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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell Uxlversity Library 
 DS 421.PS3 
 
 The Aryan village In India and Ceylon / 
 
 3 1924 023 648 862 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023648862 
 
THE ARYAN VILLAGE. 
 
THE ARYAN VILLAGE 
 
 IN 
 
 INDIA AND CEYLON. 
 
 Sir JOHN B. PHEAR. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1880. 
 
 TAe Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. 
 
DS 
 p^3 
 
 -^i'"^7X37> 
 
 LONDON 
 
 R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor. 
 
 BRBAU STREET "HILL. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 INTRODUCTION .... .71) 
 
 MODERN VILLAGE LIFE IN BENGAL. 
 
 I. 
 
 INS AND OTTTS OF THE VILLAGE . 
 
 II. 
 
 ZAMINDAE AND MAHAJAN .... 47 
 
 III. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE ... 68 
 
 IV. 
 GRAVE AND GAT . ... . . 88 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGK 
 EUEAL CRIME . 102 
 
 VI. 
 ADMINISTRATION AND LAND LAW 124 
 
 VII. 
 WAYS AND IIEANS 160 
 
 THE AGlilCULTURAL COMMUNITY IN OEYLON. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE VILLAGE Eri.iNOMY 173 
 
 II. 
 
 LAND TENURE AND STATE ECONOMY . 197 
 
 III. 
 
 CEYLON AND BENGAL . . . . , 206 
 
 IV. 
 THE GRAIN TAX . ... 214 
 
Contents. 
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE INDO-AMYAN SOCIAL AND 
 LAND SYSTEM. 
 
 FKOM THE JOINT FAMILY I'll THE VILLAGE 
 
 APPENDIX— Note A. 275 
 
 ,, Note B. 285 
 
 GLOSSARY . . 289 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 DxJEiNG the last forty or fifty years an immense 
 wealth of facts, previously unascertained, has been 
 amassed within the pro\'inces of archaeology, philo- 
 logy, and geology. By inference from these, and 
 by reasoning upon the data furnished by them, the 
 conviction is arrived at that man made his first 
 appearance upon the earth very many ages ago, 
 during a period of time when probably the physical 
 conditions of the world were in important respects 
 considerably different from those which obtain at 
 present. 
 
 So far, also, as can be judged from these materials, 
 the human race at its commencement was in the 
 lowest conceivable condition of civilization. Its 
 
X Intboduction. 
 
 progress upwards to that state of comparatively 
 advanced culture, which is observed to generally 
 prevail at the dawn of history, must probably 
 have passed through at least three or four principal 
 well-marked stages. 
 
 It is almost stating an axiom to say that human 
 life can only be maintained by the continued use 
 and consumption of material products of Nature, 
 prepared, fashioned, and modified for the purpose 
 by the application of human labour and skill. 
 
 Moreover, diiring man's lowest or least developed 
 stage of civilization the animals and vegetables on 
 which he feeds are both alike in a wild condition ; 
 he has not yet succeeded in domesticating either. 
 The instruments, also, by which he catches and 
 battles with the one, and gathers or roots up the 
 other, are rude and inefficient — wooden clubs, bows 
 with flint-tipped arrows, creeper-made cords, springes 
 of fibre, stone-flakes, and such like things. His cloth- 
 ing is furnished from the skins of the beasts which 
 he slays. His dwelling is a cave, or other natural 
 
Introduction. xi 
 
 shelter, supplemented by branches of trees, skins, and 
 clay or stonework. His fire, if any, is produced in 
 a most laborious manner by friction. The family 
 group is the limit of his society ; and it is not too 
 much to say that under the foregoing conditions 
 the daily subsistence and protection of that group is 
 only ensured by the incessant labour and anxious 
 attention of every member of it, male and female 
 In this state of things it is obvious there is little 
 to favour improvement. The manner of life is 
 necessarily erratic. As the jungle gets exhausted 
 of its edible products, and the wild animals are 
 lolled down before their human persecutor, he must 
 move on to new grounds. There is doubtless unity 
 of purpose and co-operation inside each family 
 circle. The father and the mother fight the battle 
 of life for their progeny, as the lion and lioness 
 for their cubs; and the children, as soon as may 
 be, participate with them in the struggle. Collateral 
 descendants from a near common ancestor, or even 
 wife-connections, may sometimes be included in the 
 
xii Introduction. 
 
 commiTnity. But all others are enemies — little 
 better, if at aU, than the beasts of the forest— com- 
 petitors for the necessaries of existence, and there- 
 fore to be avoided, kept at a distance, destroyed. 
 From such circumstances ensued chronic hostility 
 to all outsiders, as well as exigencies of self-defence, 
 which gradually, though perhaps very slowly, led 
 to the aggregation of families of the same blood 
 into tribes. 
 
 There seems good reason to believe that for many 
 ages man lived, sparsely scattered over the face 
 of the earth, very much in the manner just at- 
 tempted to be sketched. Small tribes of hunters, 
 skin-clad and ill-armed, wandered from place to 
 place, winning by their own strong arms a hard and 
 precarious subsistence from the forest and the plain. 
 
 Evidently, the greater the advance made by 
 any tribe through the means of superior intelligence 
 and physique, and the improvement of arms, and 
 the greater, consequently, its success in war and 
 the chase, the larger in proportion would be the 
 
Introduction. xiii 
 
 extension, of its hunting-grounds and the diminu- 
 tion of any other outside population. 
 
 For any further material progress of civilization 
 the introduction of a new element is required, and 
 apparently this first came in the shape of domesti- 
 cated sheep and oxen. With this addition the 
 hunter became changed into the pastoral nomad ; 
 the means of subsistence was better assured ; life 
 was less hard ; the idea of property developed 
 itself; there grew to be those who had much — 
 many cattle — and those who, having little or no- 
 thing, necessarily become attached, as dependents, 
 to those who had. The care of flocks and herds 
 gave rise to the relation of master and servant — 
 owner and dependent — superior and inferior. Small 
 crafts sprang out of the needs of cattle-tending, 
 the requirements of the camp, and the textile 
 capabilities of wool. The incidental manual labour 
 fell to the dependent and the younger members 
 of the pastoral group ; the superintendence and 
 control to the family chief ; and the differentiation 
 
xiv Introduction. 
 
 of the propertyless worker from the leisured capi- 
 talist commenced. 
 
 It is worth while to compare for a moment the 
 two stages of human culture which have just heen 
 touched upon. 
 
 In the hunter stage man only barely manages 
 to appropriate such and so much of the products 
 of nature (or in other words, materials not produced 
 or modified by human agency) as he needs for 
 existence, and no more ; and the attainment of this 
 end calls for the unintermittent exertion of physical 
 labour and anxious care on the part of every 
 member of the hunting society. 
 
 By the advance to the pastoral stage man's 
 dominion over natural products is largely extended. 
 Better and more plentiful food, greatly improved 
 clothing and articles of various degrees of fabrica- 
 tion enormously ameliorate his condition of life, 
 and conduce to his welfare. Yet the labour re- 
 quisite for these results is .sufficiently furnished 
 by a portion only of the community ; and 
 
InTEODUCTION. XV 
 
 proprietors, as distinguished from non-proprietors, 
 are at least partially relieved from it. 
 
 A third great step in the course of human 
 progress is distiaguished by the raltivation of 
 cereals, v^hich obviously necessitates the more or 
 less permanent sojourn of the cultivating com- 
 munity in one place, the prehension and clearing 
 of a definite tract of ground, and some communal 
 arrangements for tilling and depasturing it. Out 
 of these circumstances grows a village organization 
 embracing independent households and characterized 
 by differences in social status, privilege, and occupa- 
 tion. With the ancestors of the peoples who are 
 the principal subject of the following papers, there 
 is in the cultivating group the leading man of the 
 community, or village chief, having his share of the 
 communal land, and maintained in a position of 
 pre-eminence, authority, and leisure by the variously 
 rendered service of the other members of the com- 
 mune ; there is the depositary and expounder of 
 ceremonial rules and observances, who has similar 
 
xvi Introduction. 
 
 advantages, only less in degree ; there is the hus- 
 bandman cultivating his plot, and discharging his 
 measure of duty to the chief; and the craftsman, 
 no longer an ingredient in each family, but become 
 by division of labour a distinct entity of the 
 village, exchanges the results of his handywork 
 and specially acquired skill against a share of the 
 produce on the threshing-floor of his neighbours. 
 In regarding a social system of this kind one 
 cannot fail to recognise the gTeat advance which 
 has been made upon the preceding stages in the 
 economic application of human labour and intelli- 
 gence to the reducing of natural products into pos- 
 session, and the manufacturing or adaptation of them 
 to the use of man. The aggregate of the articles 
 brought within the reach of man and made available 
 for his use and requirements is greatly larger in 
 proportion to the numbers of the community than 
 it was under either of the preceding conditions 
 of life. This aggregate — in modern phraseology the 
 wealth of the community — is distributed by a 
 
Inteoduction. xvii 
 
 process of exchange, which may be deemed in a 
 certain sense the beginning of trade, but which yet 
 is not trade. The cultivator, the miller, the car- 
 penter, the potter, the weaver, each does his part 
 in maintaining the out-turn of usable products, 
 raw and manufa,ctured, and so far as he produces 
 in excess of his own household's wants he does so 
 for the benefit of his neighbours, on the understood 
 but not expressed consideration of getting in return 
 for it shares of their respective productions. 
 
 It is especially to be observed that in its earliest 
 form this peculiar sort of barter is regulated by 
 custom, and is not a system of bargaining. It 
 may be conceived of as having grown naturally out 
 of the prior order of things. Antecedent to the 
 times of the village settlement, those members of 
 the nomad family group, who did the weaving, or 
 the carpentering, or the tent-work, or kept up the 
 cattle furniture, &c., simply performed the tasks 
 v/hich fell to them in ordinary course, and par- 
 ticipated each according to his status in the 
 
 I 
 
X V iii Introduction. 
 
 community of goods, which was the product of then- 
 joint labours. After the cultivating settlement had 
 come into being, the tilling of the soil and the 
 vaiirnis artizan crafts became, probably by a slow 
 process of gradual change, the separate occupations 
 of independent households ; but the old family prin- 
 ciple only thereby experienced a new development : 
 each occupation was directed to and limited by the 
 wants of the whole village, and each craftsman in 
 return for the results of his labour and skill in his 
 o\,'n specialty received a customary share of all 
 the other villagers' productions. The miller, for 
 example, ground the corn of the village chief, and 
 perluips of the religious teacher, or wisdom man, 
 upon an obligation of duty to a superior ; he ground 
 the corn of the watchman in return for the benefit 
 of his service ; of the potter for the needful supply 
 of cooking and donestic vessels ; of the cultivator 
 for an ascertuiDed quantity of grain at harvest time. 
 In like manner the cultivator contributed a share 
 of the produce of his threshing-floor to the chief 
 
Inteoduction. xix 
 
 and other privileged persons of the village (if 
 any) as a duty, to the watchman in return for his 
 service, to the barber for his shaving, to the miller 
 for his grinding ; while the barber on his part 
 shaved the miller's household for his grinding, 
 the carpenters for a portion of the grain which 
 the latter earned from the cultivators. And the 
 other links of the village- nexus, if pursued, yield 
 a repetition of these illustrations. 
 
 It is a principal feature of this form of primi- 
 tive village communism that the just-mentioned 
 interchange of benefits or distribution of com- 
 modities is not effected through any process of 
 competition, but is regulated by custom, which, in 
 case of question, is determined either by the village 
 chief alone, or by a village assembly. 
 
 And the spirit of enmity to all outsiders, which 
 marked alike the hunter's family and the nomad 
 camp, animated in a still greater degree, if possible, 
 each separate village society. Except so far as 
 community of blood, or other strong influence, 
 
 h 2 
 
XX IXTKi.lDXTOTKIN'. 
 
 favoured the defensive combination of villni^a^s 
 ai^ainst common (lau;.;cvs, and so led practically to 
 an enlargement of the commonwealth, caeli village 
 community stood alone, self-sufficient and un- 
 yielding in its hostility to all that lay outside its 
 own pale. 
 
 These Uvo I'arly communistic principles, last 
 mentioned, have survived very persistently into 
 the later stages of society ; and their intluenee 
 can he unmistakabl)' traced in the land-economics 
 of modern Europe. 
 
 The hostility, in particular, ripening eventually 
 into militancy (to use an apt term of Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer's), was the means of bringing about the 
 next great change in the evolution of human society. 
 The inilividual jnimitive man, in like manner, as 
 he killed and eat such wild animals as he coidd 
 reach and overcome, a[)pi'opriat(^d, without being 
 troubled by any notions of right and wrong in the 
 matter, the goods of such men as he encountered 
 outside his own circle and was able to overpower. 
 
Introduction. xxi 
 
 The one was as legitimate prey as the other. And 
 the combined force of the village, under the leader- 
 ship of its chief, or perhaps a member of his 
 family, naturally acted in a similar way towards 
 other villages. From this root sprang the domina- 
 tion of a fighting class over an aggregation of 
 villages, and so initiated the formation and growth 
 of political communities ; while the acquisition of 
 the better weapons and other advantages tending 
 to the increase of physical force, led in the end to 
 the diffusion and predominance of the stronger 
 peoples, and to the development of national feeling 
 and power as we see it manifested in history. 
 
 How remote from the present times was the 
 apparent beginning of the human race, from which 
 the foregoing, in large measure imaginary, course of 
 evolution has been followed, can only be realized 
 by briefly passing under review so much, little 
 though it be, as is known of the successions of 
 men which have since occurred. 
 
 The long series of ages which in geology is 
 
xxii Intkoduction. 
 
 termed the pleistocene period of the earth's his- 
 tory, is, it need hardly be remarked, distinguished 
 from the periods which preceded it by the circum- 
 stance that a very large proportion of all the species 
 of mammals prevalent ' during its currency have 
 remained unchanged to the present day, and are 
 at this time flourishing contemporaneously with 
 man on the face of the globe. And only one 
 species of mammal,i namely, the African hippopo- 
 tamus, out of those few which survived from an 
 earlier period into the pleistocene period, has 
 succeeded in maintaining its place in the ter- 
 restrial fauna under the existing order of things. 
 Moreover, no traces of man have yet been found 
 which can certainly be attributed to any earlier date. 
 And it therefore seems a fair inference to conclude 
 that previously to the commencement of the pleisto- 
 cene period the conditions of life on the globe were 
 
 ^ It will be seen that in the short suiTey of geological and 
 ethnological facts which here follows, the views of Professor 
 Boyd DaAvkins and of the late II. Paul Broca, have heen adopted. 
 
Introduction. xxiii 
 
 not such as to favour the existence of man, while 
 during that period conditions which suited a large 
 number of the present contemporaries of the human 
 mammal would probably offer no obstacle to his 
 appearance. 
 
