720 Account of the Oriyin % etc. of the [July, 



are only seven in the Bodo tongue, ten in the Dhimals, and they have 

 no ordinals at all. Beyond 7 or 10 they count by the Hindu ways of 

 fours and of scores, and in this manner they can reckon to 200. Very 

 few of the Bodo or Dhimals have learnt to write the neighbouring Pra- 

 krits, but many can converse in them, particularly in the corrupt 

 Bengali prevailing from the Kosi to the Brahmaputra. To the segre- 

 gated manner of life of the Bodo and Dhimals, and to the practice of 

 both people of marrying only within the pale of their own folk, I ascribe 

 the present purity of their languages. 



Religion. — The religion of the Bodo and Dhimals, is distinguished, 

 like their manners and customs, by the absence of every thing that is 

 shocking, ridiculous, or incommodious. It lends no sanction to bar. 

 barous rites, nor does it hamper the commerce of life with tedious 

 insane ceremonial observances. It takes less cognizance than it might 

 advantageously do of those great sacraments of humanity, baptism, 

 marriage, and sepulture, withholding all sanction from the first, and 

 lending to the other two, especially marriage, a less decided sanction 

 than the interest of society demand. The deplorable impediments to 

 the business of society, occasioned by the Hindu (Arian) religion, are 

 too well known to call for specification. But even some of the Tamu- 

 lians are pestered with usages under the guise of religion, which are 

 alike injurious to health and convenience,* or are pregnant with cruel- 

 ty.f From all such crimes and mischiefs the religion of the Bodo 

 and Dhimals is wholly free. With the most striking events or dearest 

 ties of life it meddles little directly, confining itself almost exclusively 

 to the propitiation of the superior powers by offerings and sacrifices. 

 A Bodo or Dhimal is born, is named, is weaned, is invested with the 

 toga virilis, without any intervention of his priest, who is summoned to 

 marriages and funerals chiefly, if not solely, to perform the preliminary 

 sacrifice, which is indispensable to consecrate a feast, for no Bodo or 

 Dhimal will touch flesh, the blood of which has not been offered to the 

 gods ; and, flesh constitutes a goodly proportion of the material of 

 those feasts which solemnise funerals and weddings alike. 



f Khasias. Robinson's Assam, p. 413 and Buchanan's Reports, vol. III. p. 



X Garos. Elliott. Asiatic Researches, III. 29. KMnds. Macpherson's Re- 

 ports and Taylor's Account, vide Madras Journal, No. 16, and Calcutta Review, 

 No. IX. 



