2 Tlie Ethnology of India. 



hand book of existing information on the subject, particularly as re- 

 gards the North of India, and my hope is, that such a guide may 

 render much more easy, intelligible, and uniform, the collection of a 

 mass of details, which will render our knowledge ample and complete. 

 It happens that my personal experience has been wider than that of 

 most officers ; I have also travelled much in those parts of India in which 

 I have not served, and have made the people a constant subject of 

 observation and inquiry. I have farther, for some time past, noted the 

 information on this subject which I could collect from books. And 

 lastly, I have received much aid in my inquiries from many kind 

 friends. During a late visit to the Punjaub frontier, I was under 

 great obligations to many of the officers employed there, and feel that 

 I can always look for assistance in that quarter. Recent papers by 

 Colonel Dalton T Commissioner of the Chota-Nagpore territories, have 

 given much information respecting several of the tribes of that locality 

 of which T have made free use, and I had looked also to use another 

 paper on the Coles promised by Colonel Dalton. It has not been 

 received, but I hope that it will soon add to the information which 

 I am now able to give. During a tour in the Bombay Presidency, I 

 was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance and to obtain the 

 assistance of Mr. Perceval of the Civil Service there, since Private 

 Secretary to His Excellency Sir B. Frere, and through Mr. Perceval 

 I have received a series of very interesting notes on the aborigines of 

 that part of India by Captain Probyn, Major Keatinge, Mr. Ash- 

 burner, Mr. Probert, and the Rev. Messrs. Moore and Taylor, con- 

 taining information not elsewhere procurable. During a former tour 

 in the Mysore country and in some of the Madras districts adjoining, I 

 received much kind assistance, and Mr. Bowring has since been good 

 enough to point out to me some very interesting additional informa- 

 tion. With respect, however, to the Telinga country, and the extreme 

 South of India, I have not been fortunate enough to obtain all the 

 information that I could desire. 



It will be understood, moreover, that as respects every part of India, 

 I by no means profess to give a complete sketch. I have not the 

 necessary information, and have not time for the necessary study to 

 enable me to attempt that. Indeed, in this as in so many other things, 

 the more one learns, the more one sees one's ignorance and the vast 