 The available geological evidence bearing on 
 the point seems to establish man's existence at 
 a time when enough of the pleistocene period 
 had elapsed to suffice for the occurrence therein 
 of considerable change in the physical circum- 
 stances of the earth and in the composition of 
 its fauna and flora. In the earlier portion of 
 the period the British Isles were a constituent 
 part of the continent of Europe ; and both Spain 
 and Italy were probably connected with Africa. 
 The climate of the European area was such as 
 to enable the leopard to range as far north as 
 the Mendip hills, the lion to frequent York- 
 shire, and the porcupine to live in Belgium. 
 
 Then, as now, however, arctic conditions ob- 
 tained in the polar regions; and as time went on 
 
xxiv Intkoductiox. 
 
 tbese siOTead southward. Several systems of glaciers 
 grew up on the northern tracts of Britain, serv- 
 ing to cover Scotland and much of England 
 under a slieet of ice. And this state of things 
 prevailed for a long period of time. Afterwards, 
 the rigour of the climate abated ; temperate con- 
 ditions came in ; and the southern limit of ice 
 and snow retreated northward. 
 
 Again, after an interval of the temperate regime 
 which thus ensued, snow and ice once more 
 resumed their sway over England and Mid-Europe 
 fur a period, which the effects produced by their 
 agency prove to have been very considerable. And 
 lastly, the ice and snow for a second time re- 
 treated from the south, giving place gradually to 
 the temperate climate of historic days. 
 
 As the arctic climate, on the first occasion, came- 
 southwards, the hot country mammals left our 
 latitudes for warmer regions, and were replaced 
 by mammals of a temperate zone. These latter 
 seem to have mostly come in from the east, 
 
Introduction. xxv 
 
 doubtless driven from Central Asia by the ad- 
 vancing cold on the north and finding the only 
 practical outlets for them open towards the plains 
 of Europe. These, too, in turn, were driven more 
 southward as the arctic conditions continued to 
 progress into lower latitudes. On the return of 
 the ice-line the proceeding was reversed. And a 
 like series of events, differing perhaps in degree, 
 occurred at each oscillation. 
 
 During this long lapse of time new forms 
 entered on the scene and the several successions 
 of fauna backwards and forwards over the same 
 ground gave rise to a very complex state of 
 animal life. So far as the evidence at present 
 extends, man was existing in England during the 
 temperate interval which separated the two ice 
 invasions. He was seemingly in the lowest stage 
 of human civilization, possessing only the rudest 
 and least effective stone implements and wea- 
 pons. Professor Boyd Dawkins states ^ the effect 
 
 ' Early Man in Brilain., p. 137. 
 
xxvi Introduction". 
 
 of the evidence to be that "man was living' 
 iu the valley of the lower Thames before the 
 arctic mammalia had taken full possession of the 
 valley of the Thames, and before the big-nosed 
 rhinoceros had become extinct " ; and he adds : — 
 " The primeval hunter who followed the chase 
 iu the lower valley of the Thames, armed with 
 his rude implements of flint, must have found 
 abundance of food and have had great difficulty 
 in guarding himself against the wild animals. 
 Innumerable horses, large herds of stags, uri, and 
 bison, were to be seen in the open country ; while 
 the Irish elk and the roe were comparatively 
 rare. Three kinds of rhinoceros and two kinds 
 of elephant lived in the forests. The hippopo- 
 tamus haunted the banks of the Thames, as well 
 as the beaver, the water rat, and the otter. There 
 were wolves also, and foxes, brown bears and 
 grisly bears, wild cats and lions of enormous size. 
 Wild boars lived in the thickets ; and as the 
 night came on the [hyfenas assembled in packs 
 
Introduction. xxvii 
 
 to huut down the young, the wounded, and the 
 infirm." 
 
 With the advance of the glacial climate man 
 disappeared for a while from southern England ; 
 hut after this had again given way to temperate 
 conditions his vestiges become very plentiful, and 
 serve to indicate that he was still in the lowest 
 stage of culture. He lived by the chase of wild 
 animals in 'the southern parts of England, in France 
 and Spain, and throughout the Mediterranean area, 
 as well on the African as the European side, in 
 Palestine and in India — " a nomad hunter poorly 
 equipped for the struggle of life, without knowledge 
 ^f metals, and ignorant of the art of grinding his 
 stone tools to a sharp edge." ^ 
 
 His contemporaries in England, at this era, were 
 the hippopotamus and the straight, tusked elephant, 
 the reindeer, and other arctic animals ; in Spain, the 
 African elephant ; and in Greece, possibly the pigmy 
 hippopotamus. And there can be little doubt that 
 
 ^ Early Man in Britain, p. 163. 
 
xxviii Introduction. 
 
 the period of time, for which this description is 
 applicable, was of very long duration. 
 
 The progress of ph}'sical change which slowl}- 
 and gradually led up to the historical state of 
 things on the face of the earth, included change 
 in the human species. The men whose remains are 
 found under the circumstances above described are 
 commonly spoken of as the river-drift men. During 
 the latter part, however, of the pleistocene period 
 these were apparently replaced by men of a some- 
 ^v•hai higher t3-pe, whom it is convenient to dis- 
 tinguish by the name of the cave-men, and who 
 not only added ingenious and efficient weapons 
 and implements of bone to the rude stone weapons 
 of their predecessors, but exhibited a remarkable 
 talent for ornamenting their various weapons, tools, 
 and implements, with graphic drawings of the 
 animals they hunted and killed. 
 
 The geographical range of the cave-men was 
 markedly less than that of the river-drift men. 
 And there appears good ground for supposing that 
 
Inteoduction. xxix 
 
 the two groups sprang from different origins, and 
 in particular that the cave-men were allied to, 
 if not identical with, the Eskimo of the present 
 day. 
 
 As in the case of the river-drift men the 
 period of time covered by the generations of the 
 cave-men was also very long, terminating only 
 with the pleistocene age. 
 
 The era of time, which in chronological order 
 immediately followed the days of the cave-men, 
 and which itself reached to the commencement 
 of history (in a certain manner, indeed, overlapping 
 it), exhibits to us in the area of Europe man in 
 three successive stages of culture, respectively deno- 
 minated the neolithic, the bronze, and the iron 
 age, all superior to that of the cave-men, and each 
 forming a marked step of human progress in 
 advance of the one which precedes it. 
 
 The men of the neolithic, or later stone age, 
 had not discovered the use of the metals. As was 
 the case with their predecessors, the river-drift 
 
XXX Introduction. 
 
 men and the cave-men, stone was their only 
 cutting and piercing medium; and hence, not- 
 withstanding the considerable interval of time 
 which seems to have separated them from the 
 cave-men, they strictly constitute a member of 
 the stone-using group and are appropriately de- 
 signated by reference to their position therein. 
 They are, however, sharply distinguished from the 
 earlier members of the same group by the fact 
 that they managed, by grinding, to give polished 
 surfaces and smooth edges to their tools and wea- 
 pons of stone, thus rendering them greatly more 
 efficient instruments than the rudely chipped 
 instruments of the river-drift men and cave-men 
 could possibly be. They lived in substantially 
 constructed huts, and had attained to some profi- 
 ciency in the arts of pottery and of weaving. The 
 dog, the sheep, the goat, the ox (short-horn) 
 and the hog, which had not before appeared in the 
 fauna of the earth, were used by them as domestic 
 animals. To, some extent, also, they practised 
 
Introduction. xxxi 
 
 agriculture. They cultivated wheat, barley, millet, 
 and peas ; and they had their orchards of apples, 
 pears, and bullaces. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, that the men of the 
 neolithic age were thus very far superior to their 
 predecessors, the cave-men, in regard to all the 
 material means of life, they were yet greatly 
 inferior to them in pictorial art; so much so that 
 it seems almost impossible, in reason, to suppose 
 them to be the same people in an advanced state 
 cif development. Their distribution over Europe 
 was also much more extensive than that of the 
 cave-men. And, judging from the characteristics 
 of the domestic animals and cereals which every- 
 where accompanied them, we may safely conclude 
 that they came into Europe from the regions of 
 Central Asia, overpowering or driving out by force 
 of their material advantages the cave-men, who 
 seem to have either merged in them or to have 
 disappeared before them — some of them, perhaps, 
 falling back on the more northern and arctic 
 
xxxii Intkoduction. 
 
 regions, where the Eskimo now contrive to main- 
 tain an unenviable existence. 
 
 It is established satisfactoril}^ by ample evi- 
 dence that the people of at least the earlier 
 portion of the neolithic age were, throughout tlie 
 British Isles, Mid and South Europe, small in 
 stature, with heads of the peculiar shape termed 
 dolichocephalic — long-skulled. After a time, how- 
 ever, as the obscurity of the later stone age 
 dawns into the grey light of history, it is per- 
 ceived that there are certainly two very different 
 sets of people in Europe under more or less the 
 same neolithic state of civilization. The earlier 
 long skulled folks seem to have been largely dis- 
 placed by a tall, broad-skulled (brachycephalic) race, 
 of no higher culture than themselves, who also 
 came westward from the direction of Asia, and 
 \vho are identified with the Kelts of history. By 
 the greater physical strength, and probably the 
 greater numbers of the latter, the little long skulled 
 men were forced into the rougher and less 
 
Introduction. xxxiii 
 
 accessible localities, more or less isolated from each 
 other ; and there seems now to be a well-grounded 
 disposition to believe that they are represented in 
 modern times by the various dispersed branches 
 of a family which has sometimes been termed 
 Iberian, such as the Basques of France and Spain, 
 the earlier Bretons, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish, the 
 ancient Ligurians, Etruscans, &c. 
 
 Although both these early Iberians and the Kelts 
 (as just distinguished) in their turn, the one after the 
 other, but with a long unknown interval, appear to 
 have come into Europe from Asia, yet the result of 
 all the relevant evidence seems to be that they were 
 radically distinct from each other in language, phy- 
 sique, and other characteristics, and must therefore 
 be attributed to different sources. And the Kelts 
 are now commonly looked upon as having been 
 among the first of the numerous constituent peoples 
 of the great Aryan family to sweep over and settle 
 upon the European area. 
 
 The state of civilization, which has been termed 
 
xxxiv Introduction. 
 
 neolithic does not appear to have been materially 
 modified by the ethnical vicissitudes just referred to. 
 It was the civilization of the early Kelts, as well as 
 of their Iberian predecessors ; and it prevailed alike 
 for a long duration of time with the inhabitants of 
 Northern Africa, the whole of Europe and Asia, the 
 two Americas, and the islands of the Pacific. 
 
 But after a time the knowledge of bronze, the first 
 form under which the metals were used by man as a 
 means of augmenting applied force, became general 
 on the Continent of Europe ; and it is noteworthy 
 that when the taU broad-skulled Kelts invaded and 
 swept before them the long-skulled (Iberian) people 
 of the British Isles an event which was posterior — 
 by a long interval of time to the displacement of 
 the cognate people in France and Western Europe — 
 they brought with them weapons and implements 
 of bronze ; and they possibly owed much of their 
 success to the superiority over the stone-using 
 islanders which these ancient " arms of precision " 
 must have given them. With the use of bronze, for 
 
Introduction. xxxv 
 
 some cause wMch remains as yet uuexplained, the 
 practice of burning the dead became customary 
 instead of burying. As might have been antici- 
 pated, also, the employment of metal in the con- 
 struction of implements and utensils gave rise ,to 
 enormous improvement ia the conditions of human 
 life, and effected an immense advance in the welfare 
 of man. Of this plentiful evidence remains in 
 every part of Europe. The initial limit of the 
 bronze civilization can, without much difficulty, be 
 very generally ascertained, and it is plain that the 
 date of its commencement is not for all places the 
 same. Great progress, for instance, had been made 
 in bronze industry in the south and south-east of 
 Europe at a time when nothing better than the neo- 
 lithic culture existed in the west and in the north. 
 Originating in some outside centre-point, the art was 
 probably brought into Europe by some invading 
 people, and became gradually spread from east to west 
 by the two ordinary means of diffusion, namely, com- 
 merce (elementary though it then was) and conquest. 
 
 c 2 
 
xxxvi Introduction. 
 
 The use of iron soon followed that of bronze, and 
 served to mark a still more advanced grade of civi- 
 lization. Like that of bronze, too, it came into 
 Europe from the outside, and spread gradually from 
 the south and east to the west and north. 
 
 At the commencement of the trustworthy history 
 of Europe the small long-skulled pre-Kelts, bearing 
 the locally differing names of Iberians, Vascones (or 
 Basques), Ligurians, and Etruscans, were occupying 
 the western portions of the British Isles and of France, 
 the Spanish peninsula, the seaboard of the Savoy 
 Alps, and the plain of Lombardy ; the Kelts were 
 pressing hard upon them in the eastern and northern 
 districts of France; the Belgse, again, were on the 
 back of these ; and the Eomans and Greeks respect- 
 ively inhabited the two Mediterranean peninsulas. 
 
 Those movements of the Kelts and Belgse were 
 then in progress by which the different tribes of the 
 smaller pre-Keltic people were ultimately compressed 
 into the restricted areas which their descendants still 
 occupy. So far as anything was known of Middle 
 
Inteoduction. xxxvii 
 
 and Northerii Europe, these regions were at that time 
 sparsely inhabited by tribes in a low state of civili- 
 zation relative to the Greeks and Eomans, Avho were 
 generally designated by the Latin writers Germans ; 
 while in the tract about the mouth of the Danube 
 and the north shore of the Black Sea were an 
 apparently altogether different set of people, called 
 the Scythians. Somewhat later the group of Scla- 
 vonians were recognised as a people distinct from 
 the Germans ; and we are all familiar with the 
 subsequent westward and southward migrations of 
 the German, Slavonic, and other little-civUized 
 hordes, all proceeding as from the direction of Asia, 
 which resulted in the subversal of the Eoman 
 empire, and led to the development of the many 
 diverse nationalities which now cover the European 
 area. The Latins themselves and the Greeks, as 
 well as the Kelts already spoken of, are found, on 
 examination of the relevant evidence, to be only the 
 fruits of earlier migrations from the same quarter. 
 And ethnologists seem to be generally agreed that 
 
xxxviii Introduction. 
 
 this group almost certainly came from one and the 
 same mother-source in South-Western Asia as the 
 German and Slavonic groups. 
 
 From this same centre also, besides the stream 
 north-westwards into Europe, another stream of 
 peoples flowed south-eastwards, bifurcating so as 
 to give rise to the Iranian group in the south and 
 the Hindu group in the east. The latter division, 
 at several different times, poured into India at its 
 north-west corner, and from thence wave by wave 
 spread down the Indus and the Ganges and up the 
 Assam valley, and overflowed southwards as far as 
 it could over the table-land of Central and Penin- 
 sular India, displacing or mixing with the relatively 
 aboriginal peoples which it found upon the ground. 
 
 The mass of peoples in Europe and Asia resulting 
 from these several streams of migration, diverging 
 from an apparently common centre, to this day 
 exhibit such very marked affinities in their languages, 
 and in other respects, as serve in the aggregate very 
 convincingly to betoken their community of origin. 
 
