188 
G. A. Grierson —Notes on the Rangpur Dialect. [No. S, 
merely a copy, and in some parts a verbatim copy, of district reports : and 
it is fully borne out by my own observations. 
As might have been expected, this tract forms a rich mine for the in¬ 
vestigator into aboriginal folk lore. 
The people, Muhammadans and Hindus alike, worship two gods, the 
Rurhi Deo , and Huclum Deo. The first is a bamboo set up in the earth, 
to which are hung half a dozen rags and perhaps an old bottle or two. The 
worshippers have no distinct reason for cultivating it, except a vague idea, 
that if they do not, some undefined evil will probably befal them ; and so 
they do puja to it, by attaching to it any old refuse they may find in their 
house. 
The other is a kind of Indra, worshipped only by women, and only 
in the time of drought. They set uj:> a plantain tree at night at a cross¬ 
road, and dance naked round it singing songs of the most horrible obsce¬ 
nity. 
Such is the state of those who live south of the dyke. That of those 
on the north side presents more favourable aspects. While the former 
country was occupied by a foreign army, the latter was held by a people 
who fought for themselves and their religion with a certain amount of 
success. Northern Rangpur was never effectively held for any length of 
time by the Muhammadans, and the result is that the greater part of 
its population is Hindu at least in name. Although degraded, the people 
are not so degraded as their brethren of the south. It is true that 
they follow few of the customs of Hindus born nearer the source of Aryan 
civilization in India, situated so far to the west,—but one thing has been 
ineradicably stamped in their character, they know that their ancestors 
fought for their religion, whatever it is, and were able to retain it. There 
has thus been begotten amongst them a sort of local patriotism, which, 
if it has occasionally been a bar in the way of attempts made to help their 
progress, has at the same time had an effect which cannot have been 
otherwise than invigorating. 
It may sometimes have tended to patriotism in a “ parochial” sense, 
but it has taught the people to think for themselves and to act for them¬ 
selves, and, above all, to see that under the English Raj there is a reign of 
law which is the same for the poor man and the rich. 
I have been engaged for some time past in collecting the folk-songs 
of Rangpur, and nowhere is the difference between these two belts of 
country more easily perceived than in a comparison of them. Those of 
the northern tract are often semi-religious lays with subjects taken from 
the Mahabharata or Puranas, but with an individuality about them, in their 
language and character, which stamps them with their owners’ names. 
Some of them are really ambitious productions, with snatches of poetry in 
