two, the lower part of the vessels exhibited the same general form as the others did the deviation from the type took place in the upper part, where a sudden change in the curvature of the surface caused a cusp in the outline. The result no doubt was graceful, and a step in advance of the art, which produced the other, (as he thought) older form. It occurred to him that it might have been brought about something as follows: Experience taught the potter that his work would be materially facilitated, if he formed his vessel in two pieces, and afterwards united them. But in adopting this practice, which prevails almost universally in this neighbourhood, the potter still tried his best to keep to the original outwardly convex curvature. Then it was discovered by some innovator that the making of the vessel in two pieces afforded an excellent opportunity for giving variety to the form, and hence came the abrupt alteration of curvature exhibited in the two figures in question. He thought that even these forms, if his memory did not mislead him, might be paralleled in the bazars of this town. The three little feet, which appeared in some of the figures attached to the hemispherical surface of the vessel, to render it capable of standing, was a contrivance common enough now. It was remarkable that not one of the vessels figured had a base other than the trivet referred to, and in this respect they corresponded closely with the vessels in common use among the people at the present time.

Rev. J. Long asked if it was known what term or name the people applied to these Cromlechs, and whether this name was a word belonging to the language now in use there, or was a word only traditionally known. The value of Etymological research in cases where history was silent, was immense, and becoming daily more acknowledged. It would be desirable to know whether these words were applied indiscriminately to all such structures, or only to those of a peculiar type.

The President said the communications now before the Society gave no information on these points, but he would endeavour to obtain answers to Mr. Long's valuable suggestions and queries.

Read also a despatch from the Secretary of State for India on subjects of Architectural and Artistic interest in India.

India Office, London, the 28th May, 1868.

To His Excellency the Right Hon'ble the Governor-General of India in Council.

SIR,-I forward herewith, with reference to previous correspondence, copy of a letter from the Lords of the Committee of the Council of Education, and desire that your Excellency in Council will issue instructions for a compliance, without any undue interference with their more important duties, with the wish of their Lordships for more detailed information respecting objects of Architectural and Artistic interest in India.

(Sd.) STAFFORD H. NORTHCOTE,

Dated 12th May, 1868.

From H. COLE, Esq., Science and Art Department, to the UnderSecretary of State for India.

'I am directed by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education to thank you for your letter of the 1st instant, enclosing a copy of a Despatch from the Government of India, with a list of the objects of Architectural and Artistic interest in the Mysore Territory.' "Their Lordships are of opinion that it would add to the value of such lists if, in future, some further details could be given.'

'It would be desirable to state, as respects each building, what is the style and date, its materials of construction, its present use, whether or not it is decorated by sculpture or colored decoration, and its present condition.'

'I am, therefore, to request that you will move Sir Stafford Northcote to direct that all the information that may be possible, may be given under the above heads in any future list which may be transmitted from India.'

The President stated that the Council wished this Despatch and its enclosure to be made known to the Society at large, in order that any individual member who might be able or desirous of contributing further information on the points referred to, might be aware of the kind and the extent of detail asked for by the Department of Science and Art.

* Dated 12th May, 1868.

The following papers, the reading of which had been postponed at the last Meeting, were read :—

I. Notes on the Kheriahs, an aboriginal race living in the hill tracts of Mánbhúm, by V. BALL ESQ., B. A.

In the special Ethnological number* of the Society's journal, Colonel Dalton gives an account of the Kheriahs. He says that they are most nearly allied to the Juangas or Putoons, both forming branches of the Moondah family.† They are quite distinct from the Korewahs, another branch of the same family. A few colonies of this last mentioned race are, I believe, to be found in Mánbhúm.

The position of the Kheriahs having thus been established on the best authority, it is unnecessary for me to allude to it further; my simple object being, in connection with my note on the stone implements of Singhbhúm, to draw attention to a race who owe to their Arian conquerors what little traces of civilization are observable amongst them. I have had singular opportunities of seeing the Kheriahs in their homes, in the recesses of the jungle, where they live shut out and hidden from the surrounding world.

If we are disposed to regard these people as savages, their Sonthal and Bhumij neighbours do not treat them much better, ban mánus being a term commonly applied to them.

The Kheriahs shew a marked dislike for civilization, constantly leaving places where they have any reason for supposing that they are overlooked.