Inteoduction. xxxix 
 
 National traditions, and other historical materials, 
 bear the same way. They are accordingly classed 
 together by ethnologists under the designation some- 
 times of the Aryan, sometimes of the Indo-Euro- 
 pean, and often, by German writers, of the Indo- 
 Germanic family of peoples.^ 
 
 On the outskirts of the area now occupied in 
 Europe by the Aryan nations, as above defined, we 
 find, in the south, one or two small isolated patches 
 of non- Aryan peoples, seemingly the descendants of 
 the neolithic pre-Kelts, with whom we have seen the 
 Kelts in juxtaposition, and on the north the Finns, 
 Lapps, and Samoides. The latter also form a deci- 
 dedly non- Aryan group, nearly allied to the great 
 yeUow-complexioned family of peoples (commonly 
 termed the Turanian or Mongolian family) which 
 is spread over Asia north of the Himalayas. It 
 would seem that the Aryan stream of Kelts, Latins 
 
 1 The term Aryan seems to owe its appropriateness for this pur- 
 pose to the fact that it is the name by which both the Hindu 
 people and the Iranian people alike are spoken of in their 
 respective scriptures, namely, in the Yedas and the Zendavesta. 
 
xl Inteoduction. 
 
 Greeks, Germans, Slavonians, &c., in tlieir pro- 
 gressive advance into Europe from the East, en- 
 countered on the ground -the Iberian pre-Kelt and 
 the Turanian on the south and north respectively, 
 and pushed them on one side or absorbed them. The 
 mixture of the Kelts and Latins with the small 
 brown southern race is still easily recognised in the 
 modern Eomanic group of Eomanians, Greeks, Ita- 
 lians, Spanish, Portuguese, and the southern French. 
 
 In like manner the Iranian stream met, on the 
 south, Arabs and the Mesopotamian ancestors of the 
 Jews, who, with the Phoenicians and the inhabitants 
 of Lower Egypt, and others, all allied to each other, 
 belonged to a third very distinct family, now known 
 as the Semitic. And it also appears, from recent 
 discoveries, that these Semitic Mesopotamians were 
 themselves preceded by a most remarkable people 
 of advanced civilization, who have been distin- 
 guished by the name Accadian, and whose language 
 seems to connect them with the Turanian family. 
 
 And the Hindu stream of Aryan immigrants, in 
 
Introduction. xH 
 
 their turn, came into conflict witli prior occupants of 
 the soil in the river basins and on the peninsular 
 table-land of India. These also appear to have been 
 remotely connected, at least in language, with the 
 Turanian family lying on the north of the Hima- 
 layahs. They were, however, very distinct from the 
 latter in complexion (arhong other physical charac- 
 teristics), for instead of being yellow they were 
 black. The Kohls, the Ghonds, the Tamils, and 
 the remaining members of the Dravidian or South 
 Indian group are the representatives of these people 
 at the present day, and are all very dark. It does 
 not appear that the darkness of tint is the direct 
 consequence of solar action, but it in some way 
 implies qualities which enable the possessor the 
 better to resist the deleterious conditions of tropical 
 climate. And for this cause, probably, by force of 
 the principle, " survival of the fittest,'' the Hindu 
 population of the Indian peninsula, resulting from 
 the greater or less mixture of immigrant with in- 
 digenous blood, is more purely Aryan in the 
 
xlii Introduction. 
 
 neighbourhood of the place of entrance, and mani- 
 fests a gradual shading off of the Aryan type as one 
 pursues the course of the stream's advance to its 
 further tropical extreme. Kabul and the Punjab 
 everywhere afford fine examples of the comparatively 
 unmodified Aryan ; but at a glance the ordinary 
 Bengali of the Delta, or the Uriya of Orissa, is 
 perceived to be of mixed origin. The lips, the 
 nose, and the cheek-bones betray a foreign in- 
 gredient ; and, above aU, the darkened tint of the 
 skin shows the infiltration from without of a very 
 strong colouring material : the KabuLi is almost, if 
 not quite, as fair as an Enghshman, while the lower- 
 caste Bengali very nearly approaches the negro in 
 blackness. Thus it happens that within the limits 
 of the Hindu branch of the Aryan family of peoples 
 the utmost diversity of national character and 
 feature is to be observed, a diversity which is espe- 
 cially striking in regard to the colour of the skin. 
 The like occurs, though to a very much less extent, 
 in . the Iranian and European branches. But, 
 
Introduction. xliii 
 
 notwithstanding the very remarkable differences 
 which serve to distinguish many members of the 
 widely distributed Aryan family (as above described) 
 from the rest, full consideration of all the relevant 
 facts leaves little or no room for doubt that they are 
 all, as a whole, sprung from, or rather developed 
 in the manner indicated out of, [a common origin, 
 the local site of which was in the south-western 
 highlands of Asia. 
 
 The great Turanian and Mongolian family of 
 peoples who still cover the larger part of Asia 
 and China is more numerous than the Aryan ; 
 and may be said to exhibit no sort of community 
 with it. 
 
 •And the Semitic again, in the present state of 
 the information bearing upon the point, cannot be 
 assigned a community of origin with either of the 
 other families. 
 
 This survey, most incomplete though it be, of 
 the career of the human race, reaching from the 
 point of time when its appearance in the world 
 
xliv Inteoduction. 
 
 can be first made out, down to historical times, 
 renders it plain that the existing state of mankind 
 on the face of the globe, marvellously perfect as 
 it seems to be in some quarters, has only been 
 arrived at by a slow and tedious course of pro- 
 gression, not easily to be reaMzed in conception, 
 commencing with a stage little if at all in advance 
 of that of the most intelligent beasts of the forest, 
 and continued through a long series of ages which 
 lie at present beyond measurable computation. 
 
 The spread of the ilL-provided river-drift men 
 in association with a hot-country fauna over the 
 greater part of the known globe must itself have 
 required a very long lapse of time. And the ter- 
 restrial and other physical changes, which took 
 place while the river-drift men and the cave-men 
 were living, evidently effected as they were by 
 the slow action of the natural causes with which 
 we are familiar, tell the same tale. Again, the 
 total disappearance everywhere on the earth of 
 the river-drift men, followed by their partial 
 
Inteoduction. xlv 
 
 replacement in Europe by the cave-men, wlio, tliougli 
 still a hunting people, were of a markedly higher 
 culture than their predecessors, betraying an essen- 
 tially different (probably a cold country) derivation, 
 seems to point to an intervening long gap of time, 
 as to the duration of which we can form no estimate. 
 
 Another gap of unknown interval wholly sepa- 
 rates the cave-men from the men of the later stone 
 (neolithic) age, who at their first appearance, as 
 has been already recounted, are found to be an 
 agricultural people in full possession of the most 
 important of the cereals and of the domestic 
 animals of the modern European farmer. 
 
 The Kelts and others, who formed the front of 
 the first Aryan wave of emigration from Asia 
 into Europe, doubtless joined on in time with the 
 earlier long-skulled neolithic people. But the 
 manner in which they must have become severed 
 from their parent Asian stock, and differentiated 
 from their collateral relatives, can only be ac- 
 counted for by taking a large allowance of time 
 
xlvi Introdtjction. 
 
 for the previous development of the family tree. 
 With man, as with animals, the process of evolu- 
 tion is now known to be ceaselessly at work, 
 though usually slow of operation. Each indi- 
 vidual of a generation, being the product of two 
 factors, repeats generally by inheritance the com- 
 mon characteristics of its two parents, subject to 
 variations which are due to the combination of 
 differing elements. With an alteration in the cir- 
 cumstances of life, a variety so arising, better 
 adapted than the parent form to succeed under 
 the new conditions, while retaining its general 
 features, will come to prevail uniformly in every 
 community which is by any means left to its 
 own resources shut off from foreign intermixture. 
 In this way every offshoot from a tribe or family, 
 especially during the earlier stages of civilization, 
 when intercommunication is restricted and life is 
 dominated by the external conditions of nature, 
 seems apt, sometimes speedily, though in general 
 slowly, to grow into a divergent branch, exhibiting 
 
Introduction. xlvii 
 
 differences of physical characteristics in comparison 
 with the original type. And the change is both 
 accelerated and augmented where the new com- 
 munity is formed from an intermixture of an 
 immigrant with an indigenous race. 
 
 A like process goes on in language. The speech 
 of each individual is generally the same as the 
 speech of those from whom he has acquired it by 
 imitation ; this is equivalent to the rule of in- 
 heritance. At the same time it exhibits variation 
 due to the individual himself, and the circumstances 
 affecting him ; and, on the principle of the " sur- 
 vival of the fittest," that variation which involves 
 the least trouble under those circumstances consistent 
 with clearness will in the end come to prevail 
 with much uniformity. 
 
 In his " Introduction to the Science of Language " 
 (vol. ii., p. 318) Prof Sayce writes : — 
 
 "Does the science of language help us to answer the 
 "question of the antiquity of man ? The answer must 
 " be both Yes and No. On the one side it declares as plainly 
 
xlviii Introduction. 
 
 " as geology or pre-historio arohfeology that the age of the 
 "human race far exceeds the limit of six thousand years, to 
 " which the monuments of Egypt allow us to trace back the 
 " history of civilized man ; on the other side it can tell us 
 " nothing of the long periods of time that elapsed before the 
 "formation of articulate speech, or even of the number of 
 " centuries which saw the iirst essays at language gradually 
 " developing into the myriad tongues of the ancient and 
 " modern world. All it can do is to prove that the antiquitj- 
 " of man as a speaker is vast and indelinite. "When we con- 
 " sider that the grammar of the Assyrian language, as found 
 "in inscriptions earlier than B.C. 2il00, is in many respects 
 " less archaic and conservative than that of the language 
 " spoken to-day by the tribes of central Arabia, — when we 
 ' ' consider further that the parent language which gave birth 
 "to Assyrian, Arabic, and other Semitic dialects must have 
 " passed through long periods of growth and decay, and that 
 " in all probability it was a sister of the parent tongues of 
 " Old Egyptian and Lybian, springing in their turn from a 
 " common mother-speech, — we may gain some idea of the ex- 
 " treme antiquity to which we must refer the earliest form 
 " we can discover of "a single famil}' of speech. And behind 
 "this form must have lain unnumbered ages of progress and 
 " development during which the half-articulate cries of the 
 '■ first speakers were being slowly matured into articulate and 
 '■ grammatical language. The length of time required by 
 " the process will be most easily conceived if we remember 
 "how stationary the Arabic of illiterate nomads has been 
 " during the last four thousand years, and that the language re- 
 " vealed by the oldest monuments of Egypt is already decrepit 
 " and outworn, already past the bloom of creative youth." 
 
Introduction. xli 
 
 " An examination of the Aryan languages will tell tlie same 
 " tale, although the process of change and decay has been 
 " immeasurably more rapid in these than in the Semitic 
 " idioms. But even among the Aryan languages the gram- 
 " matical forms of Lithuanian are still, in many cases, but 
 " little altered from those used by our remote forefathers in 
 " their Asiatic home, and in one or two instances are more 
 " primitive and archaic than those of Sanskrit itself. What- 
 " ever may have been the rate of change, however, it is im- 
 " possible to bring down the epoch at which the Aryan tribes 
 " still lived in the same locality, and spoke practically the 
 " same language, to a date much later than the third millen- 
 " nium before the Christian era. A long interval of pre\ ious 
 " development divides the language of the Rig- Veda, the 
 " earliest hymns of which mount back, at the latest, to the 
 " fourteenth century B.C., and that of the oldest portions of 
 " the Homeric poems, and yet there was a time when the 
 " dialect that matured into Vedio Sanskrit and the dialect 
 " which matured into Homeric Greek were one and the same. 
 
 " The Ural-Altaic family of languages bears similar testi- 
 •' mony. To find » common origin for Uralic, Turkish, and 
 ■' Jlongol, we mxist go back to an indefinitelj' great antiquity. 
 ■' The Accadian of Chaldea is an old and decaying speech 
 ' when we first discover it in inscriptions of 3000 B.C. — a 
 ' speech, in fact, which implies a previous development at 
 ' least as long as that of the Aryan tongues ; and if we would 
 ' include Accadian, or rather the Protomedic group of lan- 
 ' guages to which Accadian belongs, in the Ural-Altaic family, 
 ' we shall have to measure the age of the- parent-speech 
 
 d 
 
1 Introduction. 
 
 '' by thousands of years. The Jlongols, moreover, are 
 " physiologically different in race from the Ugro-Tatars, and 
 " it is difScult to estimate the length of time required for the 
 '■ complete displacement of the original dialects of Mongols, 
 " Mantchus, and Tanguses by those of a foreign stock. But 
 " it was at any rate considerable. 
 
 " Comparative philolog}' thus agrees with geology, prehis- 
 ' " toric archasology, and ethnology, in showing that man as a. 
 " speaker has existed for an enormous period ; and this enor- 
 " moLis period is of itself suffinient to explain the mixture 
 " and interchanges that have taken place in languages, as 
 " well as the disappearance of numberless groups of speech 
 " throughout the globe." 
 
 Thus it appears that tlie requirements of race- 
 differentiation and of speech-evolution argue just 
 as forcibly as geological considerations towards the 
 almost inevitable conclusion, that man has liad his 
 place, and has been fighting the battle of life, in 
 the animal ■ world for unreckonable ages of time. 
 
 The course of etliical development (in which 
 custom and usage has at all stages been a domi- 
 nant factor of vast retarding effect), so far as it 
 can be seized and realized, and as it has been en- 
 deavoured to be traced above, discloses therefore a 
 history, whicli does no more than accord with the 
 
Introduction. li 
 
 results of these other independent sources of tes- 
 timony, and whicli is in no degree too protracted. 
 The length of the period requisite for the actual 
 progress made, and the extreme slowness of the 
 general rate of advance, can only be rightly under- 
 stood when the persistency of every social insti- 
 tution that has once been established is clearly 
 apprehended. Indeed, conservatism is the primary 
 principle of every regulated society of men. The 
 activity of each community, and the conduct of 
 its members, are, in all stages of culture, mainly 
 directed and governed by custom and usage. 
 Change means new acquisition of some sort, and 
 commonly follows but slowly upon it. 
 
 And of all institutions among the Aryans 
 perhaps a certain well-defined village organization, 
 with its associated method of land-holding, has 
 been the most widespread and has proved itself 
 the most enduring. In the three papers which 
 have been put together in the present small 
 volume, an attempt has been made to describe 
 
Hi Introduction. 
 
 this organization, as it is found working, at least 
 to a partial extent, in Bengal and Ceylon at the 
 present day, and to offer an explanation of the 
 manner in which it may reasonably be supposed 
 to have grown up. 
 
