaphysics than Brahminism,—though this, as far as my own very imperfect means of judging go, is doubtful. Into practical pantheism, and into the deification of human reason itdoesrun.

When self-contemplation has reached its highest degree of abstraction, the state ofNirwanais induced. This seems to mean the absorption of the spirit within itself; a condition which at once suggests adjectives likeimpassive,subjective,exalted, andsupra-sensual, or substantives liketranscendentalism,egoism, &c., and the like; in some cases with definite ideas to correspond with the term; oftener as mere meaningless words. Such, however, is the nomenclature which is requisite; a nomenclature to which I have recourse, not for the sake of illustrating my subject, but with the view of giving a practical notion of its indistinctness.

Buddha himself is a specimen and model of self-absorption, consummation, perfection, or exaltation rather than a deity, or even a prophet. He shows what purity can effect, rather than teaches what purity consists in. He may even have become what he was, by his own unaided powers of supra-sensual abstraction.

All this is but a series of negations, at least in the way of theology. But his spirit, after the[186]departure of his body from the earth,[52]became incarnate in the body of some successor—and so onad infinitum. This connects Buddhism with the doctrine of metempsychosis; a doctrine which the incarnations of Brahminism also suggest.

Such are some of the speculative points of Buddhism. Its morality has been greatly, and, perhaps, unduly extolled. So much contemplation can scarcely exist without the condemnation of the more palpable sins ofcommission. Hence, those vices which are the offspring of passion and ignorance are condemned; as is but natural. The suspension of exertion precludes active vice. Of the active virtues, however, the recognition is as slight as may be; so slight as to make it doubtful whether Buddhism be a better rule for the formation of good citizens than Brahminism. Which has been the most resistant to the influences of Christianity is doubtful.[53]

Just as the Anglo-Saxon language, although it originated in Germany, has survived and developed itself in Britain only, the Buddhist creed, once indigenous to the continent of Hindostan, is now found nowhere between the Himalayas and Cape Comorin; whilst beyond the pale[187]of India, it is as widely extended as the English language is beyond the limits of Germany. The rival religion of the Brahmins expelled it. Which of the two was the older is uncertain. Still more difficult is it to determine how far each is a separate substantive mythological growth, or merely a modification of the rival creed.

I lay but little stress upon the internal evidence derivable from the character of the religions themselves. Both are complicated and artificial—both, perhaps, equally so. In contrast, however, to the more speculative and transcendental points, suggestive of recent development, there are others indicative of great antiquity. Nevertheless, it is as difficult to affirm that the primitive parts of the one creed are older than the most primitive parts of the other, as it is to affirm that the highest transcendentalisms are more recent.

The fact of the oldest inscriptions being in the Pali dialect, is favourable to the greater antiquity of Buddhism, but it is not conclusive. The notion that Sanskrit itself is comparatively recent, of course subtracts from that of Brahminism. But this is far from being admitted. Besides which, it by no means follows, that because Brahminism is, comparatively speaking, recent, Buddhism must be ancient.

The best clue in this labyrinth of conflicting[188]opinions is the study of the superstitions of the ruder tribes of the hill-ranges of India itself, of the sub-Himalayas, and of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; the result of which investigation will be that that creed which has most points in common with the primitive and unmodified mythologies of the Tamulian stock, and of those branches of the monosyllabic populations nearest akin thereto, has also the best claim to be considered as the older.

