PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 595 



interest only as affecting men and influencing their lives. Human 

 actions are the perennially interesting things; and obviously, 

 among human actions, those certain to be most discussed are those 

 which diverge most from the ordinary the victories of the cou- 

 rageous man, the feats of the strong man, the manoeuvres of the 

 cunning man. Thus in the first stages, merely from lack of other 

 exciting matter, there goes, after the narratives of individual suc- 

 cesses in the day's hunt or the day's fight, a frequent return to 

 the always-interesting account of the great chief's exploits, his 

 ordinary doings, his strong sayings. Gradually the description 

 and laudation of his achievements grows into a more or less 

 coherent narrative of his life's incidents an incipient biography. 

 As a reason, too, why biography of this simple kind becomes an 

 early mental product, let us note that it is the simplest the 

 easiest both to speaker and hearer. To tell of deeds and dangers 

 and escapes requires the smallest intellectual power ; and the 

 things told are, fully or partially, comprehensible by the lowest 

 intelligence. Every child proves this. The frequent request for 

 a story shows at once the innate liking for accounts of adven- 

 tures, and the small tax on the mind involved by conceptions of 

 adventures. And it needs but to note how the village crone, men- 

 tally feeble as she may be, is nevertheless full of tales about the 

 squire and his family, to see that mere narrative biography (I do 

 not speak of analytical biography) requires no appreciable effort 

 of thought, and for this second reason early takes shape. 



Of course, as above said, biography of a coherent kind, arising 

 among peoples who have evolved permanent chiefs and kings, 

 grows gradually out of accounts of those special incidents in their 

 lives which the priest-poets celebrate. Let us gather together a 

 few facts illustrative of this development. 



Its earlier stages, occurring as they do before written records 

 exist, can not be definitely traced can only be inferred from the 

 fragmentary evidence furnished by those uncivilized men who 

 have made some progress. The wild tribes of the Indian hills 

 yield a few examples. Says Malcolm, " The Bhat is both the bard 

 and the chronicler of the Bhils." He also states that certain lands 

 of the Bhils were taken by the Rajpoots, and that 

 '' Almost all the revered Bhats, or Minstrels, of the tribe, still reside in 

 Rajpootana, whence they make annual, biennial, and some only triennial 

 visits to the Southern tribes, to register remarkable events in families, par- 

 ticularly those connected with their marriages, and to sing to the delighted 

 Bheels the tale of their origin, and the fame of their forefathers." 

 So, too, concerning another tribe we read, in Hislop : 



" The Pdddl, also named Pathadi, Pardhan, and Desai, is a numerous 

 class, found in the same localities as the Raj Gonds, to whom its members 

 act as religious counselors (Pradhana). They are, in fact, the bhats of the 



