300 Notes on a forest race called Puttooas or Juanga. [No. 4. 



seen from the legend by which they account for the peculiar costume 

 of their women, they appear to recognise the existence of the 

 Hindu deities as beings capable of exercising an influence over their 

 actions, they uniformly denied to me that they worshipped any 

 deity or paid respect to any image whatsoever. There were certainly 

 no images of any kind in the vicinity of their huts, and they have 

 no priesthood among them. Their religious homage they assured 

 us was confined to the nameless spirits which they believe inhabit 

 the woods and mountains. When they find a wild grape vine or a 

 wild plum tree more than usually fruitful, or when they chance 

 upon a spot rich in the roots or grasses upon which they subsist, 

 they make an offering to the genius loci of a fowl, a goat, or a little 

 rice and spirits, and address to him a prayer in which the terror 

 which overshadows the lives of this forest race finds touching 

 expression. " Lord, let the bears and the tigers flee when they see 

 us. Let them not meet us." The only festival of a religious cha- 

 racter, which they appear to have, occurs in the month of Bysakh, 

 when they offer sacrifices and pour out libations to the manes of 

 their deceased ancestors. They bury their dead, and, as far as I 

 could learn, without any ceremonies worthy of note. 



Marriages are arranged by the parents of the parties and are 

 scenes of revelry and drunkenness. On these occasions all the 

 members of the tribe within a reasonable distance assemble at the 

 bride's house and escort her with music, and dancing to the house 

 of the bridegroom, where the women wash her feet in water tinged 

 with turmeric, after which the elders of the community perform the 

 marriage ceremony. This consists, apparently, in each elder laying 

 his hands in succession upon the heads of the bridal pair, and in 

 tying their thumbs togethor with a thread. A grand feast ensues, 

 in which the men and women eat apart from each other, and the night 

 is afterwards spent in dancing and drinking. The festivities con- 

 tinue for three days. If the first wife prove unfruitful, the husband 

 is at liberty to take another, otherwise they adhere to one wife. 

 The husband, we remarked, has the same objection to mention his 

 wife's name, that is observable amongst the Hindus. Not being 

 aware of the relationship of Kumlee to Moofcee Pudhan, we asked 

 the latter, what her name was, and could not account for his 