 The first paper, which deals with Modern Village 
 Life in Bengal, was first published in the Calcidia 
 Rcoievj in 1864, and embodies the results of the 
 writer's personal observations and inquiries pursued 
 pretty continuously for all j)arts of the Presidency 
 during a residence of ten years in Calcutta. 
 
 The second and much shorter paper on Tlie 
 Agricultural Community in Ceylon is the substance 
 of notes made by the writer while living for two 
 years in that island from 1877 to 1879. 
 
 And the third paper was read in the interval, 
 namely in 1872, before the Bethunc Society of 
 Calcutta. Its aim is to explain the growth ab 
 initio of the Bengal institution, as well as the 
 rise of the social grades and property conceptions, 
 which are intimately connected with it, by an 
 
Introduction. liii 
 
 application of those princijples of evolution and dif- 
 ferentiation which are conspicuous in the foregoing 
 concise review of such conclusions of modern 
 scientific research as bear on the question, and by 
 assuming for the purpose a great lapse of time in 
 the development of the human race, such as the 
 results of that research more than amply justify. 
 
 The Eussian Mir, so fully and graphically de- 
 scribed in Mr. Wallace's pages, is an instance of 
 the like institution, also a living reality, in actual 
 operation, at the present day among a third people 
 of Aryan extraction. And there are probably few 
 of the other Aryan nationalities in Europe which, 
 even though they may have long, lost the village 
 organization itself, do not retain some still un- 
 effaced impressions of the rules of landholding, and 
 the conceptions of land rights which were incident 
 thereto. 
 
 Moreover the manor, which has only recently 
 ceased to have practical activity, was the English 
 feudal form of the oriental vUlage, or rather was 
 
liv Introduction. 
 
 the substitute for it, which was brought into exist- 
 ence by the superposition of a foreign dominant 
 power. Probably, too, the Anglo-Saxon hide of 
 land was but the equivalent of the Bengal jot, i.e. 
 a one-household share of the common land, origi- 
 nally the extent cultivable with one yoke of oxen 
 — a one-plough portion of land. 
 
 The landlord's absolute property in land, and the 
 usage of hiring it out to a farmer on a cultivat- 
 ing contract for a money rent, which has for some 
 time prevailed in England to the exclusion of 
 inferior customary tenures or occupations, is the 
 outgrowth of the ande or meUnjer letting, which 
 was the first mode of tilling by deputy under the 
 earlier village and manorial system, ilr. Caird 
 {Landed hiterest, p. 53) remarks, that the landlord 
 and tenant system "is so general in the United 
 Kingdom that we really cannot be said to know 
 any other, and yet, with reference to almost every 
 other country but our own, is exceptional in 
 Europe." Even now, as the same eminent authority 
 
Intkoduction. Iv 
 
 admits (p. 78), in Ireland the tenant " has esta- 
 blished for himself a claim to a co-partnership in the 
 soil itself." And this seems rather to be of the 
 nature of a survival from an older state of things 
 in spite of English influence to the contrary, and 
 not to be a mere modern assertion of right on 
 the part of the Irish farmer brought about, as 
 Mr. Caird appears to think it has been, by reason 
 of the landlord's neglect of his proper duties. 
 
 In England, again, and the greater part of Europe 
 manors or villages became fused into larger admin- 
 istrative units — such as hundreds — and so even- 
 tually a national system of fiscal and municipal 
 government was developed from the people upwards, 
 and became consolidated into one homogeneous 
 structure. In the East, on the other hand, 
 various causes favoured the permanence of the 
 purely village administration, and supreme poli- 
 tical power became the prize and prerogative of 
 the strongest arm, to be exercised through officers 
 on the zamindari principle, with little concern 
 
Ivi Inteoductiox. 
 
 for anything else but the command of the local 
 collections. 
 
 It need hardly be added that the Turks have . 
 introduced into Europe a modification of this latter 
 form of government, and that it is now a question 
 of very wide interest how this can be made to 
 work in conformity with the ideas of national 
 welfare which have been generated insensibly 
 under the operation of a totally different system. 
 
 With these and other circumstances of the like 
 kind in view, it is hoped that an attempt to bring 
 under the notice of English readers a detailed 
 account of such village organization as is yet to 
 be seen active among the Indian Aryans may not 
 be altogether inopportune. 
 
MODERN VILLAGE LIFE 
 IN BENGAL. 
 
I. 
 
 INS AND OUTS OF THE VILLAGE.^ 
 
 In au attempt to describe for English readers 
 a type specimen of an agricultural village as it 
 exists in Bengal at the present day, it should be 
 premised that the Bengal village differs as much 
 from an English village, as two things bearing the 
 same designation can well be conceived to differ. 
 
 There is but one form of landscape to be seen 
 in deltaic Bengal, and that a very simple one. 
 Prom the sea line of the Simderbunds on the South, 
 to the curve which, passing through Dacca, Pubna, 
 Moorsheedabad, forms the lower boundary of the 
 red land of the North, the whole country is an 
 
 ^ This with the six succeeding sections, almost as they now stand, 
 appeared as an article in the July and October numbers of the 
 Calcutta Revieio for 1874. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 almost perfectly level alluvial plain. It exhibits 
 generally large open spaces— sometimes very large 
 ■ — limited to the eye by heavy masses of foliage. 
 These open spaces, during the height of the 
 South-West Monsoon, are more or less covered 
 with water; at the end of the rains by green 
 waving swarths of rice ; and in the dry season 
 are to a large extent fallow ground, varied by plots 
 of the different cold weather (or rahi) crops. 
 
 There exist almost no roads ; that is to say, 
 except a few trunk roads of communication be- 
 tween the capital and the district towns, there 
 are almost none of the European sort, only irregular 
 tracks, sometimes traversable by wheels, along the 
 balks (or ail';) which divide and subdivide the 
 soil into small cultivated patches or khets. The 
 few other roads which do exist, are hichcha, i.e., 
 nnmetalled, and are pretty nearly useless except 
 in the dry season. ^ 
 
 ' On the relatively high land of "West Bcufjal, which lies outside 
 the delta and below the gJidts, something like roads may be seen 
 
I.] Ixs AXD Outs of the Village. 5 
 
 The function of main roads as the means of 
 locomotion and carriage of goods is performed in 
 a large part of Bengal by innumerable Midls or 
 canals, which branching out from the great rivers 
 Hooghly, Ganges, Pudda, Megna, &c., 'intersect the 
 country in all directions. Boat travelling upon 
 them is somewhat monotonous, inasmuch as the 
 banks are almost uniformly of bare, greasy, mud, 
 high enough above the water, at other times than 
 during the rains, to shut out from view all that 
 is not placed immediately on their upper margin. 
 But now and then extremely pretty scenes occur, 
 where mango topes and bamboo clumps, straggling 
 with broken front over and along the top, partially 
 disclose the picturesque dwellings which are clus- 
 tered beneath their shade. Eiver craft of elegant 
 shape and quaintly loaded cargoes are drawn to 
 the ghat, as the sloping ramp is called, or are 
 
 througli and about the large villages, though even these are often 
 not fitted for wheel trafiic. The description in the text is intended 
 for the delta alone. 
 
C Modern Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 moored in the water way; and at the bathing 
 liour of early noon the shallower water becomes 
 alive with groups of men, women and children 
 immersed to the waist, and performing their daily 
 ablutions in truly oriental fashion. 
 
 Whether a village is thus placed on the high 
 bank of a hhdl, or is situated inland, it invariably 
 stands on relatively elevated ground above reach 
 of the waters which annually clothe the Bengal 
 world during the period of rains, and is almost 
 as invariably hidden, so to speak, dwelling by dwell- 
 ing in the midst of jungle. In fact the masses 
 of seemingly forest growtli which appear to bound 
 the open spaces of the ordinary landscape are 
 commonly but villages in a pleasant disguise. 
 
 These villages can be approached on every side 
 across the kliets by passing along the dividing 
 (('(V.s) balks. No trace of a street or of any 
 order in the arrangement of the houses is to be 
 discerned in them. 
 
 Perhaps it would be correct to say that there 
 
I.J Ins and Outs of the Village. 7 
 
 are no houses in the European sense ; each dwell- 
 ing is a small group of huts, generally four, and "^ 
 is conveniently termed a homestead. This is the 
 unit of the material, out of which every village 
 is constructed, and therefore merits a particular 
 description. 
 
 The site of the group is a very carefully levelled 
 platform, raised somewhat above the general eleva- 
 tion of the village land, roughly square in figure, 
 and containing say about 800 or 1,000 square yards 
 in area. The huts of which the homestead is 
 composed are made of bamboo and matting, or 
 of bamboo wattled and plastered over with mud, 
 sometimes of mud alone, the floor of the struc- 
 ture also of mud being again raised above the 
 level of the platform. Each hut is one, apartment 
 only, about twenty feet long and ten or fifteen feet 
 wide, commonly without a window ; the side walls 
 are low, the roof is high peaked, wibh gracefully 
 curved ridge, and is thatched with a jungle grass ; 
 the eaves project considerably, thus forming low 
 
8 Modern Village Life ix Bexgal. [i. 
 
 verandahs on the back and front of the hut. These 
 huts are ranged on the sides of the platform 
 facing inwards, and though they seldom touch one 
 another at the ends, yet they do in a manner 
 shut in the interior space, which thus constitutes 
 a convenient place for the performance of various 
 household operations and may be termed the house- 
 space ; the native name for it is tcthdn. It is here 
 that the children gambol and bask, seeds are 
 spread to dry, the old women sit and spin ; and 
 so on. 
 
 The principal hut often has, in addition to the 
 door which opens on this interior quadrangle or 
 house-space, a second door and well kept verandah 
 on the opposite side opening on the path, by which 
 the dwelling can be best approached. This is the 
 baithaJchdna (sitting room), and is the place where 
 strangers, or men not belonging to the family, 
 are received. It is also very commonly the sleep- 
 ing place of the male members of the family at 
 night. The mud floor of the hut or verandah 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 9 
 
 spread with a mat is all the accommodation needed 
 for this purpose ; though the head of the house 
 or other favoured individual may afford himself 
 the luxury of a cliarpoy, which is simply sacking, 
 or a coarsely made web of tape or cord, stretched 
 across a rude four-legged frame of wood. The hut 
 which stands on the further side of the quadrangle, 
 facing the iaithakhdna, is appropriated to the 
 women and children, one of the two others contains 
 the chula or mud fireplace and serves the purpose 
 of kitchen, and the fourth is a gola or store-room of 
 grain. In one of the huts, whether in the quad- 
 rangle or outside, will be the dhenJci, and that ■ 
 hut generally goes by the name of dhenki-ghar. 
 The dhenJci is an indispensable domestic utensil, 
 a very large pestle and mortar, the main purpose 
 of which is to husk rice. The mortar is com- 
 monly a vessel, excavated out of a log of wood, 
 and is sunk in the ground; the pestle is the 
 hammer head (also wood) of a horizontal lever 
 bar which works on a low post or support, and 
 
10 Modern Village Liee in 1'enoal. [i. 
 
 the other arm of which is (k'pri'ssed by one or 
 two women applyin^i,' their wciglit to it ; upon 
 their relieving this arm of their \\oit;ht the liammer 
 falling pounds the 2""^'l'J ^^ the mortar, and hy 
 the continuance of this operation the husk of 
 the grain is rubbed off. I'add;/, the grain of 
 rice, somewhat remotely resondiles barley, and 
 must be husked before it can be eaten. It is 
 surprising how effectively the dhcnld attains its 
 object. 
 
 If the i'iiniily is nioro than ordinarily well off, 
 the house group may contain more than four huts ; 
 there will often be a hut or shed open at the 
 sides in which the cattle are tethered, carrying 
 on a frail loft the primitive plough and other 
 small implements of husbandry ; also in Hindu 
 houses a /Jiakiirhdri, or hut in which the figure of 
 the family deity or patron saint is preserved. 
 
 When the number of huts exceeds four in 
 all, one or more as the bullnckslied, f/oln, &c., or 
 even the dhnili-ijliai' will commonly be situated 
 
I J Ins and Outs of the Village. 11 
 
 outside the quadrangle, perhaps in front of or 
 near to a corner. 
 
 The homestead platform is generally surrounded 
 in an irregular manner by large trees, such as 
 mango, plpal, palms. In small clearings among 
 these a few herbs and vegetables are grown for 
 family use in the curry ; and the whole area or 
 compound which belongs to the homestead is 
 marked off from its neighbours, generally, in some 
 very obscure manner, by most rude metes and 
 bounds, though very rarely a tolerably neat fence 
 of some sort may be met with. The women of 
 the family keep the hardened mud floor of the 
 house-space, of the principal huts and of the 
 verandahs scrupulously clean, and often adorn the 
 front wall of the haitliaklidna with grotesque figures 
 in chalk. But as a rule, the remainder of the 
 homestead compound is in a most neglected dirty 
 condition, even the small vegetable plots are com- 
 monly little more than irregular scratchings in 
 the midst of low jungle undergrowth. There is 
 
12 Modern Village Lite in Bengal. [i. 
 
 notliing resembling a well kept garden and there 
 are no flowers. The modern Bengali has a very- 
 imperfect appreciation of neatness under any cir- 
 cumstances, and is absolutely incapable, unassisted, 
 of drawing either a straight line or an evenly 
 curved line ; the traces left by his plough, 
 the edges of his little fields, the rows of his 
 planted paddy, &c., exhibit as little order as 
 the marks of inked spider legs across a sheet 
 of paper. 
 
 The ordinary agricultural village of Bengal is 
 but a closely packed aggregate of such home- 
 steads as that just described, differing from each 
 other only in small particulars according to the 
 means and occupations of their owners, and more 
 or less concealed among the trees of their com- 
 pounds. There is too, here and there, waste land 
 in the shape of unoccupied sites for dwellings, and 
 also tanks or ponds of water in the excavations, 
 which furnished the earth for the construction of 
 the homestead, platforms, &c. 
 
i.J Ins and Outs of the Village. 13 
 
 These tanks are often rich in all sorts of abom- 
 inations, overhung with jungle, and surface-covered 
 with shiny pond- weed; but they are nevertheless 
 among the most precious possessions of the village. 
 The people bathe there, cleanse their bodycloths, 
 get their drinking-water, and even catch fish in 
 them. For, it should be mentioned that in Bengal 
 every pool of water swarms with fish, small or 
 great; the very ditches, gutters and hollows which 
 have been dried up for months, on the first heavy 
 downfall filling them, turn out to be complete 
 preserves of little fish, and it is strange on such 
 an occasion to see men, women and children on 
 all sides with everj^ conceivable form of net strain- 
 ing the waters for their scaly prey. Sometimes a 
 fortunate or a wealthy ryot has a tank attached to 
 his homestead all his own, to which his neighbours 
 have no right to resort. 
 
 To find a particular dwelling among such a cluster 
 as this is an almost impossible task for a stranger. 
 The narrow paths which, threading deviously in 
 
14 MoDEEx Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 and out between the scarcely distinguished com- 
 pounds, passing under trees and over mounds, around 
 the tanks and across the rare tnaiddn (green), answer 
 to the streets and lanes of an English village, but 
 in truth they constitute a labyriath of which none 
 but the initiated are in possession of the clue. 
 
