OF NORTHEASTERN BENGAL. 99 



of September ; the only other crop, thiit of rice, about New 

 Year's time. The crops depend on the rain ; if this conies 

 not, want attacks this improvident people, and should a 

 drought follow the next year, there is a famine. Although 

 the land is poor, it is not without beauty; the forest-cov- 

 ered mountain slopes, the deep ravines and rushing tor- 

 rents give each locality much attraction to those who love 

 grand wild Nature. There is not a little forest richness, 

 dense thickets, and magnificent semitropical vegetation; 

 there is a multitude of noisy, many-colored birds, and many 

 songsters. Wild animals in abundance dwell in the thick- 

 ets, and the tiger is a terror to both man and beast. The 

 tree- change their leaves twice a year, after the rainy sea- 

 son, and before the hot one, or in September and March. 



The Santhals once had a far higher culture than at pres- 

 ent ; this can be traced in their language, which is uncom- 

 monly well developed, rich both in words and in forms. 

 Their many old fables and songs indicate manners and 

 customs and wise sayings, transmitted orally from gener- 

 ation to generation, pointing both to a language and occu- 

 pation of the country before the Aryan invasion. 



The religion of the Santhals, like that of all rude peoples, 

 was a species of pantheism, afterward modified by the ten- 

 ets of Buddhism, Brahmanism, Mohammedanism, and, 

 during the last century, of Christianity. According to 

 their most widely-spread tradition, Thakur, the almighty, 

 omnisoient, all-seeing, and all good God, who dwells in 

 Heaven, above the stars, is the creator of all good and bad 

 men, and of devils. At his command the earth came out 

 from the waters, and became the abode of animals which 

 he formed from it. At last he made from two clods of 

 earth the first pair, the man Iladow and the woman Aio, 

 whom he made living: by blowing into their nostrils. They 

 lived for a time in happy innocence, and were not ashamed 



