cexxx Proceedings of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal. [N.S., XVII, 
publish information sent to them. It was in pursuance of this 
suggestion that the Asiatic Society of Bengal added to its 
Journal a third part dealing with Anthropology, Ethnology 
and Folklore. And the Government of Bengal, on the 7th 
November, 1892, sanctioned a grant of two thousand rupees to 
meet the cost of this third part of the Journal and, in the same 
vear. the Assam Administration made a grant of rupees one 
thousand a year to the Society for ethnographic work. In the 
next nine years, from 1893 to 1901, fifty-nine anthropological 
papers were received by the Society for publication in its 
Journal. But the amouut and quality of information thus 
published sedi to be very poor. The number of really good 
papers such as the one on ‘The Religion and Customs of the 
raons’’ by the Rev Father Dehon and another on ‘* Mundari 
Poetry” by the Rev. Father Hoffmann, was disappointingly 
small. The Council of the Society in their anxiety to improve 
matters now resolved to add to the third part of their Journal 
an Ethnographic Supplement on the lines of the short-lived 
unjab Notes and Queries.” Only two copies of this Sup- 
plement were, however, published in 1903, when the then 
Anthropological Secretary, Mr. (afterwards Sir Edward) Gait 
rie i proceeded home on furlough it was unfortunately dis- 
conti 
In these Ethnographie Supplements, too, out of the fairly 
large number of short notes contained in them, only a very few 
were contributed by Indians. Thus, of the forty- -eight ‘short 
notes or paragraphs in the first Supplement, only six were 
contributed by Indian gentlemen and the rest by Europeans. 
mostly Magistrates and Missionaries. Officer rs of Government 
had indeed an incentive for such work which non-officials did 
not possess. Again, on the 7th naomi 1907, we find the 
then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir ‘Andrew Fraser, in 
his annual Presidential Address to the ate Society expressing 
his regret that so few officers of the Indian Civil Service and 
other services were members of the Society and contributors 
of papers regarding religious legends, family or caste obser- 
vances and similar ethnographic information. In conse- 
em 
amongst Government officers in the province’? And in order 
that the Society might act “‘as a centre of reference and bureau 
of information for all Government officers in Bengal who desire 
to pursue researches in connection with the history, — 
usages and folklore,” it was proposed to appoint an officer w 
might “ reply to any questions, suggest sources of infor son es 
course of study, method of treatment, etc.’’ The Government 
which was requested to meet the expenses, sanctioned on the 
2nd of December, 1908, an annual grant of three thousand six 