In my own mind, I believe that theBedoof the Rajmahali mountaineers, is theBathoof the Bodo, thePennuof the Khonds, and thePotteangof the Kukis,[54]—name for name. I believe this without doubt or hesitation. But if I ask myself the import of this identity, the answer is unsatisfactory. There is doubt and hesitation in abundance.Bedo,Batho,Petto, andPotteang,mayrepresent the germ of what afterwards becameBuddh-ism. They may exhibit the Indian creed in itsrudiments. True. But they may also represent it in itsfragments, so thatBedoandBathomay be butBuddh, distorted in form, and but imperfectly comprehended in import. In our own Gospel, the name for the place of punishment, which the Greeks calledHades, and the Hebrews typified byGehenna, is the name of a Saxon goddessHela; and, in this particular instance,[189]a point of our original paganism has been taken up into our present Christianity. The same is the case with the Finnic nation, whereYumalasignifiesGod; Yumala being as truly heathen asJupiter. On the other hand we find amongst the genuine pagan Gallas of Africa, an object of respect or worship calledMiriam. What is this? No true piece of heathendom at all. Dr. Beke has given good reasons for believing that it means the Virgin Mother of the Saviour, the only extant member of the Christian Revelation now known to that once imperfectly Christianized community.

Buddhism, then, may claim a higher antiquity than Brahminism under the two following conditions.

1. That the namesBatho, &c., be really a form ofBuddh.

2. That they have belonged to superstitions in which they occur from the beginning; and are not in the same category with theMiriamof the Gallas,i.e., recent introductions from a wholly different religion—grafts rather than embryos.

How far this latter is the case must be ascertained by a wide and minute inquiry, foreign to the present work.

It is no wonder that, side by side with a semi-philosophical creed like Buddhism, we should have such a phenomenon as Devil-worship. When[190]the spirit falls short of its due degree of self-sustained hardihood, fear finds its way to the heart. The evil powers are then propitiated; sometimes in a manner savouring of dignity, sometimes with groveling and grotesque cowardice. The Yezid of Mesopotamia, whose belief in the power of an evil spirit is derived from the Manicheism of old, shows his fear of the arch-enemy by simple and not unreasonable acts of negation. He does nothing that may offend; never mentions his name; and dwells on his attributes as little as possible. The devil-worshipper of Ceylon uses such invocations as the following:—

