Tlie Ethnology of India. 3 



amount of inquiry that still remains. I only desire to tell so much as 

 I know, and to suggest points on which inquiry is desirable. Although 

 I have always been much interested in the people, I have usually not 

 had time and opportunity to commit all that I have observed to 

 writing ; it is in fact only of late years that I have in some degree 

 clone so. I am obliged therefore frequently to use such expressions 

 as ' I think,' not because I do not speak from personal observation, 

 but because, writing from memory, I must give my impressions subject 

 to the chance of error. In attempting too so wide and general a 

 subject without great opportunities of study, I am at every turn liable 

 to error. I would at once avow that I warrant nothing, even when 

 I do not specially qualify my phrases. I only give my impressions 

 for what they are worth. It is true that it would have been possi- 

 ble to verify many doubtful points, to fill up many gaps, and to solve 

 some difficulties which occur to me in writing this paper, by farther 

 enquiries in the proper quarters ; but looking to the character of my 

 paper, as an avowedly imperfect sketch, designed to elicit the infor- 

 mation which may afterwards render possible something more com- 

 plete, I have preferred not to delay, but to give what I now can, as I 

 now can. In truth, my object is to suggest our deficiencies, to point 

 to them, and to prospect the quarters where valuable strata of in- 

 formation may be found. I shall say what I have to say in the most 

 simple and least technical form— in a rough and unpolished way. 



My philological acquirements are very deficient. As respects South- 

 ern India, Dr. Caldwell, by his comparative grammar, has made com- 

 parison easy. But there is no such synthetical account of the Northern 

 languages. The character of each can only be separately learned. 

 The Rev. Mr. Trump has done much for the languages of the extreme 

 North West, but as respects the characteristics of Bengallee, Maratta, 

 Guzeratee, &c. when compared to Hindee and Punjabee, I find no 

 easy guide, and have not been able to acquire any adequate knowledge. 

 — Cashmiree is still scarcely known at all. We very much want such 

 an account of the languages of the North as Dr. Caldwell has given 

 us for the South. 



In the mere matter of nomenclature, it is surprising how much 

 confusion arises, both from calling the same tribes by different names, 

 ■and also from calling different tribes by the same name. The former 



