ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 9 



Col. Seely expressed his interest in the illustrations given by 

 Mr. Holmes of research into the state of an art of which none of 

 the products exist. Though absolutely extinct their vestiges remain 

 in other arts ; and to those able to read the record written in these 

 vestiges they reveal facts as interesting as they are well ascertained. 

 It takes the trained eye and skillful hand of an artist, supplemented 

 by technical knowledge, to unravel these records. Without inti- 

 mate acquaintance with the textile art and the structure of different 

 fabrics, the impressions found by Mr. Holmes were hopelessly illeg- 

 ible. This indicates the true method of research into primitive 

 arts, and there should be more of it. 



Mr. Jaivies A. Blodgett, Special Agent of the U. S. Census, 

 read a paper on" The Census of Bengal." 



ABSTRACT. 



The first attempt at a general censusof British India was in 1871-2 

 and showed the population to be about 238,000,000. 



The report for the census of Bengal in 1881 has been lately re- 

 ceived in this country. It includes the northeast part of India north 

 of the 2oth parallel of latitude and west nearly to Benares. Here 

 in an area of less than 200,000 square miles, a little above the joint 

 area of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, is concentrated a popu- 

 lation of some 70,000,000 or two-fifths greater than that of the 

 whole United States. 



The authorities took no account of resources or of any but per- 

 sonal items. The preliminary arrangements were so completely ad- 

 justed as to take on a single night not only the fixed population 

 but generally all travelers and all vagrants. 



Almost two-thirds of the people are Hindoos, nearly one-third 

 Mohammedans, about 158,000 Buddhists, and 128,000 Christians. 

 The enumerated members of the Brahmo Somaj, the reform sect 

 represented by the learned Hindoo who spoke in Washington a 

 few weeks ago, were under 1,000, chiefly in the city of Calcutta. 



Child marrriages prevail to a considerable extent, the ceremony in 

 a considerable per cent, of cases occurring before the tenth year of 

 age. Although the parties may not at once live together, the death 

 of one after the ceremony leaves the other legally widowed. 

 Hindoo widowers marry again, but Hindoo widows do not. The 

 ratio of child marriage is lowest among the Buddhists. 