Come, thousanguinary Devil, at the sixth hour. Come, thoufierce Devil, upon this stage, and accept the offerings made to thee!Theferocious Devilseems to be coming measuring the ground by the length of his feet, and giving warnings of his approach by throwing stones and sand round about. He looks upon the meat-offering which is kneaded with blood and boiled rice.He stands there and plays in the shade of the tree calledDemby. He removes the sickness of the person which he caused. He will accept the offerings prepared with blood, odour, and reddish boiled rice. Prepare these offerings in the shade of theDembytree.Make a female figure of theplanetswith a monkey's face, and its body the colour of gold. Offer four offerings in the four corners. In the left corner, place some blood, and for[191]victims a fowl and a goat. In the evening, place the scene representing the planets on the high ground.The face resembles a monkey's face, and the head is the colour of gold. The head is reddish, and the bunch of hair is black and tied. He holds blood in the left-hand, and rides on a bullock. After this manner make the sanguinary figure of the planets.II.O thou great devilMaha-Sohon, preserve these sick persons without delay!On the way, as he was going, by supernatural power he made a great noise. He fought with the form ofWessamoony, and wounded his head. The planetSaturnsaw a wolf in the midst of the forest, and broke his neck. TheWessamoonygave permission to the great devil calledMaha-Sohon.O thou great devilMaha-Sohon, take away these sicknesses by accepting the offerings made frequently to thee.—The qualities of this devil are these: he stretches his long chin, and opens wide his mouth like a cavern: he bears a spear in his right-hand, and grasps a great and strong elephant with his left-hand. He is watching and expecting to drink the blood of the elephant in the place where the two and three roads meet together.Influenced by supernatural power, he entered the body of the princess calledGodimbera. He caused her to be sick with severe trembling sickness. Come thou poor and powerless devilMaha-Sohonto fight with me, and leave the princess, if thou hast sufficient strength.On hearing these sayings, he left her, and made himself like a blue cloud, and violently covered his whole body with flames of fire. Furiously staring with his eyes, he said, "Art thou come, blockhead, to fight with me who was born in the world of men? I will take you by the legs, and dash you[192]upon the great rockMaha-meru, and quickly bring you to nothing."Thou wast born on Sunday, the first day of the month, and didst receive permission from theKing of Death, and didst brandish a sword like a plantain-leaf. Thou comest down at half-past seven, to accept the offerings made to thee.If the devilMaha-Sohoncause the chin-cough, leanness of the body, thirst, madness, and mad babblings, he will come down at half-past seven, and accept the offerings made to him.These are the marks of the devilMaha-Sohon: three marks on the head, one mark on the eye-brow and on the temple; three marks on the belly, a shining moon on the thigh, a lighted torch on the head, an offering and a flower on the breast. The chief god of the burying-place will say, May you live long!Make the figure of theplanetscalled the emblem of thegreat burying-place, as follows: a spear grasped by the right-hand, an elephant's figure in the left-hand, and in the act of drinking the blood of the elephant by bruising its proboscis.Tip the point of the spear in the hand with blood, pointed towards the elephant's face in the left-hand. These effigies and offerings take and offer in the burying-place,—discerning well the sickness by means of the devil-dancer.Make a figure of thewolfwith a large breast, full of hairs on the body, and with long teeth separated from each other. The effigy of theMaha-Sohonwas made formerly so.These are the sicknesses which the great devil causes by living among the tombs: chin-cough, itching of the body, disorders in the bowels; windy complaints, dropsy, leanness of the body, weakness and consumptions.He walks on high upon the lofty stones. He walks on the ground where three ways meet. Therefore go not in the roads by night: if you do so, you must not expect to escape with your life.[193]Make two figures of a goose, one on each side. Make a lion and a dog to stand at the left-leg, bearing four drinking-cups on four paws—and make a moon's image, and put it in the burying-place.Comb the hair, and tie up a large bunch with a black string. Put round the neck a cobra-capella, and dress him in the garments by making nine folds round the waist. He stands on a rock eating men's flesh. The persons that were possessed with devils are put in the burying-place.Put a corpse at the feet, taking out the intestines through the mouth. The principal thing for this country, and for the Singhalese, is the worship of the planets.[55]

Come, thousanguinary Devil, at the sixth hour. Come, thoufierce Devil, upon this stage, and accept the offerings made to thee!

Theferocious Devilseems to be coming measuring the ground by the length of his feet, and giving warnings of his approach by throwing stones and sand round about. He looks upon the meat-offering which is kneaded with blood and boiled rice.

He stands there and plays in the shade of the tree calledDemby. He removes the sickness of the person which he caused. He will accept the offerings prepared with blood, odour, and reddish boiled rice. Prepare these offerings in the shade of theDembytree.

Make a female figure of theplanetswith a monkey's face, and its body the colour of gold. Offer four offerings in the four corners. In the left corner, place some blood, and for[191]victims a fowl and a goat. In the evening, place the scene representing the planets on the high ground.

The face resembles a monkey's face, and the head is the colour of gold. The head is reddish, and the bunch of hair is black and tied. He holds blood in the left-hand, and rides on a bullock. After this manner make the sanguinary figure of the planets.

II.

O thou great devilMaha-Sohon, preserve these sick persons without delay!

On the way, as he was going, by supernatural power he made a great noise. He fought with the form ofWessamoony, and wounded his head. The planetSaturnsaw a wolf in the midst of the forest, and broke his neck. TheWessamoonygave permission to the great devil calledMaha-Sohon.

O thou great devilMaha-Sohon, take away these sicknesses by accepting the offerings made frequently to thee.—The qualities of this devil are these: he stretches his long chin, and opens wide his mouth like a cavern: he bears a spear in his right-hand, and grasps a great and strong elephant with his left-hand. He is watching and expecting to drink the blood of the elephant in the place where the two and three roads meet together.