 The land which the cultivators of the village, 
 i.e., the bulk of the inhabitants, till, is a portion 
 of the lower-lying plain outside and around the 
 village. The family of a homestead which may 
 consist of a father and sons, or of brothers or of 
 cousins, usually cultivates from 2 to 10 acres in 
 the whole, made up of several plots, which often 
 lie at some distance from one another. The men 
 go out to their work at daybreak, plough on shoulder, 
 driving their cattle before them along the nearest 
 village path which leads to the open ; sometimes 
 they return at noon for a meal and a bathe in the 
 tank, and afterwards go out a second time to their 
 work, but oftener they remain out tiU the afternoon, 
 having some food brought to them about midday liy 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 15 
 
 the women and children. One man and his young 
 sou (still in his boyhood) with a plough and a pair 
 of oxen will cultivate as much as three acres, and 
 so on in proportion.^ There is no purely agricul- 
 tural labouring class as we English know it. Small 
 cultivators and the superiluous hands of a family 
 will work spare times for hire on their neigbours' 
 land, and in some villages, where the occupation 
 of a caste, say the weavers caste, has died a natural 
 death, the members forced to earn their livelihood 
 by manual labour, amongst other employments take 
 to labour on the land for wages. For the harvest 
 a somewhat peculiar arrangement is often made. 
 The paddy grown on land in one situation will 
 ripen somewhat later or earlier than paddy grown 
 under slightly different circumstances,^ and so small 
 gangs of cultivators from one village or district 
 will go to help the cultivators of a distant village 
 
 ^ Perhaps even more, with the aid received in reaping, &c. 
 
 ^ Crops are known by designations drawn from the months or 
 seasons in which they are reaped or gathered, as Shaduwi, Klmrif, 
 EaM ; and these respectively depend upon the season of sowing. 
 
16 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 to cut their paddy, this assistance being returned 
 if needed. The remuneration received for this work 
 is usually one bundle out of every five, or out of 
 every seven, that are cut. The foreigners build a 
 mat hut for themselves in the harvest field, extem- 
 porize a threshing-floor and after having completed 
 their service, carry home their bags of grain. The 
 large topic of agricultural cultivation and land- 
 holding will be treated of in a later page. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking feature apparent in 
 the village community, as seen by the European 
 eye, is the seeming uniformity in the ways and 
 manners of the daily life of all the component 
 classes, a uniformity which from its comprehensive- 
 ness indicates a low level of refinement! From one 
 end to the other of the village the homestead pre- 
 sents scarcely any variation of particular, whether 
 the occupant be a poor ryot or a comparatively 
 wealthy mahdjan or trader, and its furniture is 
 pretty nearly as meagre in the one case as in the 
 other. Sometimes the house of the wealthier and 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 17 
 
 more influential man is pakka or brick-lDuilt, but 
 it is seldom on this account superior in appearance 
 to the thatched bamboo homestead of his neighbour. 
 On the contrary, it is generally out of repair and 
 partially broken down. Its plan is quadrangular, 
 like that of the homestead, with a similar arrange- 
 ment of offices, and being closed in with its own 
 vfaRs the house is, as a ■ rule, very dismal and dirty 
 on the inside. The interior courtyard by its untidy- 
 ness and unkempt aspect, commonly offers a striking 
 contrast to the wholesome cleanliness of the open 
 homestead uthdn. Little more is to be found in 
 the front apartment than in the haithakhdna hut of 
 the peasant, if he has one. Probably the one man 
 will have finer and more numerous body cloths 
 than the other, and better blankets ; his cooking 
 utensils and other domestic articles (very few in 
 all) may be of brass instead of earthenware, his 
 hukhas of metal or even silver mounted instead of 
 a cocoanut shell — his women will wear richer anr 
 a o-reater quantity of ornaments tliaa the wnuieii 
 
 c 
 
18 iloDEKN Village Life in Bexgal. [i. 
 
 of his neighbour. He may have a wooden gaddi 
 (takhtaposh), or low platform in his receiving-room, 
 on which he and his guests or clients may sit cross- 
 legged, slightly raised above the earthen floor. 
 He may have a richly carved in place of a plain 
 vtrnhil-, or strong box, for the custody of his 
 valuables, or even a plurality of them. But both 
 households will conform to the same general habits 
 of life, and those very primitive. The food of the 
 two is pretty much alike, rice in some form or 
 other and curry ; and this is eaten by taking it 
 out of the platter or off the plaintain leaf with the 
 fingers. The appliances of a slightly advanced stage 
 of manners such as anything in the shape of knives 
 and forks and spoons for eating purposes, tables, 
 chairs, &c., are almost unknown. 
 
 At home, and while at work, most men go naked, 
 all but the dhoti or loin cloth, and very commonly 
 children of both sexes wp to the age of seven or 
 eight years are absolutely naked. In Europe, as 
 men rise above the poorer classes in means, they 
 
I,] Tn^s axi) Outs of the Village. 19 
 
 apply their savings in the first instance to the 
 increase of personal comfort, convenience, the better 
 keeping of their houses, and its incidents the garden, 
 &c. This appears not to be the case in Bengal to 
 any great extent. Often the foreigner's eye can 
 detect bat little distinction between the homesteads 
 and surroundings of the aJ.most pauper peasant 
 and those of the retired well-to-do tradesman. The 
 mode in which the possession of wealth is made 
 apparent, is ordinarily by the expenditure of money 
 at family ceremonies, such as marriage, shraddhas 
 (funeral obsequies) and readings of national and 
 religious epics, the Bhagbut, Eamayan, and so on. 
 On the occasions of shadis and shraddhas, the cost 
 is in the preparation and purchase of offerings, 
 presents, and payments to Brahman priests, presents 
 to, and the feeding of, Brahmans generally. For 
 the readings, the Brahman narrator QcathaL) is paid 
 very highly, and both he and his audience are 
 sometimes maintained for several days by the 
 employer. Then certain religious festivals are kept 
 
 c 2 
 
■20 MoiiKiix YiLLACK Life in Bkacal, [i. 
 
 annually by such families as can aflbrd to do so. 
 In particular Kalis' in Kartik (October) Laksinis' 
 at about the same time and Saraswati's or Sri 
 Paucliamis' in M:\-^]i (end of January). And 
 ceremonies in honour of Durga aie commonly 
 })erfirnied by well-to-do people. x\.t these times 
 rich families spend very lar;j,e sums of money, 
 indeed. The social respect, whicli is e\'ery\\liere 
 commanded by the possession of wealth, seems 
 to be meted out in Beni;al verj- much according 
 to tlie mode lU' degree nf magnificeiiiH' \\ith which 
 these semi-public I'aniily duties are perfDrmed, and 
 thus it liainK'iis that vwni in the nmst out of the 
 way agricultural village, sucli small ostentation in 
 tbis way as can be attained unto, is the first aim 
 of tlie petl)' capitalist in preference to any ell'ort 
 at improving the ct)uditions of his daily lil'e. The 
 ]ieo]ile are still in ,i stage of civilization, in which 
 tlie advantages of relinemenl. and convenieut'c in 
 the manner of living are unl'elt, and the exciting 
 pleasures of the spectacle all powerful. 
 
!■] Ixs AND Outs of the Village. 21 
 
 In village families, the women are almost all 
 alike absolutely ignorant and superstitious. Their 
 dress is a coarse cloth with rude ornaments on 
 their arms and ankles. They do all the menial 
 work of the household, even when the family 
 ranks among the better classes. Their habit of 
 going daily to the tanks to fetch water and for 
 washing gives them opportunity for gossip and 
 searching of reputations which is seldom lost and 
 often produces a bitter fruit. The religious creed 
 of both men and women is most crude and ill- 
 formed, at best a tangled tissue of mythological 
 fable. Such worship as is not vicarious, is fetish 
 and deprecatory in its object. Women especially, 
 probably from their greater ignorance and restrained 
 condition of life, are disposed to attribute even 
 common incidents to the agency of invisible beings. 
 There are for them jungle spirits, and river spirits, 
 headless spirits, six-handed goddesses, ghosts, gob- 
 lins, and in some parts of Bengal witchcraft is 
 firmly believed in. An old woman with uneven 
 
22 Modern Village Life in "Bengal. [i. 
 
 eyes is certain to be looked upon as a witch, and 
 children are carefully prevented from appearing 
 before such a one. Girls perform hrotos with the 
 purpose of averting future ills. Astrology, half 
 science, half faith, gi'ows out of these elements 
 and has its professors in nearly every conssider- 
 able village. Signs of prognostication are care- 
 fully sought for, and bear each an assigned 
 importance. For instance, sneezing is generally 
 inauspicious. The ticking sound of the lizard 
 is a deterring omen. When certain stars rule, 
 the women of a family will not leave the 
 house. "Women will hesitate to cross a stream 
 of water the day before that fixed for the per- 
 formance of a shrudh. In short, their down-sittings 
 and uprisings, walking, sleeping, eating, drinking, 
 may be said to be subject to the arbitrary 
 control of spiritual agencies ; and a numerous 
 body of astrologers finds employment and a not 
 despicable means of living, in the interpretation 
 of the phenomena, by which these supernatural 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 23 
 
 governors allow their will or intention to be 
 discovered.! 
 
 The plot of ground on which the homestead stands 
 and the small surrounding compound which goes 
 with it, is hired of a superior holder. A common 
 rent is Ee. 1, 1-4 1-8 per annum for the homestead 
 plot, and somewhat less for the attached piece. The 
 buildings, however, which constitute the homestead, 
 are usually constructed by the tenant and belong to 
 him. Should he move to another place, he may take 
 away the materials or sell them. This is one reason 
 why mud, mat, and bamboo dwellings are the rule, 
 and pakka (brick-built) houses the exception. The 
 largest mat hut of a homestead wiU cost from Es. 30 
 to 50 to build entirely anew. The chulha, or cooking- 
 stove, is made by the women, of mud. The dao, or 
 bill-hook, which as a tool is the Bengali's very jack- 
 of-all trades, is got from the village blacksmith for a 
 
 ' To make a pilgrimage to some one of certain very holy places, 
 and if possible to spend the last days of life there, or at least to 
 die on the hanks of holy Ganges, is the cherished desire of every 
 one, male or female, rich or poor. 
 
24 T'loDERX Village Life in BENrjAL. [i. 
 
 few annas. The plough-handle of the cultivator is 
 prepared almost for nothing by the ryot himself, 
 perhaps with the assistance of the village carpenter, 
 and its toe is shod with iron by the village black- 
 smith for one rupee.^ An average pair of bullocks 
 may be obtained for Es. 20, and the price of the few 
 earthen pots and pans of various sorts, which con- 
 stitute the necessary utensils for household purposes, 
 may be reckoned in pice. 
 
 From such facts as these an idea may be formed 
 of the exceedingly scanty dimensions of the ordinary 
 villager's accumulated capital ; and too often of this 
 even a large proportion merely represents a debt due 
 to the mahdjan.^ The extreme poverty of, by far 
 
 ^ The plougli is a most simple wooden tool without any iron 
 about it except the pointed ferule at the toe. In shape it closely 
 resenihles a thin anchor ; one claw goes into the ground at such an 
 inclination that the other is nearly vertical and serves as a handle 
 for the ploughman ; the shank is the plough-beam to Tvhich the 
 bullocks are attached. There is no share coulter, or breast ; the 
 pointed end only stirs the earth, it does not turn it. The whole is 
 so light that a man easily carries it over his shoulder. 
 
 2 See note (A) in the Appendix. 
 
i.j Ins and Outs of the Village. 25 
 
 the largest portion, i.e., the bulk of the population in 
 Bengal (the richest part of India) is seldom rightly 
 apprehended by English people, who have not had 
 intimate eye experience of it. It is the tropical 
 climate and the tropical facility of producing rice 
 v.-hich admits of life, and a certain low type of 
 health being maintained on a minimum of means. 
 Seven rupees a month is a sufficient income where- 
 with to support a whole family. Food is the prin- 
 cipal item of expense, and probably one rupee eight 
 annas a month will, in most parts of Bengal, suffice 
 to feed an adult man and twelve annas a woman, 
 even in a well to do establishment. Such of the 
 villagers as are cultivators generally have sufficient 
 rice of their own growth for the house consumption ; 
 the little cash which they require is the produce of 
 the sale of the rahi (cold weather) crops. The other 
 villagers buy their rice unhusked (paddy) from time 
 to time in small quantities, and all alike get their salt, 
 tobacco (if they do not grow this), gm^h, oil, masala, 
 almost daily at the general dealer's (inodi) shop. 
 
26 MoDEEK Village Life in Hengal. [i. 
 
 Purchases in money value so small as these, namely, 
 the daily purchases of the curry spices needed by one 
 whose sole subsistence for a month is covered by one 
 rupee eight annas, obviously calls for a diminutive 
 coin. The pice, or quarter part of an auna, which 
 is the lowest piece struck by the mint, is not 
 sufficiently small, and cowries at the rate of about 
 5,120 to the rupee, are universally employed to 
 supplement the currency. 
 
 The 7noclis shop is a conspicuous feature in the 
 village. In a large village there will be three or 
 four of them, each placed in a more or less advan- 
 tageous position, relative to the village paths, such 
 as at a point where two or more thoroughfares meet, 
 in a comparatively open situation, or in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the place where the weekly or bi-weekly 
 liat is held. The shop in eastern Bengal is most 
 commonly a bamboo and mat hut, sometimes the 
 front one so to speak of the homestead group, 
 sometimes standing singly. To open shop the mat 
 side next the path or roadway is either removed 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 27 
 
 altogether or swung up round its upper edge as a 
 Mnge, and supported on a bamboo post, pent house 
 fashion. The wares then stand exhibited according 
 to their character, seeds and spices in earthen or 
 wooden platters on the front edge of the low counter 
 which the raised floor presents, caked palm sugar 
 (gurh), mustard and other oils, salt, rice in various 
 stages of preparation in somewhat large open- 
 mouthed vessels set a little further behind, and 
 quite in the rear broad sacks of unhusked rice or 
 paddy (ddna) ; ou the side walls are hung the tiny- 
 paper kites which the Bengali, child and man alike, 
 is so fond of flying, all sizes of kite reels, coarse 
 twines, rude and primitive pictures, charms, &c., 
 while the vendor himself squats cross-legged in the 
 midst of his stores, or sits on a morhd outside. The 
 liquid articles are served out with a ladle, the 
 bowl of which is a piece of cocoanut shell, and the 
 handle a small-sized bamboo spline, and are meted 
 out by the aid of a measure which is made by cut- 
 ting off a piece of bamboo cane above a knot. The 
 
28 Modern Village Life in P>ExaAL. [i. 
 
 seeds, and so on, are taken out with the hand or 
 bamboo spoon, and weighed in very rude wooden 
 scales. Occasionally, when the modi does business 
 in a large way, the hut which constitutes his shop 
 may be big enongh to admit the purchaser, and then 
 the articles will be piled on roughly formed tables or 
 benches. If the sale of cloths — piece-goods — be 
 added to the usual modi's business, a separate side 
 of the hut, furnished with a low talMa'posh, is 
 generally set apart for this purpose. The modi 
 then becomes more properly a mahdjan, and the 
 bamboo hut will usually be replaced by a pallri, 
 brick-built room. 
 
