724 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION H. 



view of tribal and caste development. Now that we can certainly trace the blood 

 of the Huns among the Rajput, Jat, and Gujar tribes, a fresh impulse will be 

 given for the quest of survivals in belief and custom connecting them with their 

 central Asian kinsfolk. 



In what I have said I have preferred to speculate on a programme for work in 

 the future rather than dwell upon the progress which has been already made. In 

 the sphere of religion we have passed the stage when, as Professor Max Midler 

 said, ' the best solvent of the old riddles of mythology is to be found in the 

 etymological analysis of the names of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines,' 

 or when the ' disease of language ' theory was generally accepted. The position, 

 in fact, has completely changed since Comparative Religion has adopted the 

 methods of Anthropology. The study of myths has given way to that of culls. 

 the former being often only naive attempts to explain the latter. India offers 

 wide fields for inquiry by these new methods, because it supplies examples of 

 cult in its most varied and instructive phases. The examination of Hinduism, the 

 last existing polytheism of the archaic type, is likely to explain much hitherto 

 obscure in the development of other pantheons. It is no longer possible to refer 

 the complex elements of this or any other group of similar beliefs to a single class 

 of physical concepts. The sun, the dawn, the golden gates of sunset, or the 

 dairy no longer furnish the key which unlocks the secret. It is by the study of 

 the Animism, Shamanism, or Magic of the lower tribes that Hinduism can be 

 interpreted. This analysis shows that behind the myths and legends which 

 shroud the forms of the sectarian gods the dim shape of a Mother-goddess ap- 

 pears, at once chthonic or malignant because she gives shelter to the dead, and 

 beneficent because she nurtures the sons of men with the kindly fruits of the 

 earth. Beside her, though his embodiment is much less clearly defined, stands 

 a male deity, her consort, and by a process of magic, mimetic, sympathetic, or 

 homoeopathic, their union secures the fertility of the animal and vegetable creation. 

 Much, however, remains to be done before the problems of this complex 

 polytheism can be fully solved. The action of archaic religions, as has been 

 well said, 'takes place in the mysterious twilight of sub-consciousness'; and the 

 foreign observer is trammelled by the elaborate system of tabu with which the 

 Hindu veils the performance of his religious rites. This feeling extends to all 

 classes, and the ceremonial of the jungle shrines is as little open to examination 

 as the penetralia of the greater temples. The great army of mendicant friars 

 jealously conceals the secrets of its initiation, rites, and beliefs, and this field 

 of Indian religious life remains practically unworked. Much may be done by 

 the training of a body of native observers who are not subject to the tabu 

 imposed upon the foreigner. Here the difficulty lies in the contempt displayed 

 by the higher educated classes towards the beliefs and usages of the lower tribes. 

 There are some indications that this feeling is passing away, and in recent years 

 much useful ethnological work has been done by native scholars. 



The problems of ethnology, so far as they are concerned with the origin of 

 prehistoric races and their relation to the existing population, are more or less 

 academic. Ethnography, which examines the religious, cultural, and industrial 

 conditions of the people, has more practical uses. At the present time it is 

 incumbent upon us to preach, in season and out of season, that the information 

 which it is competent to supply is the true basis of administrative and social 

 reform. If, for example, we were now in possession of the facts which an 

 anthropometrical survey of our home population would supply, many of our 

 social problems would assume a clearer aspect. Such, for instance, are the 

 questions of degeneration due to slum life and malnutrition, the influence of 

 alcoholism on industrial efficiency, the condition of dangerous and sweated 

 industries, and that of the aliens settled in our midst. It is characteristic of 

 the genius of the English people that, while we are not yet prepared to admit 

 the need of such a survey, the provision of medical inspection and relief for 

 children in elementary schools will soon render it inevitable. 



This is more clearly the case in those regions where a large native population 

 is controlled by a small European minority. The Negro question in America 

 teaches us a useful lesson, applicable to native races in most parts of the Empire. 

 In India, whenever the Government has made really serious mistakes, the failure 

 has been due to ignorance or disregard of the beliefs or prejudices of the subject 



