44 W. Theobald— List of Mollusca from the Hills [No. 1, 



sanguinary goddess of riches, i, e., Lakshmi) and the miners objected to 

 his riding on horseback up to the mines for fear of offending her. 

 Now what can be more probable than that the miners, before opening a 

 new mine, in order to invoke the aid of this sanguinary goddess made 

 an offering to her of cattle or buffaloes. Bloody sacrifices are known to be 

 offered to Lakshmi in one of her forms. 



The opening up of new mines was and is we are told by several autho- 

 rities preceded by various rites and ceremonies. The miners were probably 

 never Hindus, and the custom of offering up cattle in sacrifice by the 

 aboriginal tribes from the Todas to the Sontals is too well known to 

 require special illustration. If it be admitted that the opening of a mine was 

 preceded by the sacrifice of cattle and the throwing the fragments of the 

 flesh to be devoured by the fowls of the air, we at once arrive at the 

 foundation of fact upon which this superstructure of fable has in all 

 probability been erected. 



Casual spectators and travellers may very easily have supposed that 

 the slaughter of cattle and the subsequent throwing about pieces of meat 

 was an essential part of the operations. Any one with experience of how 

 Oriental imagination can erect a tale of fiction on a small substratum of 

 fact will find no difficulty in conceding that in the above supposition there 

 is a sufficient explanation for the origin of the whole story. 



It may be added that this propitiation of malefiant spirits was and 

 is by no means limited to mining operations connected with diamonds. 

 In the Journal of this Society* will be found an account of one of the 

 richest gold bearing tracts in Assam which had been deserted by the 

 indigenous gold washers in consequence of the expense connected with the 

 propitiation of the evil spirits who guarded the mineral treasures, being 

 greater than they could afford to pay. 



III. — List of Mollusca from the Hills between Mari and Tandiani. — 



By W. Theobald, Deputy. Supt. Geological Survey. 



[Received Nov. 25th ;— Read Dec. 1st, 1880.] 



The following list, which embraces three new species, was drawn up 



during a five months' residence at Tandiani, the hill station of Hazara. 



It will give a good idea of the molluscan fauna of the region, but is most 



unquestionably not exhaustive, and I trust to some of my younger colleagues 



taking uplihe work, which I regard as here only begun. 



* Vol. XXII, p. 511. 



