ii Preface. 



spent in travelling, thus affording special opportunities for 

 collecting, and has been continued to the present time with 

 increasing pleasure and success — the collection growing 

 rapidly, while the field for exploration has opened out far 

 more widely than had been expected. 



The results of these twenty years of labour, though 

 large, are yet necessarily incomplete ; but it is hoped that 

 they may become the nucleus of a collection as nearly 

 perfect as is possible, and thus extend our knowledge of a 

 curious and interesting practice which, beginning in very 

 early ages, has become common in every country of the 

 world. 



It has not been thought well to burden this Catalogue, 

 with many notes referring to individual objects, or to the 

 travellers who may have brought them to England. All 

 such facts of interest will be found in the Illustrated 

 Catalogue (1V0. 40Q) of the Bibliotheca Nkotiana. 



W. B. 



Birmingham, 1880. 



