1904] Annual Address. 23 



the Munda Kols, and it seems possible that the hills near the town 

 were worshipped by them as Marang Buru, and that the present worship 

 may be a Hinduised version of some animistic ritual practised by the 

 Mundas. The Asuras, I may add, figure very prominently in Munda 

 religious traditions. An excellent account of the myths on the subject 

 was given some years ago in the Zeitschrift f iir Ethnologie by Herr Jel- 

 linghaus, who was then a missionary in Ranchi. 



Mr. Hahn refers to this legend in his paper on the Oraons. It is 

 curious to read that when an Oraon has failed by magic to get rid of a 

 disease caused by the impersonal powers which Mr. Hahn describes as 

 evil spirits, he turns in prayer to Dherme the sun and says, " Now the 

 case rests with thee." You will observe that he tries magic first and 

 resorts to religion later on when his magic has failed him. That accord- 

 ing to one school of thinkers is the normal course of evolution. The 

 Oraons, like the Athenians, have an unknown God, but they build no altar 

 to him. He haunts certain fields which must be kept fallow, though 

 cattle may graze on them. Probably these are not conspicuous for fertility. 

 Their medical practice is more simple than appetizing. It consists in 

 sucking the navel of the patient and producing therefrom a worm which 

 is the cause of the disease. The imagination of the sick man does the 

 rest — an ancient principle which is now being revived on a large scale in 

 America under a new name. 



On Professor Bendall and Mr. Irvine's papers I have nothing to add 

 to the notice in the report. Mr. Irvine shows incidentally how uncer- 

 tain life was in the entourage of the Mughal Emperor who was a contem- 

 porary of Queen Anne, and what remarkably unpleasant methods were 

 adopted in dealing with unpopular courtiers, 



I now turn to the large question of the position and prospects of 

 this Society. We all know that it is not the power that it was in its 

 earlier days. We all know that people say that our meetings are dreary, 

 that our journal appears at long and uncertain intervals, that its pages 

 are devoid of all human or other interest. Well, that may be so; people 

 must be presumed to know what interests them, and I should be the 

 last person to call in question anything so infallible as popular opinion. 

 But these things rather depend on the point of view, and the popular 

 point of view is not invariably the most instructive one. I cannot help 

 remembering how at a meeting of that august body, the British Associa- 

 tion, a room was filled to overflowing to see a famous Polar explorer 

 exhibit the rational dress — a pair of fur trousers — worn by the Eskimo 

 ladies and to hear him descant in the most grotesque English imaginable 

 on their undeniably capacious dimensions. For the scientific aspects of 

 the explorer's work this cultured audience cared not a jot, and when the 