 A market or hat is held in most villages twice 
 a week. The market place is nothing more than a 
 tolerably open part of the village site. If one or 
 two large pijial trees overshadow it so much the 
 better, but it is rare that any artificial structures in 
 the way of stalls exist for the protection of the 
 sellers and their goods ; when they do so they are 
 simply long narrow- lines of low shed roofs covering 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 29 
 
 a raised floor, and supported on bamboo posts, with- 
 out side "walls of any kind. 
 
 The hat is a most important ingredient in the vil- 
 lage life system. Here the producer brings his spare 
 paddy, his mustard- seed, his betelnuts, his sugar-cane, 
 his gurh treacle, his chillies, gourds, yams ; the fisher- 
 man brings his fish, the seedcrusher his oils, the old 
 widow her mats and other handy work, the potter 
 his gharas and gamlahs, the hawker his piece-goods, 
 bangles, and so on ; the town trader's agents and the 
 local modis come to increase their stocks, the rural 
 folks come to supply their petty wants, all alike 
 assemble to exchange with one another the gossip 
 and news of the day ; and not a few stay to drink, 
 for it must be known that this is an accomplishment 
 which is by no means rare in India.^ Each vendor 
 sits cross-legged on the ground with his wares 
 set out around him, and for the privilege of this 
 primitive stall he pays a certain small sum or 
 
 1 See a ijaper of Kajendra Lala Mittra, Eai Bahadur, LL.D., 
 CLE. in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for ISTa, 
 Part L No. 1. 
 
oO Modern Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 contribution in kind to the owner of the hat, who 
 is generally the proprietor, in the peculiarly Indian 
 sense of zamlnddr, of the rest of the village land. 
 The profits thus derived from a popular hat are 
 sufficiently considerable relative to ordinary rent to 
 induce a singular competition in the matter on the 
 part of neighbouring zaimnddrs ; each will set up a 
 lull, and forbid his ryots (which may be sub modo 
 translated tenants) to go to the hat of his rival. 
 If orders to this effect fail of success, resort is some- 
 times had to force, arid so it happens that the 
 holding of hats has become fraught with danger to 
 the Queen's peace, and the legislature has found it 
 uucL'ssary to give extraordinary preventive powers to 
 the magistrate. 
 
 If the village, or any substantial portion of it, is 
 inhabited by Mussulmans, there will be a niasjld 
 (or mosque) in it. This may be a pal^ka (brick) 
 building, if the community has at any time pos- 
 sessed a member zealous and rich enough to defray 
 the cost of erecting it. More commonly it is of mat 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village, 31 
 
 and bamboo. Almost always, of whatever luaterial 
 constructed, it exhibits one typical form, namely, a 
 long narrow room (often in three or more or less 
 distinctly marked divisions) closed at each end and 
 on one side, and having the other side entirely open 
 to a sort of rectangular courtyard or inclosure.^ 
 The mulla who officiates there may be a tradesman, 
 or modi, gifted with a smattering of Arabic sufficient 
 to enable him to read the Koran. He is in theory 
 chosen by the mahrdla. (Muhammadan quarter), but 
 practically the office is hereditary and is remu- 
 nerated by small money payments made on 
 occasions of marriages and other ceremonies. 
 
 ' The characteristic of Muhammadan architecture in India is 
 the hemispherical domed roof. This requires a base of equal 
 dimensions as to length and breadth ; and therefore whenever an 
 oblong span has to be roofed over the length of the oblong is made 
 some multiple of its breadth, and is divided into the corresponding 
 number of squares by transverse rows of pillars and arches. The 
 whole roof is then constructed of a succession of domes. In this 
 way tlie long interior of a mosque becomes a srries of compartments, 
 commonly three, open to each other between the pillars or under 
 arches ; and the village mat room, which is to serve as a mosque, 
 is made to imitate this arrangement without independent purpose. 
 
.']2 MoDEUN Village Life in Bengal. [l 
 
 In passing along a village path one may come 
 upon a group of ten or twenty almost naked chil- 
 dren, squatting under a fipal tree near a home- 
 stead, or even under a thatched verandah appur- 
 tenant thereto, and engaged in marking letters on 
 a plantain or palm leaf, or in doing sums on a broken 
 piece of foreign slate, or even on the smootlied ground 
 before them. This is a. patsliala or hedge school, the 
 almost sole indigenous means of educating the rising 
 generation ; and by Government aid and otherwi.se 
 this has under the English rule been developed into 
 a most potent in,strument for the spread of primary 
 instruction. It still in its nriuiual mcagreness 
 exist.s in most country villages, .serving in an 
 infinitesimal degree to meet the needs of an enor- 
 mous class which the more efficient Europeanized 
 schools as yet fail to reach.' The instruction in 
 these pfihJialos is given gratis, for it is contrary 
 to an oriental's social and religious feelings of 
 propriety that learning of any sort should be 
 
 ^ This was H'ritt«ii in 1874. 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 33 
 
 directly paid for. It is a heavenly gift to be 
 communicated by God's chosen people, the Brah- 
 mans, originally to Brahmans and other twice-born 
 classes only, but in these later days, with an 
 extension of liberality not quite accounted for, to 
 outside castes also, so far as regards reading and 
 writing the vernacular, arithmetic, and other small 
 elements of secular knowledge sufBcient for the 
 purposes of zamindavi accounts. The instructor in 
 a typical pcdshala is an elderly Brahman dignified 
 with the designation Guru Mahasoy ; occasionally, 
 however, he is a modi or small tradesman who 
 manage concurrently with his business to keep his 
 eye on the group of urchins squatting under the 
 eaves of his shop hut. Although there is no regular 
 pay for the duty, the instructor does not any more 
 than other folks do his small work for nothing ; on 
 the occurrence of special events in his family the 
 parents of his pupils make him a small present of 
 rice or ial, or even a piece of cloth, and when a 
 child achieves a marked stage in its progress, say 
 
 D 
 
;U ^Modern Village Life ix Bexgal. [i. 
 
 the end of the alphabet, words of oue syllable, &c., 
 a similar recognition of the occasion is made. A 
 Brahman guru will in addition get his share of the 
 gifts to Brahmans which form so serious an item of 
 expense in the celebration of the many festivals and 
 ceremonies obligatory on a well-to-do Bengali. 
 
 In parts of Bengal noted for the cultivation of 
 Sanscrit learning, such as Yikrampur and Nuddea, 
 something answering very remotely to an old- 
 fashioned English Grammar School may now and 
 then be met with. A turn of the village path 
 will bring you to a Tol ; there within a half open 
 mat shed sit cross-legged on the raised mud floor 
 ten or a dozen Brahman youths decently clothed, 
 with Sanscrit manuscripts on their laps. They are 
 learning grammar from the wonderful work of that 
 chief of all grammarians, Panini, or more probably 
 from Bopa Deva's book, or are transcribing sacred 
 rolls. Each remains some two or three or even more 
 years at this very monotonous employment, until he 
 is able to pass on to the home of deepest learning, 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 35 
 
 Nobodweep. A rude shelf of bamboo laths carries 
 a few rolls of Sanscrit manuscripts, and this is all 
 the furniture of the Tol. The master of the Tol is 
 a Brahman Pundit who in obedience to the Hindu 
 principle not only teaches but maintains his 
 scholars. He is sometimes, though not often, a 
 very learned man, if learning means knowledge of 
 the Sanscrit language and of the peculiar philosophy 
 enshrined in it : and he is always personally poor. 
 His means of maintaining himself and his disciples 
 are supplied in like manner as, though with fuller 
 measure than, is the case with Guru Mahasoy. The 
 Pandit who keeps a successful school, gets a 
 Benjamin's share of presents at all ceremonies and 
 feasts ; and all the richer Hindus of the neighbour- 
 hood contribute to his needs. He spends the vaca- 
 tions, say about two months of the year, in travelling 
 from house to house (of those worth a visit), 
 throughout an extensive area ; and though he 
 seldom actually begs, his purpose is known and 
 he never leaves a roof without a honorarium of Ee. 1 
 
 D 2 
 
36 MoDEitx Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 aBd Es. 2, or even Es. 20, according to the wealth 
 of his host. 
 
 One poor homestead in a village may be occu- 
 pied by two or three lone widows, who have been 
 left desolate in their generation, without a member 
 of their family to support them, and who have 
 joined their lots together in order the better to 
 eke out a miserable subsistence, and wretched 
 creatures they are to the European eye, emaciated 
 and haggard, with but little that can be called 
 clothing. Yet, somewhat coarsely garrulous, they 
 seem contented enough and certainly manage by 
 mat-weaving and such like handy work, or when 
 occasion offers liy menial service, or perhaps oftener 
 still by the aid of kindly gifts from neighbours, to 
 gain a not altogether precarious subsistence. 
 
 And very few villages are -without one or more 
 specimens of the Byragi, and his female companion, 
 coarse licensed mendicants of a religious order, in 
 whose homestead one of the huts will be a thakurhdri 
 of Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu), whereat the 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. S? 
 
 members of the very numerous sect of Boistubs or 
 Vaisnabas (Vishnubites) on certain festivals lay 
 their offerings. The Byragi, who may be termed 
 the religious minister of one of the sects which 
 owe their origin to the great reformer Chaitanya 
 a little more than three hundred years ago, or 
 perhaps more correctly a member of an ascetic re- 
 ligious order, has very commonly the reputation 
 of leading a grossly sensual life, and his appearance 
 does not always belie his reputation. This is an 
 unfortunate outcome of the noble latitudinarianism, 
 which first taught in modern India that all men 
 without distinction of race, creed, sex, or caste, 
 are equal before God. 
 
 The homestead of the godla, or cowman, of which 
 there will be several in a village, is precisely of the 
 same type as are those of his neighbours : and he 
 is also a cultivator as most of them are. Probably 
 the cowshed will be actually brought up to the 
 uthan and fill one of the sides. The cows are tiny 
 little animals often not more than three feet high 
 
38 iloDERN Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 and miserably thin. They are kept tethered close, 
 side by side of each other in the open shed, and 
 there fed with dried grass, wetted straw, and such 
 like fare, except when under the care of a boy they 
 are allowed to pick up what they can on the 
 waste places about the village, and on the fallow 
 khets. The cowman and his cows are very important 
 members of the village community, for all Hindus 
 consume milk when they can afford to do so. After 
 rice and pulse {ddl Ihdt) it is the staple food of 
 the people. Neither butter as it exists in Europe 
 nor cheese seem to be known to the natives 
 generally, although the art of making the latter was 
 introduced by the Dutch, at their settlements such 
 as Dacca, Bandel (Chinsurah) and is still practised 
 there for the European market, and a crude form 
 of butter, or as near an approximation thereto as 
 the climate admits of, is also largely made for the 
 richer natives and Europeans. This is commonly 
 effected by first curdling the milk with an acid 
 and then churning the curds. It is the business. 
 
I.J Ins and Outs of the Village. 39 
 
 however, of the goala not merely to sell milk in the 
 raw state, but also to compound various preparations 
 of it, thickened. One such preparation, dahi, is in 
 consistency not very unlike a mass of thick clotted 
 cream, as it may sometimes be got in the west of 
 England, with all the fluid portion omitted or 
 strained from it, and is pleasant enough to the 
 European taste. This appears to be a universal 
 favourite, and is daily hawked about from homestead 
 to homestead by the godlas in earthen gliaras, which 
 are carried scale-fashion, or iahangi, suspended 
 from the two extremities of a bamboo across the 
 shoulder. 
 
 The blacksmith's shop is a curious place of its 
 kind, simply a thatched shed, with old iron and 
 new of small dimensions lying about in hopeless 
 confusion. In the centre of the mud floor is a 
 very small narrow anvil, close to the fireplace, 
 which latter is nothing but a hole sunk in the 
 ground. The nozzle of the bellows (an instrument 
 of very primitive construction) is also let into the 
 
40 M(jDERN' Village Life in Bexgal. [i., 
 
 ground. The headsmith, sitting on a low stool 
 or on his heels, works the bellows by pulling a, 
 string with one hand while with a tongs in the 
 other he manipulates the iron in the fire, and 
 then, still keeping his seat, turns to the anvil 
 whereon with a small hammer in his right band 
 he performs the guiding part in fashioning the 
 metal, and an assistant also squatting on his heels 
 follows his lead with a larger hammer. The 
 hammer heads are long, on one side only of the 
 haft, and unbalanced by any make-weight, and the 
 anvil is exceedingly narrow ; yet the blows are 
 struck by both workmen with unerring precision. 
 The villagers require but little in the shape of iron 
 work. A few nails, the toes of the ploughs, ludalis 
 (cultivating hoes) daos, answering to bill-hooks, 
 the hoiiti of domestic and other use (fixed curved 
 blade) constitute pretty nearly all their necessaries 
 in the way of iron articles. These are mostly made 
 or repaired by the village blacksmith. His stock of 
 iron is principally English hoop-iron, which is bought 
 
I.] Ins axt) Outs of the Village. 41 
 
 at the nearest town by him, or for him, and which 
 has come out to India in the shape of bands round 
 the imported piecegoods bales. 
 
 The professions are not altogether unrepresented 
 in a Bengal village, for you may not seldom meet 
 the kahiraj or native doctor, a respectable looking 
 gentleman of the Vaidya caste, proceeding with a 
 gravity of demeanour befitting his vocation, to some 
 patient's homestead. If you can persuade him to 
 open his stores to you, you will probably find him 
 carrying wrapt up, as a tolerably large buudle (cover 
 within cover) in the end of his cha.dr, a very great 
 number of paper packets, resembling packets of 
 flower seeds each carefully numbered and labelled. 
 These are his medicines, almost all in the shape of 
 piUs compounded after receipts of antiquity ; many 
 are excellent as specifics, and there seems reason to 
 think that English medical men in India might with 
 advantage resort more than they do to the native 
 pharmacopoeia. The kahiraj does not charge by fees 
 in the manner of European doctors, but makes a 
 
42 Modern Vulage Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 bargain beforehand in each case for the payment 
 which he is to receive for specified treatment ; for 
 example Ee. 1 or Es. 2 for the ordinary medicine 
 witli two or three visits in an obstinate case of 
 malarious fever. In the event ©f a cure, the 
 patient often testifies his gratitude by malting a 
 present to his doctor. 
 
