100 AJdress. [Feb, 



formation about tliis wandeinng tribe of potters wlio originally came from 

 Guzerat. Mr. F Fawcett describes a curious custom obtaining among the 

 Berulu Kodos, a subsect of the Morasu Vokaligaru, of the Mysore Pro- 

 vince, consisting in a symbolical deformation of the right hands of women, 

 in place of the actual amputation of the last phalanges of the third and 

 fourth fingers of the right hand, formerly in vogue, of which and the 

 attendant ceremonies, a full account is given. Until this ceremony has 

 been performed the women are not considered marriageable. The same 

 author contributes a paper on a mode of obsession, which deals with the 

 belief in a part of Bangalore, in the possession of women by the spirits 

 of drowned persons, and another on a custom followed by the Mysore 

 " Gollavalu," shepherd-caste people, of absolutely isolating a parturient 

 woman in a hut by herself for three months. Babu. Kedarnath Basu gives 

 an account of the minor Vaishnava sects of Bengal. Mr. H. A. Acworth, 

 B. C. S., has recently read a paper on the worship of the Tulsi plant, 

 Ocymum sanctum, the sacred basil. 



The Indian Antiquary contains papei^s on Folklore in Southern and 

 Western India and Burma, already referred to ; also notes on social 

 CListoms connected with Pregnancy in Bombay ; Death, in Bombay and 

 Kashmir, and with Parturition in Madras. 



The Taprohanian contains a paper, by Mr. H. Nevill, on Sinhalese 

 Folklore, Nursery rhymes and sayings. 



In the Journal of the Anthropological Institute Mr. Arthur Thomson 

 has a valuable paper on the osteology of the Veddahs of Ceylon, tending 

 to show that if the Veddahs be not of the same stock as the so-called 

 aborigines of Southern India, they, at least, present very strong points of 

 resemblance, both as regards stature, proportion of limbs, cranial capa- 

 city and form of skull. If physical features alone be taken into account, 

 their affinities with the hill-tribes of the Nilgiris and the natives of the 

 Coromandel Coast and of the country near Cape Comorin are fairly well 

 established. Mr. E. H. Man gives a brief account of the Nicobar Is- 

 landers and their inhabitants, with evidence for their affinity to the 

 Malays and Burmese. The paper is illustrated with plates. In another 

 very interesting paper, Mr. Man describes the funeral rites and cere- 

 monies of these islanders. 



Sir Lepel Griffin has given an account of the Bhils of Central India 

 in the Asiatic Quarterly Review. 



The Revue d' Anthropologie contains the continuation of an interest- 

 ing paper, by Dr. Seeland, on Kashgaria and the Passes of the 

 Tian Shan, in which he shows that the ethnic type of the Kash- 

 garians is clearly that of a deteriorated mixed race, in which the original 

 Aryan or Turkish character has been nearly obliterated by repeated 

 admixture with different Mongol races. 



