Mav 23, 1 907 J 



NA TURE 



ing, and there is not a dull page from beginning to 

 *:nd of the volume. 



. Major Gurdon's work is the first of a series of 

 monographs on the more important tribes and castes 

 of Assam now being issued by the Government of 

 that province. While Mr. Crooke deals with the 

 broad outlines of the ethnology of the whole of 

 northern India, this work is confined to a single tribe 

 numbering less than two hundred thousand souls. 

 .Mthough they are so few, the Khasis are a race 

 deserving special study. Half a century ago Logan 

 showed their relationship to the distant Mons of 

 Pegu and Khmers of Cambodia, but his researches 

 lay hidden in a local magazine, so that, until Kuhn 

 revived the question in 1883, it was the general 

 impression that the tribe was an isolated survival 

 from prehistoric times, whose language formed a 

 distinct family by itself, and which had no connec- 

 tion with any other known race. The researches of 

 Kuhn, and, later on, of Schmidt, have placed the 

 whole subject on a new and sure footing. We now 

 know that Khasi is a member of an important group 

 of languages including forms of speech, such as 

 Palaung and Wa, closely allied to Mon and Khmer, 

 and also Nicobarese and the Munda tongues of India 

 proper. Moreover, not only are the languages con- 

 nected, but the speakers ail possess the same racial 

 characteristics. This language-group Schmidt ha-i 

 named the " Austro-.Asiatic " subfamily, and he main- 

 tains that it is related to the " Austro-Nesic " sub- 

 family spoken in Indonesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia 

 ^the two together forming, under the name of thf 

 " Austric " family, the most widely spread collection 

 of allied speeches upon the face of the earth. A 

 special and minute study, therefore, of the speakers 

 of one of the members of this great family is just 

 now well-timed and of considerable interest, and 

 Major Gurdon, the superintendent of ethnography in 

 Assam, is exceptionally fitted to undertake the task. 



For the benefit of those who are not familiar with 

 Indian ethnography, it may be stated that the Khasis 

 are a tribe inhabiting the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in 

 the Indian province of (as it is now called) Eastern 

 Bengal and Assam. They are surrounded on all 

 sides by alien peoples, Tibeto-Burnian and Aryan, 

 and are believed to be a survival of a primitive Austro- 

 Asiatic race that once occupied the whole of eastern 

 India until they were conquered and dispossessed in 

 prehistoric times by an invasion of Tibeto-Burmans. 

 The tribal constitution is strong! v matriarchal. 

 Inheritance is through the female line, the youngest 

 daughter being the chief heir of her mother; ancestral 

 property can only be owned by women, and the onlv 

 property which a man can possess is that which is 

 self-acquired. The chief deities are all female. So 

 is the sun, while the moon is represented as a man, 

 and in the grammar and vocabularv the feminine 

 element is much more prominent than the masculine. 



Besides chapters discussing introductory and miscel- 

 laneous topics, Major Gurdon's work is divided 

 into five sections, dealing respectivelv with domestic 

 life, laws and customs, religion, folklore, and 

 language. Each subject is treated in great detail, 

 and the book contains much new and valuable matter 

 not hitherto recorded. We may direct special atten- 

 tion to the account of the remarkable memorial 

 stones, menhirs, dolmens, and cromlechs scattered 

 over the country, and also to that of the curious 

 custom of egg-divining (woamTrm). The chapter on 

 folklore is also most interesting. It contains a 

 number of stories, both in the original text and in 

 translation. These form part of a larger collection 

 placed at the author's disposal by the Rev. Dr. 

 Roberts, and we are glad to learn that there is a 

 prospect of the entire series being published at some 



NO. i960, VOL. 76] 



future date. The full-page illustrations of the book 

 are numerous and in their right places, and it is 

 further enriched by an introduction from the accom- 

 plished pen of Sir Charles Lyall. 

 _ There have been Welsh missionaries among the 

 Khasis for more than sixty years, and to them we 

 owe the fact that the language has been reduced to 

 writing. Under their fostering care the tongue of a 

 once rude and barbarous people has been given an 

 alphabet, a fixed system of spelling (based on Welsh), 

 and a literature. It is now recognised by the 

 Calcutta University as sufficiently cultivated to be 

 offered as a subject for examination by candidates 

 from Khasi-land. 



We congratulate the Eastern Bengal and Assam 

 Government on the successful inception of what 

 promises to be a most interesting and useful series 

 of monographs. 



/l.STA'O.VOA//C.4L OBSERVATIONS IN 



PRAGUE, 1900-1904. 



'T'HE Astronomical Observatory of Prague, like 



-*• many other similar institutions which might 



be mentioned, has its work considerably restricted by 



the fact that the citv in which it is situated has 



Tycho Brahes Olj>er 

 B, in Wandsbeck ; 

 Prague (Ci 



grown. The restricted horizon, the smoke, and the 

 glare of the illuminated air all have tended, year by 

 year, to cut down the amount of useful work such 

 an observatory is capable of doing, and it is quite 

 possible that the time will soon come when it will 



