August 31, iyii] 



NATURE. 



279 



THE KACHARIS OF ASSAM. 



THIS, the last volume included in the excellent 

 series of monographs for which we are indebted 

 to the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 

 differs from its predecessors in that it contains less 

 pure ethnography and more of the charming person- 

 ality of the author, of whom his old friend, Air. J. I). 

 Anderson, contributes an appreciative memoir. Mr. 

 Sidney Endle worked as a missionary under the Society 

 for the Propagation of the Gospel, and as chaplain to 

 tlii- tea-gardens of Upper Assam, from 1864 to 1907, 

 when, exhausted by long and devoted labour among 

 the people he loved so well, he died in a steamer on 

 the Brahmaputra while on his way to Europe. 



rhe Kacharis, to use the name given to 

 them by the Hindus, are usually known to 

 the Bengalis as Mech, from the Sanskrit 

 Mleccha, meaning "barbarian," but call 

 themselves Bodo or Baro. Their Hindu 

 name seems to be connected with that of 

 the powerful Koch empire, which once in- 

 cluded, roughly speaking, the present 

 British provinces of Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam, the name now surviving in tin- 

 small native State of Koch Behar. 



The people now described form pari oi 

 the northern group of a once widespread 

 race, divided from the southern group by 

 a line closely following the Brahmaputra 

 valley. In the southern group the 

 Strongest tribes are the Garos and the 

 people of Hill Tippera. The separation of 

 the northern from the southern group is 

 complete, as is shown by the absence of 

 common tradition and intermarriage; and 

 their languages, though possessing much 

 in common, differ from each other nearly 

 as much as Italian does from Spanish. 

 Ih u this once united people became 

 divided history does not tell. But Mr. 

 Endle, with much probability, suggests 

 that it resulted from the invasion of the 

 Ahoms, a Shan tribe from whom Assam 

 has acquired its name, who earl)' in the 

 - nth century entered the province 

 from the Upper Irawaddy valley. 



The Bodo Kacharis, numbering about 

 272,000 souls, now occupy the Kachari 

 Duars or passes and the districts of Wesl 

 Darrang and North Kamrup. In stature 

 they are much smaller and shorter than the 

 races oi North-west India, and bear some 

 resemblance to the Nepalese. Their phy- 

 sical type — square-set faces, projecting 

 cheek-bones, almond-shaped eyes, and the 

 almost complete absence of beard and 

 moustache — connects them with the Mon- 

 goloid pi-opli-s. Mentally thev are much 

 inferior to their Hindu neighbours, but what thev 

 succeed in learning they retain with much tenacity. 

 They are intensely clannish and obstinate. Owing to 

 their comparative isolation they have acquired few of 

 li- vices of civilisation, an occasional bout of indulg- 

 ence in rice-beer being one of their most obvious 

 failings. Their standard of female chastity is much 

 higher than that of the neighbouring tribes. 



I hi -\ are a prosperous people, well skilled in 

 agriculture, growing the valuable Eri silk, out of 

 which til. \ weave an excellent cloth. It is curious 

 that Col. Gurdon, the director of the Ethnographical 



idney Enrtle. With an Intro J u:' 



Survey, and the author are at issue on the question 

 whether their subdivisions are endogamous or exo- 

 gamous, a matter easily solved by local inquiry. In 

 their manners and customs they 'much resemble the 

 Garos, who are described in a monograph included in 

 this series. 



In religion they are in the animistic stage, with a 

 pantheon containing groups of household and village 

 deities. The leading members of the former group are 

 Bathau, the tree spirit embodied in the Euphorbia 

 splendens, found in nearly every house yard, and his 

 consort Mainao, who is, as her name implies, the 

 guardian goddess of the rice fields. 



Two appendices, one describing some of the allied 

 tribes, the other adding three additional fofk tales 



• "The Kacharis." Bvthe lot 

 tion by T D. Anderson. Pp. \iv-i 

 9"-) Price 8*. 6d. net. 



collected by Mr. Anderson, increase the value of the 

 book, which, if not the work of a trained anthropo- 

 logist, gives a sympathetical account of an interesting 

 people. 



«7l 



THE PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL 

 RESEARCH AXD LOCAL INVESTIGATIONS. 

 '"FHE Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has been 

 *■ in communication with the Development Com- 

 missioners with a view to the formulation of a scheme 

 for the promotion of agricultural research and local 

 investigations in England and Wales, and the Trea- 

 sury, on the recommendaton of the commissioners, 

 has now sanctioned the allocation of funds to be 



