14 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan ; 



had been employed by the late Mr. Scott, Governor General's Agent in 

 Assam, to explore some of the countries in the vicinity of that valley, 

 lately assured me that he and his party once met a tribe of Kookis, 

 who made it a practice to kill the sick and aged among them, and to 

 eat their flesh. He mentioned that he had occular demonstration of 

 the fact, and that he ascertained it was the practice among them, to 

 allow neither the aged to die from natural decay, nor the young or old 

 to be cut off by disease, but to anticipate this result by slaying them, 

 and then to eat their bodies. They believed that by so doing, they pre- 

 vented the transmigration of the soul of the deceased into the body of 

 an inferior animal, and that they thus retained it among them. The 

 Battas of Sumatra, and the tribe of Gonds called Binderwurs,* near the 

 source of the Nerbuddah, are cannibals like the Kookis here mentioned. 

 They kill and eat the sick and the aged among them. Dr. Leyden 

 considers the former as the Padsei of Herodotus, but it is more proba- 

 ble that the latter were the cannibals of the Tipperah hills. Besides 

 the Kookis of the Tipperah and Chittagong hills, there are other tribes 

 called Abor and Tikleya Nagas on the northern part of Assam, who 

 are mentioned by Dr. Buchanan as cannibals. They appear to be the 

 Anthropophagi of Ptolemy, mentioned by him as inhabiting together 

 with the Annibi, &c. a country on the northern side of Serica. 



Arrian states, that "after passing these," (viz., the Kirrhadse, Bar- 

 goosi, and other barbarous tribes) " the course turns again to the east, 

 and sailing with the coast on the left and the sea on the right, you arrive 

 at the Ganges." This has been supposed to refer to that part of the 

 bay which extends from Orissa to the eastern mouth of the Ganges ; 

 but the tribes, mentioned in the text, cannot possibly be identified with 

 people inhabiting any part of the coast situated between Masulipatam 

 and the Ganges ; and the course or track of sailing, which Arrian here 

 describes, must, therefore, be regarded as erroneous. Desarene and the 

 country of the Kirrhadee and Bargoosi are, not maritime, but inland 

 regions ; and it is obvious, therefore, that the line of coast, which is 

 here delineated, is entirely imaginary. 



Arrian correctly describes the Ganges as being the largest river in 

 India, and as having an increase and decrease, or a periodical rise and 

 fall, like the Nile. Herodotus alludes to the Ganges, not by name, but 

 * Coleman's Hindu Mythology. 