Influenced by supernatural power, he entered the body of the princess calledGodimbera. He caused her to be sick with severe trembling sickness. Come thou poor and powerless devilMaha-Sohonto fight with me, and leave the princess, if thou hast sufficient strength.

On hearing these sayings, he left her, and made himself like a blue cloud, and violently covered his whole body with flames of fire. Furiously staring with his eyes, he said, "Art thou come, blockhead, to fight with me who was born in the world of men? I will take you by the legs, and dash you[192]upon the great rockMaha-meru, and quickly bring you to nothing."

Thou wast born on Sunday, the first day of the month, and didst receive permission from theKing of Death, and didst brandish a sword like a plantain-leaf. Thou comest down at half-past seven, to accept the offerings made to thee.

If the devilMaha-Sohoncause the chin-cough, leanness of the body, thirst, madness, and mad babblings, he will come down at half-past seven, and accept the offerings made to him.

These are the marks of the devilMaha-Sohon: three marks on the head, one mark on the eye-brow and on the temple; three marks on the belly, a shining moon on the thigh, a lighted torch on the head, an offering and a flower on the breast. The chief god of the burying-place will say, May you live long!

Make the figure of theplanetscalled the emblem of thegreat burying-place, as follows: a spear grasped by the right-hand, an elephant's figure in the left-hand, and in the act of drinking the blood of the elephant by bruising its proboscis.

Tip the point of the spear in the hand with blood, pointed towards the elephant's face in the left-hand. These effigies and offerings take and offer in the burying-place,—discerning well the sickness by means of the devil-dancer.

Make a figure of thewolfwith a large breast, full of hairs on the body, and with long teeth separated from each other. The effigy of theMaha-Sohonwas made formerly so.

These are the sicknesses which the great devil causes by living among the tombs: chin-cough, itching of the body, disorders in the bowels; windy complaints, dropsy, leanness of the body, weakness and consumptions.

He walks on high upon the lofty stones. He walks on the ground where three ways meet. Therefore go not in the roads by night: if you do so, you must not expect to escape with your life.[193]

Make two figures of a goose, one on each side. Make a lion and a dog to stand at the left-leg, bearing four drinking-cups on four paws—and make a moon's image, and put it in the burying-place.

Comb the hair, and tie up a large bunch with a black string. Put round the neck a cobra-capella, and dress him in the garments by making nine folds round the waist. He stands on a rock eating men's flesh. The persons that were possessed with devils are put in the burying-place.

Put a corpse at the feet, taking out the intestines through the mouth. The principal thing for this country, and for the Singhalese, is the worship of the planets.[55]

In the centre of the island is the kingdom of Kandy; naturally fortified by impervious forests, and long independent. This creates a variety; the Kandyans being somewhat ruder than the other Singhalese. It is not, however, an important one. The really important ethnology of Ceylon is that of theVaddahs, in the eastern districts, inland of Battacaloa. They are still unmodified by either the Hindú habits, or the great Indian creeds,—the true analogues of the Khonds, and Kóls, and Bhils, &c. Their language, however, is Singhalese; an important fact, since it denotes one of two phenomena,—either the antiquity of the conquest of Ceylon supposing the extension of the Singhalese language to have been gradual, or the thorough-going character of it, if it be recent.[194]

Who were thePadæiof the following extract from Herodotus?[56]—"Other Indians there are, who live east of these. They are nomads, eaters of raw flesh; and called Padæi. They are said to have the following customs. Whenever one of their countrymen is sick, whether man or woman, he is killed. The males kill the males, and amongst these the most intimate acquaintance kill their nearest friends; for they say that for a man to be wasted by disease is for their own meat to be spoilt. The man denies that he ails; but they, not letting him have his own way, kill and feast on him. If a female be sick, the women that are most intimate with her treat her as the males do the men. They sacrifice and feast upon all who arrive at old age. Few, however, go thus far, since they kill every one who falls sick before he reaches that stage of life."

Name for name, theVaddahsof Ceylon have a claim to bePadæi. Besides which they are Indian.

