298 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVII. 
contradiction, in what I was told, and I suppose that a trained 
nished by the following note about Oriya customs. My 
informant is a well-educated gentleman in good position. 
Evidently what he tells me is what he, as an Oriya, knows to 
actually exist and happen. Nevertheless this note was criti- 
cised—in a manner both instructive and courteous—in the 
Society's meeting as misleading and incorrect. But now we 
are up before this dilemma: a man born and bred there says: 
this happens in my country, against which a scholar of author- 
ity maintains this does not happen so in that country. 
What seems to me of first rate importance in this question is 
that a native of the country should think that it happens so. 
We ask: why and how? So TI now add the note on Orissa as 
I originally read it, with special emphasis on its last sentence.! 
“ My friend Mr. Paramananda Acarya, who is an Oriya by 
birth and takes great interest in the literature and traditions 
of his country informs me that also in Orissa two forms of the 
same kind of dialogues are in vogue :— 
One of them is customary in the so-called faare @¥T 
Vivaha sabha, marriage gathering, amongst the Brahmans in 
the Cuttack and Puri Districts, and takes place between the 
completion of the marriage ceremony and the ensuing marriage 
dinner. The two parties, belonging to the bride and bride- 
m, arrange themselves into two groups and fight a 
hours, scarcely ever less than an hour. Connected with this 
form of debate is also another variety called az are, a contest 
in Veda recitation. : 
A second form of the Oriya gsung bshad is more like the 
Bengal paficali and is called 9\q-qQiaig (badi-gayana) in 
Oriya, quarre]-song or dispute in singing. This kind of song 
1s sung by professionals, in two batches of about half a dozen 
men each, who sing in turns. Further enquiry about these 
matters would evidently be well worth while.’ 
: y informant recently visited his native place and took special 
pains to verify his statements to me by local inquiry ; as a result he 
assures me now that he is confident that his original statements were 
correct, 
