722 Account of the Origin, etc. of the [July, 



ments of their own nature irresistibly impel them to ascribe like senti- 

 ments to the godhead. Now, in every serious matter of dispute that 

 cannot be decided by testimony, usually so called, oaths and ordeals are 

 had recourse to — and both, as substitutes for, and confirmatives of, 

 evidence, according to the ancient Jewish (nay, universal) notions on 

 this head. But oaths and ordeals are appeals to the moral nature of 

 the Divinity : nor can it be denied that, though the practical religion 

 of the Bodo and Dhimals consists of idle offerings and sacrifices to 

 trivial deities, yet that supplications for protection from danger, and 

 thanksgivings, when it is over, accompany these offerings and these sa- 

 crifices, forming a part, how inconsiderable soever, of the religious rights 

 of the people as conducted by the priesthood. The priests, or the elders, 

 superintend the administration of oaths and of ordeals : the priests alone 

 direct and conduct those high festivals, which thrice a year are celebrat- 

 ed in honour of the Elemental gods, and once a year in honour of the 

 household divinities ; as likewise those occasional acts of worship, which 

 originate with more or less diffused, or individual, calamity. The calami- 

 ties to which the Bodo and Dhimal stand most exposed, are small-pox 

 and cholera, which sorely afflict them ; and drought, blight, and the ra- 

 vages of wild elephants and rhinoceroses, from which their crops suffer 

 not less. Diseases are considered to arise entirely from preternatural 

 agency, and hence there are no medical men, but a regular class of 

 exorcists, who are a branch of the priesthood, and whose mode of 

 relieving the possessed or sick will be described presently. They are 

 called Ojha, and are the sole physicians. Small-pox is the direst 

 scourge of the Bodo and Dhimals ; next cholera (since 1818) ; next 

 itch ; then diseases of the intestines, as diarrhoea and dysentery ; then 

 fever ; then goitre ; diseases of the liver and lungs are very rare ; and 

 siphilis is unknown. The Bodo and Dhimal, though healthy races, 

 are not long-lived nor prolific. Grey hairs are less common than in 

 the hills or plains : 60 is deemed a great age : a family of 8 or 9 living 

 children is hardly known : 5 or 6 alive is nearly the maximum ; and 2 

 to 4 the mean. The hazards and the importance of agriculture to the 

 Bodo and Dhimal, are sufficiently indicated by their creed, the three 

 chief festivals of which have almost exclusive reference thereto. Great 

 as are the ravages committed on the crops by insects and wild animals, 

 drought seems to be dreaded still more than either, so that among all 