But, name for name, theBattas[57]of Sumatra have a claim as well; and although they are not exactly Indian, they are cannibals of the sort in question—or, at any rate, cannibals in a manner quite as remarkable.

This gives us a conflict of difficulties. The solution of them lies in the fact of neitherVaddah[195]norBattabeingnativenames; a fact which leaves us a liberty to suppose that thePadæiof Herodotus were simply some wild Indian tribe sufficiently allied in manners to theVaddahsof Ceylon, and theBattasof Sumatra, to be called by the same name, but without being necessarily either the one or the other; or even ethnologically connected with either.

Now look at thegipsiesof Great Britain. They are wanderers without fixed habitations; whilst, at the same time, they are more abundant in some parts of the island than others. They have no very definite occupation; yet they are oftener tinkers and tinmen than aught else equally legal. They intermarry with the English but little. All this iscaste, although we may not exactly call it so. Then, again, they have a peculiar language, although it is so imperfectly known to the majority of the British gipsies, as to have become well-nigh extinct.[58]These gipsies are of Indian origin, and a wandering tribe of Hindostan, called Sikligurs, reminded Mr. Pickering of the European gipsies more than any other Indians he fell in with. Like these, the Sikligurs arecoves, or tinkers.

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This, however, is by the way. Although it is as well to make a note of the Indian extraction of the English and other European gipsies, it is not for this reason that they have been mentioned. They find a place here for the sake of illustrating what is meant by thewandering tribes of India, whilst at the same time they throw a slight illustration over the nature ofcastes. Lastly, they are essentially parts of an ethnological investigation—ethnological rather than either social or political. Their characteristics are referable to a difference of descent; and they are tinkers, wanderers, poachers, and smugglers, not so much because they are either gipsies, or Indians, as because they are of a different stock from the English. They are foreigners in the fullest sense of the term; and they differ from their fellow-citizens just as the Jew does—though less advantageously.

Now India swarms with the analogues of the English gipsy; so much so as to make it likely that the latter is found as far from his original country as Wales and Norway, simply because he is a vagabond, not because he is an Indian.

Of the chief of the tribes in question a good account is given by Mr. Balfour. This list, however, which is as follows, may be enlarged.

1. TheGohurare, perhaps, better known under the name ofLumbarri, and better still as[197]theBrinjarri, the bullock-drivers of many parts of India, but more especially of the Dekhan. They are corn-merchants as well. Their organization consists of divisions calledTandas, at the head of which is aNaek. Two Naeks paramount over the rest, reside permanently at Hyderabad, on the confines of the Mahratta and Telugu countries. The bullock,Hatadia, devoted to the GodBalajee, is an object of worship. In a long line of Brinjarri met by Mr. Pickering,[59]one of the females was carrying a dog, which neither a Hindú nor a Parsi would have done. Many of them are Sikhs. There are, certainly, three divisions of the Gohuri—the Chouhane,[60]the Rhatore, and the Powar, and probably—

The Purmansare another branch of them; consisting of about seventy-five families of agriculturists on the Bombay islets.

2.The Bhowri, called alsoHirn-shikarriandHern-pardi, though Bhowri is the native name, are hunters. They also fall into subordinate divisions.

3.The Tarremúki; so-called by themselves, but known in the Dekhan asGhissaris, orBail-Kumbar, and amongst the Mahrattas, asLohars, are blacksmiths.[198]

4.The Korawi, fall in tribes which neither eat with each other, nor intermarry,viz.:—

a.The Bajantri, who are musicians.

b.The Teling—basket-makers and prostitutes.

c.The Kolla.

d.The Soli.

5.The Bhattu,Dummur, orKollati, are exorcists and exhibitors of feats of strength.

6.The Muddikpur, so called by themselves, though known under several other names, follow a variety of employments; some being ferrymen.

