30 General Meetings for January and February, 1903. [Jan. & Feb. 



the ground below the bed. There are holes, which, appear to be those of 

 a bullet or arrow on the right temple and at the left side of the back of 

 the skull. 



Lying near the bed is the skeleton of a large dog which the people 

 say was tied to the bed or charpoy by a string when first observed. 

 Between the bed and the back of the recess are a few bones. The bed 

 is firmly made of rounded wood ( including the frame ) and is still in 

 good condition. Lieutenant Macleod seated himself on it when explor- 

 ing the cave. Over the ribs and head of the corpse was a coarse cloth, 

 thin, and of a dirty yellow colour. 



The natives point to another place about 20 yards away and say 

 that there is another vault there in which women's skeletons are to be 

 found. No one living appears to have ever entered the second cave, 

 if it exists as alleged. 



The natives hold the place in considerable awe and have a theory 

 that the place was the scene of a fight. The whole vault was extra- 

 ordinarily symmetrical. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Note on the occurrence of Motacilla Taivana (Swinhoe) near Cal- 

 cutta.— By Captain H. J. Walton, I.M.S. 



2. GayoZ Qraddha and Gayawals.—By L. S. S. O'Malley, I.C.S. 

 Communicated by the Anthropological Secretary, 



(Abstract). 



The Gaya District, says Mr. O'Malley, is remarkable for the diver- 

 sity of religious beliefs found there. It is the cradle of Buddhism and 

 still attracts devout pilgrims from distant countries. The real working 

 religion of the great majority of the inhabitants is the propitiation 

 of devils, while Gaya itself is the place to which all pious Hindus resort 

 whose ancestors require deliverance from the condition of evil spirits 

 by means of the Gaya QroZddha. The popularity of this Craddha seems 

 to date from comparatively recent times. The Gayawal Brahmanas who 

 conduct the ceremony profess to be of the Vaisnava sect, but the most 

 prominent place in the invocations offered, is taken by Yama, the God 

 of death, whose presentation in the local legends is very far removed 

 from the conception given in the Vedas, and is more that of the popular 

 devil. The ceremony performed, moreover, affords clear traces of the 

 propitiation and worship of ancestors, and of the primitive conception 

 of roaming spirits. These circumstances and the fact that the Dha- 

 mis, whose Brahmanical origin is doubtful, take the offerings at certain 

 points, all go to show that the popular demonolatry of the district has 