 The astrologer too ought perhaps to be ranked 
 in the professional class ; and he will be found in 
 nearly every principal village. He is an Acharjee 
 (Lugu Acharjee), but of a somewhat low class of 
 Brahman, whose business is to paint the thakurs 
 (idols) and the various traditional representations 
 of the deities; also to tell fortunes and to inter- 
 pret omens and signs of luck, or of interposition 
 of providence ; to prepare horoscopes, and so on 
 Those who do not succeed sufficiently in these 
 higher branches of their craft take to painting 
 pictures in water colours for use, in the way of 
 decorative purpose, on occasions of the great cere- 
 monies which are performed in the richer families. 
 
^•] Ins and Outs of the Village. 43 
 
 The Hindu artist does not appear to have obtained 
 a knowledge of perspective, and in these pictures 
 it is seldom that any attempt is apparent to 
 realise its effects. But outline and colour are 
 remarkably well depicted on the fiat. These men 
 can be got to work many together on a given 
 subject for a monthly pay of Es. 20 or Es. 30 
 according to the efficiency of the painter. But 
 most commonly each prepares his pictures at 
 leisui'e in his own house and presents them when 
 finished to some rich person in the generally well- 
 founded expectation of receiving ample remunera- 
 tion for his labour. 
 
 The worship of God which obtains among 
 Muhammadans, may be designated congrega- 
 tional and personal, while that among Hindus is 
 domestic and vicarious. With the former, the 
 masjid, public preaching, united prayer and 
 adoration offered by individuals collected in 
 .-heterogeneous assemblages or congregations, are 
 its characteristic features. With the latter, the 
 
44 Modern Village Life in Bencial. [i. 
 
 family idol (or representation of the deity), tlie 
 daily service and worship of this idol performed 
 by a priest for the family, and the periodic cele 
 bration of ceremonies in honour of that mani- 
 festation of the deity which the family adopts, as 
 well as those ' for the benefit of deceased ancestors' 
 souls, constitute its principal ingredients. Among 
 wealthy Hindus the hereditary spiritual guide, 
 the hereditary j^'^'f'o^^'^t ^'^^ the service of the 
 jewelled thakur form, so to speak, the keystone of 
 the joint family structure : and the poor folks of 
 a country village make the best shift they can to 
 worship God under the like family system. Every 
 respectable household that can afford the small 
 expense has a rude thakur, or image of its patron 
 deity placed in a separate hut of the homestead, 
 and a Brahman comes daily to perform its wor- 
 ship and service. As might be supposed, it is 
 not worth the while of any but the lower caste 
 of, and imperfectly educated, Brahmans to pursue 
 this vocation; so it generally happens that the 
 
I.] Ins and Outs of the Village. 45 
 
 village purohits are an extremely ignorant set of 
 men. In some districts they are mostly foreign to 
 tlie village, coming there from a distance ; they 
 reside in it only for a few years, then return home 
 for an interval, providing a substitute or vicar 
 during the period of their absence. These minis- 
 ters of religion get their remuneration in the 
 shape of offerings and small fees, and manage 
 on the whole to earn a tolerably good livelihood 
 by serving several families at a time. "With 
 other Brahmans they also come in for a share of 
 the gifts which are distributed by wealthy men 
 on the occasions of family ceremonies and festivals. 
 In great measure the office of purohit is heredi- 
 tary, and indeed strictly so in the case of families 
 of social distinction and importance, who, as a 
 rule, have more than one spiritual guide exclusively 
 to themselves. For there is the guru or spiritual* 
 instructor of the individual who gives him the 
 mantra, and the higher class purohit who is the 
 Acharjee and conducts the periodic puja festivals 
 
46 JiIoDERN Village Life in Bengal. [i. 
 
 of the family, in addition to the ordinary 
 furolvit who perforins the daily service of the 
 thakur. Over and above the regular service 
 of the thakur performed by the priest, there is 
 also among Brahmans a manifestation of per- 
 sonal devotion on the part of the individual 
 members of the family. It is right in Brahman 
 families that each individual should once or 
 oftener in the day come before the image and 
 say a Sanscrit prayer or recite a mantra. 
 
 The mass of the ryots who form the population 
 of the village are too poor to have a family deity. 
 They are forced to be content with the oppor- 
 tunities they have of forming part of the audience 
 on the occasions of religious festivals celebrated 
 by their richer neighbours, and the annual 2^ujas 
 performed at the village wandap on behalf of the 
 community. 
 
IT. 
 
 ZAMINDAK AND MAHAJAN. 
 
 Many other members of the village society than 
 those already mentioned deserve description, such 
 as the carpenter, the potter, the weaver, the 
 fisherman, and the like. It might be. told, too, how 
 a woman, or an old man incapable of laborious 
 exertion, will venture a rupee in the purchase 
 from the jallmrwala of a basket of fish, from 
 the ryot of a bundle of chillies, &c., with the 
 hope of earning a few pice by carrying this to 
 the hat and there selling in retail ; how the 
 pith-worker plies his occupation, or how the 
 widow makes her mats. And the mandal, the 
 chauMdar, the barber, the washerman will 
 probably hereafter have their respective places 
 
48 Modern Village Life ix Bengal. [xi. 
 
 in the village economy pointed out. The general 
 texture of the village material has, however, 
 even thus far, been sufficiently represented, and to 
 complete the outline of the little community it 
 only remains to sketch in the two most influential 
 of its constituents^ namely, the zamindar and the 
 malidjan. 
 
 Preliminary to describing the status of these 
 persons a few words more as to externals are ne- 
 cessary. It has already been said that the site 
 of the loose aggregate of homesteads which forms 
 the Bengali village is somewhat elevated above 
 the general level of the cultivated plain, and 
 presents, when viewed from the outside, a more 
 or less wooded appearance by reason of the pipal, 
 mango, tamarind, and other forest trees which 
 usually shut in the several dwellings. This 
 wooded dwelling area, so to call it, is skirted by 
 waste or common land of very irregular breadth, 
 and beyond this again comes the cultivated land 
 of the open plain (^indth). Up to a certain boundary 
 
II.] Zamindar and Mahajan. 49 
 
 line (of immemorial origin but ordinarily well 
 ascertained) all the land both waste and culti- 
 vated, reckoned outwards from the village, belongs 
 to the village in a sense which will be hereinafter 
 explained. On the other side of the line the 
 land in like manner belongs to some other village. 
 In parts of Bengal where portions of the country 
 are in a state of nature the limits of the village 
 territory will include jungle and otherwise 
 unappropriated land. 
 
 The village and its land (the entirety is termed 
 a mauzah) in some respects affords considerable 
 resemblance to an English parish, and possibly 
 the two may have had a certain community of 
 origin, but there are differences enough in their 
 present respective conditions to render it impos- 
 sible to pass by analogy from the one to the other. 
 Of course, both in the English parish and in the 
 Indian mauzali the principal business of the 
 people is agriculture. But in England, now-a- 
 days, the cultivation of the soil is not carried on 
 
50 AtOIiERX VlLLlGE LiFE IN BENGAL. [ll. 
 
 under parochial riglifs, or in any degree subject 
 to communistic principles. Every portion of 
 the cultivatable area of the parish is cultivated 
 by some one who either owns it himself as his 
 property in the same sense as all other subjects 
 of property are owned, or who hires it for culti- 
 vation from such an owner. In India, on the 
 other hand, the land of the mauzah is cultivated 
 in small patches by the resident ryots (or culti- 
 vators) of the villaLje on payments of dues, ac- 
 cording to the nature of the soil, and the purpose 
 of the cultivation, to a person who, relatively 
 to the ryot, is termed the zamindar, viz., the 
 landholder (not accurately landlord) of the mauzah. 
 These dues m-p at thi^ day universally denomi- 
 nated rent ; but although they are most com- 
 monly variable and capalile of adjustment from 
 time to time, between the zamindar and the 
 ryot, they do not correspond in all aspects to 
 rent, and some confusion of idea is occasionally 
 perceived to arise from careless use of this word. 
 
II.] Zamindae and Mahajan. 51 
 
 To the English observer it is very remarkable 
 at first to find that the land belonging to the 
 village is, with extreme minuteness of discrimina- 
 tion, classified according to characters attached to 
 it by custom, and having relation to data which 
 are not all concrete in kind, such as the prevail- 
 ing water-level of the rainy season, the nature 
 of the rent payable for it, the purpose to which 
 it is put, the class of persons who may by cus- 
 tom occupy it, and so on. Thus we meet with : — 
 
 Sali — land wholly submerged during the period 
 
 of the rains — of different grades. 
 Suna — not so — also of different grades. 
 Nakdi — land for which rent is paid in cash per 
 
 bigah. 
 Bhaoli — land for which rent is paid in kind — 
 
 part of the produce. 
 land for which rent is paid in cash per 
 
 crop per bigah. 
 Bhiti — raised house-site land. 
 
 E 2 
 
ri2 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [ii. 
 
 Kliudkasht — land which the residents of the 
 
 village are entitled to cultivate. 
 Pahikasht — land which outsiders may cultivate. 
 
 These characters or qualities adhere almost per- 
 manently to the same land, and there is for each 
 village a recognised rate of rent (or nirkh) pro- 
 perly payable according to them. Also, when 
 the occupation of the land is, as commonly hap- 
 pens with the Sunaland, on an uibandi jama, 
 and the cultivation is liy alternation of cropping 
 and fallow, tin; ryot or cultivator only pays for 
 so much of each sort of land as he actually tills 
 for the jTar. It is apparent, then, that generally 
 speaking, the precise amount of payment to be 
 made by the ryot to the zamindar in each year 
 is a matter of some complexity of calculation. 
 
 Perhaps it should be here remarked that in 
 most villages by far the larger portion of the land, 
 is Khudkasht. 
 
 The ordinary state of things, then, is shortly 
 
II.] Zamindae and Mahajan. 53 
 
 this : — The open lands of the village are divided 
 up among the resident ryots in small allotments 
 (so to speak), an allotment often consisting of 
 several scattered pieces, and generally compre- 
 hending land of various qualities as above defined 
 — it rarely exceeds ten acres in the whole and is 
 often much less — and the payment of rent by 
 each ryot to the zamindar is made on a shifting 
 scale, depending upon more or less of the ele- 
 ments just mentioned. An abbreviated example 
 of the year's account between the ryot and 
 zamindar are given in the Appendix.^ 
 
 Putting aside all questions of right on the part 
 of the cultivator to occupy and till the land of 
 the village, we have it as a matter of fact that the 
 Bengal ryot is little disposed to move, and that for 
 generation after generation, from father to sou, 
 the same plots of land (or approximately so) remain 
 in the hands of the same family. 
 
 After this preface, part of it in some degree 
 
 1 See note (B) in the Appendix. 
 
54 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [ii. 
 
 repetition, we are in a situation to take a view of 
 the zamindar, considered as a personage of the 
 village. It will be convenient to speak as if there 
 were but one such person for a whole village. This 
 is not strictly true as regards the ryot, or rent 
 payer, and will be qualified by explanation here- 
 after. But it is the simplest form of the actual 
 case and the normal idea of a zamindar is best 
 arrived at by conceiving that a mauzah is the 
 smallest unit in his holding — that the zamindari is 
 an aggregate of many entire 'inauzahs. 
 
 Now when it is remembered how small is the 
 quantity of land tilled by each ryot, that he pays for 
 different portions of this at different rates, that the 
 quantity of the land of each sort or the nature 
 of the crop, according to which he pays, varies 
 from year to year, and that the total year's rent is 
 generallj' paid in three or four kists, or instalments, 
 it will be seen, that the business of collecting the 
 rents of a Bengal vtauzah is a very different thing 
 from the work which is done by a landlord's agent 
 
II.] Zamindae and Mahajan. 55 
 
 in England, and that it can only be carried on 
 through the means of an organized staff. This staff 
 is commonly called, both individually and collec- 
 tively, the zamindar's, or zcmiindari amla. It usually 
 consists of a Tehsildar, Patwari, Gumashta, and 
 peons, or similar officers under different names, 
 varying with the district. 
 
 The Tehsildar is the collector of the rents, and 
 if the zamindari is large, one Tehsildar will collect 
 from three or four mauzahs. 
 
 There is generally a Tehsildar's Imchahj'i in each 
 mauzah or village — it is the office where the 
 zamindari books and papers relative to the village 
 collections are made up and kept ; sometimes a 
 verandah- shed or hut of mat and bamboo serves 
 the purpose of the kachahri, sometimes it is a 
 paJcka house of brick with sufficient accommoda- 
 tion to enable even the zamindar to pass a few 
 days there when he resides elsewhere than in the 
 village and is minded to visit it. Book-keeping is an 
 art, which Hindus seem to carry almost to an absurd 
 
56 Modern ViLLAaE Life in Bengal. [ii. 
 
 extent of detail, and it would be tedious to describe 
 all the books which are kept in due course of the 
 kachahri business. It will be sufficient to mention 
 the principal among them ; these are, first, three 
 or four books bearing the denomination of the 
 chitlha, which amount in effect to a numbered 
 register in various ways and in minute detail of ail 
 the small dags, or plots into which the village 
 lands are divided, the measurement of each, its 
 situation, the quality of the land, the ryot who 
 cultivates it, and so on, the last of them being 
 the Ihatiyan, or ledger, which gives under each 
 man's name all the different portions of land held 
 by him, with their respective characteristics. TJie 
 jamn. haiidi is a sort of assessment paper made up 
 for each year, with the view of showing for every 
 ryot, as against each portion of the land held by 
 him, the rate at which it is held, according to 
 quality or crop, and also to exhibiting the total 
 amount which in this way becomes due from him, 
 and the hists in which it is to be paid ; and the jama- 
 
li.] Zamihdar and Mahajan. 57 
 
 wasil-baki is an account prepared after the expira- 
 tion of the year, repeating the principal statements 
 of the jama iandi, as to the amounts which had 
 become due, and then giving the payments which 
 had actually been made, together with the arrears. 
 
 A Bengali account book is formed by sewing 
 together with a cord any number of very long 
 narrow loose sheets at one of their ends, and when 
 it is closed the free ends of the sheets are folded 
 back upon the ends which are thus bound. When 
 it is open the bound end rests upon the reader's 
 arm, the upper leaves are thrown back and the 
 writing then runs from the free end of one page 
 down through the cincture, to the free end of the 
 next. In this way a total page of portentous length 
 is possible and some jama bandis take advantage 
 of this property to the utmost. 
 