All these tribes wander about the country without any permanent home, speak a peculiar dialect with a considerable proportion of Non-Sanskritic words, and preserve certain peculiarities of creed; though in different degrees—the Muddikpur being wholly or nearly pagan, the Tarremúki Brahminic.

The wandering life of these, and other similar tribes is not, by itself, sufficient to justify us in separating them from the other Hindús. But it does not stand alone. The fragments of an earlier paganism, and the fragments of an earlier language are phenomena which must be taken in conjunction with it. These suggest the likelihood of the Gohuri, the Bhatti, and their like, being in the same category with the Khonds and Bhils, &c.,i.e., representatives of the earlier and more exclusively Tamulian populations. If the gipsy language of England had, instead of its Indian[199]elements, an equal number of words from the original British, it would present the same phenomena, and lead to the same inference as that which is drawn from the Bhatti, Bhowri, Tarremúki, and Gohuri vocabularies,[61]viz.: the doctrine that fragments of the original population are to be sought for amongst the wanderers over the face of the country, as well as among the occupants of its mountain strongholds.

In a country like India, where differences of habit, business, extraction, and creed, are accompanied by an inordinate amount of separation between different sections and subsections of its population, and where slight barriers of diverse kinds prevent intermixture, the different sects of its numerous religions requires notice. This, however, may be short. As sectarianism is generally in the direct ratio to the complexity of the creed submitted to section, we may expect to find the forms of Brahminism and Buddhism, not less numerous than those of either Christianity or Mahometanism. And such is really the case. The sects are too numerous to enlarge upon. The Sikh creed has been noticed from its political importance. That of the Jains is also remarkable, since it most closely resembles Buddhism, without being absolutely[200]Buddhist in the current sense of the word. It is, possibly, the actual and original Buddhism of the continent of India—supposed to have been driven out bodily by Brahminism, but really with the true vitality of persecuted creeds, still surviving in disguise. Again, in India, though in a less degree than in China, Philosophy replaces belief—so much so, that the different forms of one negation—Natural Religion—must be classed amongst the creeds of Hindostan; by the side of which there stand many kinds of simple philosophy; just as was the case in ancient Greece, where, in one and the same city, there were the philosophers of the Academy and the believers in Zeus.

There is, then, creed within creed in the two great religions of India—to say nothing about the numerous fragments of modified and unmodified paganism.

And besides these there are the following introduced religions—each coinciding, more or less, with some ethnological division.

1. Christianity from, at least, four different sources—

a.That of the Christians of Thomas on the Malabar Coast. Here the doctrine is that of the Syrian Church, and the population beingperhaps(?) Persian in origin.

b.The Romanism of the French and Portuguese;[201]the latter having its greatest development in the Mahratta country, about Goa.

c.Dutch and Danish Protestantism.

d.English and American Protestantism. To which add small infusions of the Armenian and Abyssinian churches.

Of these it is only the Christians of St. Thomas that are of much ethnological importance.

2. Judaism on the coast of Malabar; or the Judaism of the so-calledBlack Jews.

3. Parseeism in Gujerat; of Persian origin, and, probably, nearly confined to individuals of Persian blood.

4. Mahometanism.

Of foreign blood there are numerous infusions.

1.Arab.—On the western coast, more especially amongst the Moplahs of the neighbourhood of Goa; where the stock seems to be Arabian on the father's, and Indian on the mother's side.

2.Persian.—Amongst the Parsees and Saint Thomas Christians (?); and, far more unequivocally, and in greater proportions, amongst theMoghulfamilies—these being always more or less Persian; but Persian with such heterogeneous intermixtures of Turk and Mongol blood besides as to make analysis almost impossible.

3.Afghan.—The Rohillas of Rohilcund are Afghan in origin; so are the Patani—indeed, the[202]termPatanmeans an Afghan of Hindostan wherever he may be.

4.Jewish.

5, 6, 7.—Chinese,Malay,Burmese, &c.

8.European.

