1864, | Science in Asia. 711 
assigned, but it is probable that the Government will shortly provide 
one. 
Hindi ignorance is an obstacle to many investigations. We cannot 
but rejoice to see so many native contributors to the proceedings of 
the Asiatic Society, and hope that much enlightenment may gradually 
spread amid all classes. Old religious prejudices are breaking down ; 
the Suttee has disappeared. It appears that Juggernaut does not so 
readily procure victims as formerly, and it is actually proposed to 
check the possibility of this sacrifice of human life. But further than 
this, female education is gradually engaging the serious and earnest 
attention of the liberal-minded and influential circles of the Hindi 
community of Bengal. A Hindi gentleman, Baboo Gunja Gopal 
Chatterjee, has opened an entirely free school for girls on the western 
bank of the Hooghly. About forty attend, many of Brahminical 
caste. In the Madras presidency a more extensive movement has 
taken place—nothing short of a complete reformation—including the 
endeavour to promote female education, to discourage polygamy, and 
to encourage the re-marriage of widows. The religious views of the 
promoters of this movement are monotheistic, and all sectarian tenden- 
cies are discarded. But as a set-off against these advances in the 
way of education, we must record an instance of extreme bigotry on 
the part of some Mahometans in this same presidency. Two officers 
who attempted to visit the famous tombs of Golconda were vigorously 
abused and then pelted. From this attack of three or four hundred 
men they effectually defended themselves with whips, but when their 
assailants had been reinforced by some hundreds of villagers they 
seriously maltreated the officers, who escaped violence indeed, but who 
had to return without visiting the tombs. 
The ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ for the present 
year opens with a paper on “The History of the Burmah Race,” by 
the Chief Commissioner of British Burmah, Lieutenant-Colonel A. P. 
Phayre, C.B. This gentleman has collected his information from a 
copy of the chronicles of the Kings of Burmah, entitled ‘Maha Radza 
Weng,’ presented to him by the reigning monarch, a man of some 
learning, who has caused a new edition of these annals to be compiled 
under his own immediate direction. 
The conclusions arrived at by Lieutenant-Colonel Phayre from 
these accounts are in the main in agreement with the theory of 
Prichard, displayed in his ‘Natural History of Man,’ viz. that the 
Burmese race, in common with the peoples to the north and west of 
them, have descended from the high land of central Asia by the 
courses of the great rivers, and have thus overspread the low lands. 
Three tribes, the Burmese, the Karens, and the Mon, seem to have 
found their way southward along the courses of the Salween and 
Meenam; the first and last of these reached at an early period the 
upper part of the valley of the Irrawaddy ; the Karens remained till 
of late in the mountains, but have now penetrated into the same valley, 
and have pushed onwards along the mountains of the sea coast. The 
traditions of migrations from India are supposed to have been invented 
after their conversion to Budhism by missionaries from Gangetic India, 