Their houses, generally not more than two or three together, are situated on the sides or tops of the highest hills: they stand in small clearances; a wretched crop of bajera being sown between the fallen and charred trunks of trees.

Close to the south boundary of Mánbhúm, there are a succession of hill ranges, of which Dulma (3047ft.), the rival of Parisnath, is the

* Page 155.

In Vol. XI., p. 203 of the Journal, Lieut. Tickell described a race called Bendkars of Keonjur. They did not know of any relationship existing between themselves and the Kheriahs, but they are, in many respects, a similar race, living in the same kind of houses, on hill tops, and deriving their principal subsistence from the same roots and fruits.

highest point. On this hill I saw three or four neat little Kheriah cottages made of wattled bamboo, which, together with the small standing crop, had, for no apparent reason, been deserted. Further west, just outside the boundary of Mánbhúm on a plateau formed of trap, where there was a good water supply, the small Kheriah villages had assumed a somewhat permanent appearance. Occasionally Kheriah cottages are to be seen on the outskirts of villages; but this is a departure from what is one of the most characteristic customs of the race.

Besides the Kheriahs, there is another race called Pahareas, of somewhat similar habits, living on Dulma hill range. One of them told me that his race were superior to the Kheriahs, with whom they could neither eat nor drink. One of the chief distinctions between them appeared to be that the Kheriahs do not eat the flesh of sheep, and may not even use a woollen rug. It would be exceedingly interesting, if this custom could be traced to its origin; I do not remember to have seen it stated of any other race. In her respects the Kheriahs are not over-fastidious feeders. Both races eat cattle that have been killed by wild animals, and very possibly too, those that have died from disease.

The first Kheriahs I met with were encamped in the jungle at the foot of some hills. The hut was rudely made of a few sál branches, its occupants being one man, an old and two young women, besides three or four children. At the time of my visit, they were taking their morning meal, and as they regarded my presence with the utmost indifference, without even turning round or ceasing from their occupations, I remained for some time watching them. They had evidently recently captured some small animal, but what it was, as they had eaten the skin before, I could not ascertain. As I looked on, the old women distributed to the others, on plates of sál leaves, what appeared to be the entrails of the animal, and wrapping up her own portion between a couple of leaves, threw it on the fire, in order to give it a very primitive cooking.

With regard to their ordinary food, the Kheriahs chiefly depend upon the jungle for a supply of fruits, leaves, and roots. I got them to collect for me specimens of the principal species they used; but as I found that, with few exceptions, they were included in the list of

edible plants which I described to the Society on a previous occasion,* I do not repeat them here.

Besides these, however, the Kheriahs eat rice, which they obtain in the villages in exchange for several jungle products, such as honey, lac dhona (from the sál), tusser cocoons, sál leaves, and bundles of bamboo slips called khúrki, wherewith the leaves are stitched into plates.

That the rice which they thus obtain in exchange, though small, is an important element in their daily food seems apparent from the fact that a large number of them are said to have died in the famine. I can only explain this by supposing that they lost heart on being deprived of what had been a regular source of supply, and failed to exert themselves in the collection of an extra quantity of roots. An explanation somewhat similar to this was given to me by a Sonthal who said, speaking of his own race, that those who underwent the labour of searching the jungles escaped, while those who sat in their houses wishing for better times, as a matter of course, died.

The roots which they obtain in the jungle are dug up with considerable labour from the rocky ground, by means of an instrument called kúnthi. It consists of an iron spike, firmly fixed in a wooden handle. The point of this, as it is natural it should, frequently becomes blunted; to avoid the necessity of taking it to be sharpened perhaps half a dozen miles to the nearest kumar, the Kheriahs have invented for themselves a forge, the blast for which is produced by a pair of bellows of the most primitive construction. They consist of a pair of conical caps about eighteen inches high, which are made of leaves stitched together with grass; these are firmly fixed down upon hollows in the ground whence a pair of bamboo tuyers convey the blast produced by alternate and sudden elevations and depressions of the caps to a heap of ignited charcoal; in this the iron spikes are heated until they become sufficiently soft to be hammered to a point by a stone used as a hammer on a stone anvil.

The Kheriahs never make iron themselves, but are altogether dependent on the neighbouring bazars for their supplies. It is to this point that I wish more particularly to draw attention. Had they at any period possessed a knowledge of the art of making iron, con

*J. A. S. B. 1867, Part II., No. II. p. 73.