lOO 



NA TURE 



[November 26, 1908 



THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF ASSAM. 



THE new volumes of the ethnographical series 

 issued by the Government of Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam, in continuation of Major Gurdon's excellent 

 monograph on the Khasis, are devoted to an account 

 of the Mikirs and the Meitheis. These manuals are 

 in pleasing contrast in appearance to ordinary Anglo- 

 Indian ethnological publications. Printed in England, 

 the format is all that could be desired, and they are 

 fully equipped with excellent half-colour illustrations, 

 photographs, and maps. It is to be hoped that the 

 success of this series will encourage the Central Pro- 

 vinces authorities to issue similar accounts of the 

 Gonds and their kinsfolk, and the Madras Govern- 

 ment to arrange for the issue of Mr. Thurston's Bul- 

 letins in less inartistic form. 



The volumes now before us illustrate the varying 

 condition of the savage or semi-savage tribes on 

 the eastern frontier. The account of the Mikirs, based 



on materials 

 collected by the 

 late Mr. E. 

 Stack, and 

 largely supple- 

 mented by the 

 editor, Sir C. 

 Lyall, describes 

 a race which 

 lias been little 

 affected by civi- 

 lisation. The 

 monograph on 

 the Meitheis of 

 Manipur, pre- 

 pared by Mr. 

 T. C. Hodson, 

 late superinten- 

 dent of the 

 State, describes 

 an interesting 

 tribe which has 

 been deeply in- 

 fluenced by the 

 culture and re- 

 ligion of the 

 Ilindus. The 

 plan of these 

 monographs is 

 uniform, sep- 

 arate chapters 

 dealing with 

 the geograph- 

 ical distribu- 

 tion, physical 

 characteristics, culture and social life, laws, customs, 

 and religion, to which are added a grammar of the 

 tribal dialect and a chrestomathy which contains 

 a number of folk-tales in the local language, accom- 

 panied by an English translation. The reader is thus 

 provided with abundant materials for the study of 

 some of the most interesting tribes within the Indian 

 Empire. 



The Mikir tribe, numbering 87,000 souls, inhabits 

 a hill tract lying south of the Brahmaputra river, 

 abutting on the east on the Naga country, and on 

 the south on that of the Khasis. Their ethnical affini- 

 ties are still somewhat uncertain. Dr. Grierson, on 

 linguistic grounds, classes them as intermediate 

 between the Boro and Western Nagas, while Sir 

 C. Lyall, mainly on ethnographical evidence, connects 

 them with the tribes forming a link between the 

 Nagas and the Kuki-Chins, especially those dwelling 

 south of the Arakan Roma range, where the Chin 

 tends to merge into the Burman of the Irawadi 



XO. 2039, VOL. 79] 



I. — Mikir Man. Reproduced by permission 

 from a coloured plate in *' The Mikirs." 



valley. They are a peaceful agricultural people, ac- 

 customed to depend for protection upon the more 

 warlike neighbouring tribes, like the Khasis, from 

 whom they have assimilated much — dress, ornaments, 

 personal names, methods of divination, funeral rites, 

 and the habit of erecting memorial stones, besides 

 many additions to the tribal vocabulary. From the 

 Assamese Hindus they have borrowed certain elements 

 in their language, folk-tales, and religion. At the 

 same time, they have enough which is original about 

 them to make them interesting. Thus the absence 

 of matriarchal institutions clearly distinguishes them 

 from the Khasis; in physique thev differ both froni 

 Assamese and Khasis; they build their houses on 

 posts, while their neighbours, except the Kukis, build 

 on the ground. In their animistic reverence for Nats 

 they resemble the Burmese. But to this primitive 

 animism they have added from Hindu sources the 

 conception of a hell and a paradise, with a vague 

 belief in meteinpsychosis. These views, however, do 



not influence their ideas about a life to come. 

 The Meitheis of 



Manipur, though 



possessing a long 



and eventful his- 

 tory, were little 



known in Europe 



until the tragedy of 



1891, when Mr. 



Quinton, Chief 



Commissioner o f 



Assam, and other 



British officers 



were treacherously 



murdered. As is 



the case with the 



Mikirs, their eth- 

 nical affinities are 



uncertain, but, in 



spite of their desire 



since their conver- 

 sion to Hinduism 



to affiliate them- 

 selves to the Aryan 



race, they are prob- 

 ably an offshoot of 



one of the hill 



tribes like the 



Nagas. When the 



Raja and Rani 



perform the rite 



of ascending the 



throne, they wear 



Naga dress, ajid the architecture of the coronation 

 hall, with its front beams crossed and carved, sug- 

 gests the decoration of the Khullukpa houses in Naga 

 villages. 



Though the Brahmans of Manipur date their set- 

 tlement from the fifteenth century, Hinduism did not 

 become the State religion until the middle of the 

 seventeenth. It is still only a veneer on the primi- 

 tive animism, its chief social result being the aboli- 

 tion of hunting, except in the case of tigers, for the de- 

 struction of which village clubs, with a due provision 

 of nets and spears, are established. Hinduism has 

 brought with it new restrictions in regard to food 

 and drink, but it has removed the curious taboo 

 on the use of milk characteristic of the Indo-Chinese 

 races. 



Considerations of space prevent us from directing the 

 attention of anthropologists to all the points of in- 

 terest in these monographs. Specially noticeable 

 among the Mikirs are the annual compulsory village 

 festival, when sacrifice is made to Arman-paro, the 



