1883.] S. E. Void—JVofes of a trip up the Diliing. 7 



made out by Mr. Blanford. This contradiction in the results of the two 

 investigations, and the range o£ the variation here indicated, which amounts 

 to 7 per cent, of the total radiation, make it sufficiently clear that, when 

 every possible allowance is made for disturbing causes, the indications of 

 the black bulb thermometer are an uncertain measure of the sun's radiation. 

 The absorption coefficients for dry air and water vapour, now determined, 

 agree, however, so well with those deduced from Mr. Hennessey's excellent 

 actinometrical observations that they may be accepted with some confidence. 



III. — Notes of atrip up the Diliing hasin to Dapha Pani, Sfc, January 



and Felruary, 1882. — By S. E. Peal, Esq. 



[Received June 24th ;— Read August 1st, 1883.] 



(With Plates II, III, IV, V and VI.) 



The question of the treatment of savage races bordering on, and trad- 

 ing freely with, a civilized power, has always been a difficult one to solve. 

 Whether at the Cape, New Zealand, America, or Central Asia, it has general- 

 ly involved the paramount power in a series of petty wars, injurious to 

 both sides and ending in the subjection, and too often the degradation, or 

 extermination of the savage. 



This contest — inevitable in the end, where the civilized and savage com- 

 munities are in juxtaposition, is often regretted by the former, and efforts 

 made to mitigate the result, which is well known among Ethnologists. 



The treatment of the various savage tribes that surround Asam and offer 

 such marked contrast to the Aryans of the plains, is therefore a matter 

 of some moment. Most of them have no doubt had a common origin, 

 their ancestors having peopled the centre, north, and east of Bengal, of the 

 plains of Asam, whence they have been driven (by the advance of the great 

 Aryan tide) to the hills around. 



Looking back into the far past, we should probably see the whole of 

 India a huge and almost interminable tropical forest. Here and there Jum 

 clearings, with villages at some little distance apart, the houses of which, 

 perched on pile platforms, would doubtless be the exact counterpart of 

 those built by these hill men at the present day — and characterized by their 

 length and low eaves. The spear and dao would be in every hand, and the 

 dug-out on every river. To the latter these tribes gave names which sur- 

 vive to our day, and attest their presence. Head-hunting and tattooing 

 would probably be universal, isolating and no doubt differentiating the com- 

 munities then as now, for the extraordinary number and variety of languages 

 and dialects on the non-Aryan basis, contrasts with the Aryan group, and 

 would point to " head hunting" as the cause around Asam. 



A conspicuous feature among these Hill tribes, and one to be expected, 

 is their great intelligence in everything relating to their jungles, customs, 