Of theIndians out of India, by far the most are—

1. TheGipsies.

2. TheBanians, who are the Hindú traders of Arabia, Persia, Cashmir, and other parts of the East.

3. TheHill Coolies, individuals of the Khond and Kúli class, upon whom England is trying the experiment of what may end in a revival of the old crimping system, as a substitute for slave-labour in our intertropical colonies.

Such is a sketch of the ethnology of India; pre-eminently complex, but not pre-eminently mysterious; its chief problems being—

1. The general ethnological relations of the Tamulian stock.

2. Those of the intrusive Brahminical Hindús.

3. The relation of the intrusive population to the aboriginal.[62]

FOOTNOTES:[41]"Transactions of Philological Society," No. 94.[42]Latinnurus, fromsnurus.[43]Latinsocer, Greekἕκυρος.[44]Latinsocrus, Greekἕκυρα.[45]Latinlevir(devir), Greekδαηρ.[46]Orthat,this.[47]The full exposition of this doctrine is in the present writer's ethnological edition of the "Germania" of Tacitus; v.Æstyi.[48]Taken from the Appendix to Captain Cunningham's "History of the Sikhs."[49]Captain Postans, in "Transactions of Ethnological Society," who, along with Sir H. Pottinger, is my chief authority.[50]For a description of these parts see Major Edwardes' "Year on the Punjâb Frontier."[51]The best account of the Brahúi is to be found in Sir H. Pottinger's Travels.[52]In the sixth century,B.C.according to the Buddhist chronology.[53]Such, at least, is the opinion of the author of "Christianity in Ceylon," Sir E. Tennent.[54]Names explained in Chapter iii.[55]From Callaway's "Translation of theKolán Nattannawa."[56]Book iii. §. 99.[57]The same, probably, is the case with theBidiof Java.[58]From this language, I imagine that the three following words have come into the English—two of them being slang and one a sporting term—rum,cove,jockey.[59]"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," No. 145.[60]These names introduce a difficulty: They areRajpútas well.[61]All of which may be found in the paper already quoted; and all of which contain numerous Tamul roots.[62]Since this was written Major-General Briggs' valuable paper on theAboriginal Tribes of India, has been published in "Transactions of the British Association," &c., for 1851. Having been seen in MS. by the present writer it has been freely used.

[41]"Transactions of Philological Society," No. 94.

[42]Latinnurus, fromsnurus.

[43]Latinsocer, Greekἕκυρος.

[44]Latinsocrus, Greekἕκυρα.

[45]Latinlevir(devir), Greekδαηρ.

[46]Orthat,this.

[47]The full exposition of this doctrine is in the present writer's ethnological edition of the "Germania" of Tacitus; v.Æstyi.

[48]Taken from the Appendix to Captain Cunningham's "History of the Sikhs."

[49]Captain Postans, in "Transactions of Ethnological Society," who, along with Sir H. Pottinger, is my chief authority.

[50]For a description of these parts see Major Edwardes' "Year on the Punjâb Frontier."

[51]The best account of the Brahúi is to be found in Sir H. Pottinger's Travels.

[52]In the sixth century,B.C.according to the Buddhist chronology.

[53]Such, at least, is the opinion of the author of "Christianity in Ceylon," Sir E. Tennent.

[54]Names explained in Chapter iii.

[55]From Callaway's "Translation of theKolán Nattannawa."

[56]Book iii. §. 99.

[57]The same, probably, is the case with theBidiof Java.

[58]From this language, I imagine that the three following words have come into the English—two of them being slang and one a sporting term—rum,cove,jockey.

[59]"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," No. 145.

[60]These names introduce a difficulty: They areRajpútas well.

[61]All of which may be found in the paper already quoted; and all of which contain numerous Tamul roots.

[62]Since this was written Major-General Briggs' valuable paper on theAboriginal Tribes of India, has been published in "Transactions of the British Association," &c., for 1851. Having been seen in MS. by the present writer it has been freely used.

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