 The Gumashta and Pativari, or similar officers, 
 by whatever name they may be called in the 
 different districts, are charged with the duty of 
 keeping up the kacliahri-ho6k5 according to the 
 
58 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [ii. 
 
 varying circumstances of the ryots' holdings; and 
 for this purpose have to keep a sharp eye through- 
 out the year upon the ryots' doings. It will be 
 seen at once that persons charged with the func- 
 tions of these zamindari amla have much temptation 
 to use the opportunities of their situation to their 
 own advantage. As a rule they are of the same 
 class as the village ryots, and are themselves 
 cultivators. It is not therefore matter of surprise 
 when it happens, as it often does, that the plots 
 which are in their hands are the best in the viUage. 
 Their proper work prevents them from actually 
 labouring in the fields, and they are supposed to 
 pay those of the other ryots who till the soil for 
 them, but it is too frequently the case that they 
 manage somehow to get this done gratis. And 
 they are by no means ignorant of the art of obtain- 
 ing the offer of gratifications when they require 
 them. The office is in a sense hereditary, viz., the 
 son generally succeeds the father in it. But this 
 is almost a necessity, for it is seldom the" case that 
 
II.] Zamindar and Mahajan. 59 
 
 more than one or two others in the village possess 
 the small knowledge of reading, writing, and 
 account-keeping, which is needed for the work. 
 
 Indeed the ryots are universally uneducated and 
 ignorant, and in an extreme degree susceptible to 
 the influence of authority. The relation between 
 them and the zamindar is quasi-feudal in its 
 character. He is their superior lord and they are 
 his subjects (ryots), both by habit and by feeling 
 " adscripti glebes." They would be entirely at 
 the mercy of the zamindar and his amla were it 
 not for another most remarkable village institution, 
 namely, the mandal "^ ; this is the vUlage head man, 
 the mouthpiece and representative of the ryots of 
 the village in all matters between them and the 
 zamindar or his officers. The mandal is a culti- 
 vator like the rest of the ryots, and by no means 
 necessarily the richest among them. He holds his 
 position in some supposed manner dependent upon 
 
 ^ This is his most common designation. The name, however, 
 varies with districts. 
 
60 Modern Village Life in Bengal, [ii. 
 
 their suffrages, but the office in fact almost in- 
 variably passes from father to son, and so is 
 hereditary for the same reason that all occupations 
 and employments in India are hereditary. His 
 qualifications are, sufficient knowledge, of reading, 
 writing, and zamindari accounts, and thorough 
 acquaintance with the customary rights of the 
 villagers. He receives no emolument directly, 
 but the other ryots wiU generally from time to 
 time help him gratuitously in his cultivation, and 
 it is not unfrequently the case that he pays a less 
 rate of rent for his land than the ordinary occupy- 
 ing ryot does. It is impossible thoroughly to 
 describe the mandal's functions in a few sentences. 
 He is so completely recognised as the spokesman 
 of the ryots, one and all, on every occasion, that 
 it is often exceedingly difficult to extract, in his 
 absence, from au individual ryot information upon 
 even the commonest and most indifferent matter. 
 The mandal and a few of the elder men constitute 
 the village panchayat, by whom most of the 
 
II.] Zamindar and Mahajan. 61 
 
 ordinary disputes and quarrels are adjusted. In 
 more obstinate cases the mandal and the parties 
 go to the zamindar, or his representative the naib 
 or gumashta, for discussion and arbitration. Thus 
 very much of the administration of justice in the 
 rural districts of Bengal is effected without the 
 need of recourse to the formal and expensive 
 machinery of the public courts. 
 
 When the village is one in which the zamindar 
 resides, it will often be the case that the barber who 
 shaves the members of his family, the dholi who 
 washes for them, the head dariuan (or porter) and 
 other principal servants all hereditary, hold theii' 
 portion of the village land, at relatively low rents 
 or even rent free, in consideration of their services. 
 In addition to this the dhohi and the barber, for 
 instance, have the right to be employed at cus- 
 tomary rates of pay by all the ryots. Sometimes 
 the carpenter and the blacksmith are in the 
 like situation. There is also a hereditary village 
 chaukidar (or watchman) who gets his land rent 
 
62 . Modern Village Life in Bengal. [ii. 
 
 I'ree. And the Brahman priest, whether of the 
 zamindar's family, or maintained for the village 
 pnjas, &c., is supported in the same mode. 
 
 We have thus before xis, in the Bengal village 
 communitj', a social structure which, for want of a 
 better term, may in a certain qualified sense be 
 called feudal. The principal features can be 
 summed up as follows ; — At the bottom is the great 
 mass of hereditary cultivators of the village lands 
 Cryots) ; at the top the superior lord entitled to rents 
 and dues from these cultivators (zamindar) ; next to 
 him, and connected with his interests, come those 
 who constitute his fiscal organisation lamia) and his 
 pri\'i]eged servants; on the other side, again, are 
 the representatives and officers of the village, and 
 by the union of both elements, so to speak, is formed 
 a court leet which when occasion requires disposes 
 of any tojiics of internal friction by the authori- 
 tative declaration of custom and usage. 
 
 Outside this system, with no recognised place in 
 in it, yet nevertheless the motive power by which 
 
II.] Zamindae and Mahajan, 63 
 
 it is kept working, is the mahajan, or village 
 capitalist. The Bengal ryot, except only a traction 
 of the whole class, has no accumulated wealth — no 
 pecuniary means other than that which his own 
 labour on the land can earn for him. He carries on 
 a business, however, which from time to time and 
 periodically, requires outlay of money. There is a 
 hut of the homestead to be new built or repaired, 
 a plough or other implement to be made, a pair of 
 bullocks to be bought, seed for sowing to be pro- 
 cured, above all rice to be got for the food of himself 
 and his family, and also several kists of his rent 
 to be paid before all his crops can be secured and 
 realised. Alone and unaided, he is almost inva- 
 riably unable to meet all these current demands. In 
 the western part of the Delta his savings are seldom 
 sufficient to tide him wholly over the time which 
 must elapse before the year's production comes in. 
 To the mahajan, therefore, he is obliged to go for 
 money and for paddy as he wants them. The com- 
 monest course of dealings between the parties is as 
 
64 i\I()i):',i!X ^'ILl,A(^,^; Like in Hkniiai. ["• 
 
 follows: — Tlio pmldji ior sowiiiij; and for fiHid, and 
 also other seed, is iirovidcd upon the terms that it is 
 to he returned together with a siU'iiUis of lifly per 
 cent, in quantity at the time of harvest ; and the 
 money is advaneed npon condition of heinp; repaid, 
 also at' harvest time, with (wo per cn\[. per mensem 
 interest either in the shape of an ecpiivident of 
 ■pai/ili/, reckoned at bazaar pri(M>s, or in eash at 
 the ojition of Ihe lender. j\s security for the due 
 carrying out of this arrangement, the mahtljini IVc- 
 (piently talvcs an liy])(itlieeation of tli(> ryot's future 
 crop, and heljis himself to the stipulated amount on 
 till" very thri'shing floor, in the o])eu field. 
 
 The actual result of this state of tilings is, at 
 least., curious to the e3'e of the European ohserver. 
 The zamindar, who at first sight a]i])ears to lill the 
 ]dnci'. of an English landlord, is ni(>rely a reul 
 <diarg(u-; the ryot, who se(>nis to have a liencfu'ial 
 interest, of a more or Ic^ss permanent natun^ in his 
 allotments, is scnrcely move than a lield hdiourcr, 
 living from hand to meulli; and tlie. iiiuhdjuv, \\lio 
 
n.] Zamindar and Mahajan. 65 
 
 in effect furnislies the farming capital, pays the 
 labour and takes all the profits, is a stranger, having 
 no proprietary interest in the land. He is a creditor 
 only, whose sole object is to realise his money as 
 advantageously as possible. After setting aside in 
 his golds, as much of the produce come to his 
 hands, as he is likely to need for his next year's 
 business advances in kind, he deals with the rest 
 simply as a cornfactor, sending it to the most remu- 
 nerative market. A thriving mahdjan may have a 
 whole maueah, or even more under his hand, and 
 yet he has no legitimate proprietary status in the 
 community, while those who have, namely, the ryot 
 on one hand and the zamindar on the other, for 
 different reasons are apparently powerless. The 
 consequent unprogressive character of an agricultural 
 village cannot be more graphically described than by 
 the words of an intelligent young zamindar.'^ 
 
 " A husbandman of the present day is the 
 
 1 Babu Peary Chimd Mookerjee, Bciig. Soc. Sci. Trans, vol. iv. 
 sec. 4, p. 1. 
 
66 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [n. 
 
 primitive being he always has been. With a piece of 
 rag round his loins for his clothing, bare feet, a mise- 
 rable hut to live in, and a daily fare of the coarsest 
 description, he lives a life which, however dis- 
 turbed it may be by other causes, is unruffled by 
 ambition. If he gets his two meals and plain 
 clothing he is content with his lot, and if he can 
 spare a fev?' rupees for purchasing jewellery for his 
 wife and children, and a few rupees more for 
 religious ceremonies, he will consider himself as 
 Iwppy as he can wish to be. He is the greatest 
 enemy of social reform, and never dreams of throw- 
 ing off any of the trammels which time or super- 
 stition has spun around him. He will not send 
 his son to school for fear of being deprived of his 
 manual assistance in the field ; he will not drink 
 the water of a good tank because he has been 
 accustomed to use the water of the one nearer his 
 house ; he will not sow a crop of potatoes or sugar- 
 cane because his forefathers never did it ; he will 
 cdlow himself to be unmercifully fleeced by his 
 
II.] Zamindae and M ah a J an. 67 
 
 hereditary priest to secure the hope of utter anni^ 
 hilation after death, but he will not listen to any 
 proposal which would place within his reach a few 
 of the conveniences or comforts of life. There are 
 agricultural villages in which the existence of a 
 school or of a dispensary, and the condition of the 
 houses, roads, and tanks show a happier state of 
 things, but it will be found that in almost all such 
 cases the improvements have been made not by the 
 ryots but by a rich trader, employer, or landholder, 
 who resides in the village, or takes an interest in its 
 welfare. The ryots themselves are too poor, too 
 ignorant, too disunited among themselves to effect 
 any such improvement." 
 
 F 2 
 
III. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 And more than one cause occurs to limit 
 the activity of zamindars in this matter to 
 very few instances. It is sufficient for the 
 moment to say that wealthy enterprising zamin- 
 dars are very rare in the jMofussil. The Hindu 
 gentleman of the Bengali village, the landed pro- 
 prietor, so to speak, of the locality, may have an 
 income of some Es. 200 or Es. 300 per annum at 
 most. He may not always have even a jjrtA:/i,rt 
 house. His property is probably a share of the 
 village, or of several ^-illages together, held on some 
 tenure, the general nature of which will be hereafter 
 described, and his net income is that which remains 
 
III.] Domestic Life. 69 
 
 of the collections made from the ryots after he has 
 paid the jama of his tenure to the superior holder, 
 or to the Government, as the case may be. His life 
 is a very quiet one, unmarked by the characteristics 
 of either a very active or a very refined form of 
 civilization. His daily routine may be sufficiently 
 described without much difficulty. He gets up 
 before sunrise, and if he be an orthodox Hindu, as 
 he sits upon his bed he utters, in the place of a 
 formal prayer, the name of " Diirga " several times 
 in succession. Then he performs some slight ablu- 
 tions. At this point the habits of Brahmans vary 
 from those of other Hindus. The Brahman goes at 
 once after these ablutions to bathe in the river, if 
 there is one, near at hand; if not, to the tank 
 attached to his house, or to the village tank. As he 
 stands in the water, and when he comes out, he 
 repeats, by way of prayer, Sanskrit mantras which 
 he does not understand. In any village situated on 
 the bank of a river may be seen, very early in the 
 morning, men of the most respectable class and 
 
]\'IoDERN Village Life ix Bexoal. [iii. 
 
 position returning home after bathing and muttering 
 these mantriis as they go. Men of respectability 
 (hhadralog), however, who are not Brahmans, 
 do not think it necessary to bathe so early, or to 
 say anything in the shape of prayer, beyond the 
 utterance of the name of Diirga two or three 
 times on rising from bed. 
 
 It used to be the practice for pious Hindus, in 
 addition to this, to write the name of Diirga on 
 a plaintain leaf as many as two hundred or three 
 hundred times every morning after the first wash- 
 ing, but this old custom has died out, except in 
 perhaps a few excessively conservative families of 
 Eastern Bengal, and now-a-days, the ordinary village 
 proprietor of the higher class, after his early ablu- 
 tions, without further preliminary, takes his seat in 
 his liaitlial-liana upon the tuJJttajwsh (if, as is usually 
 the case, there is one), which is generally covered 
 with a white cliculr. There he receives all whom 
 business, or desire for gossip, may bring to see him. 
 His ryots who come sit at a little distance on the 
 
in.] Domestic Life. 71 
 
 floor, while visitors of the hhadralog sit on the 
 takhtaposh with the master of the house. Sukhns 
 for smoking are offered to each one in turn, and for 
 this purpose two hidhas are generally kept ready, 
 one for Brahmans, the other for kyasths, &c., that 
 for the use of Brahmans being distinguished by a 
 cowrie hanging pendent from it by a string. ISTot 
 to give a visitor the offer of a smoke would be 
 considered as very uncourteous and rude. 
 
 The Bengal village gentleman generally transacts 
 all his business in the morning, sitting in the way 
 just described in his baithakhana, while his wife 
 is simultaneously engaged in the kitchen. He will 
 not take food before bathing, for to do so would 
 be considered very wrong. He remains in his 
 baithakhana usually until 11 or about 11.30 
 A.M., sometimes even later. Then when all his 
 visitants are gone he causes his servant to bring 
 oil and this he rubs all over his body and head 
 as a preliminary to going to bathe. 
 
 When he returns from bathing, which wHl 
 
72 iloDEEN Village Life in Bengal. [hi. 
 
 generally be about noon, he goes to the inner 
 apartments (niular mahdl) of the house, i.e., to the 
 portio.n of the house or homestead which is allotted 
 to the female members of the family, and which 
 strangers and non-privileged males are not allowed 
 to enter. There, if he is orthodox and has " taken 
 the mantra" from his family priest, he first performs 
 l>iij(i, and then has his breakfast brought. The 
 servant of the house or the women of the family 
 sweep the floor of the room or verandah where he 
 usually takes his meals, and spread a sc[uare piece 
 of carpet (asJuvn) or place a square wooden board 
 for him to sit (cross-legged) upon. His food is 
 served in a thCil ' or on a stone platter by his wife, 
 his children sit round him, and his mother comes 
 and sits in front of him to see that everything is 
 done as it should be ; if the wife is young she 
 seldom speaks to him in the presence of the 
 mother, and if he has to ask for anything he does 
 so generally through the mother. The breakfast 
 
 ^ A "thai" is a metal plate or disli. 
 
HI.] Domestic Life. 73 
 
 commonly consists of rice as a principal item and 
 in considerable quantity, some kind of ddl (.'iplit 
 pulse), a few vegetables separately prepared, on^ fish 
 curry, sometimes also an acid curry taken after the 
 ordinary curry, and lastly milk and sugar. The 
 food is mostly conveyed from the platter to the 
 mouth with the fingers of the right hand ; the right 
 hand alone can be used for this purpose, and no 
 food may be touched with the left. Having finished 
 eating, the master of the house washes his right 
 hand and his mouth, receives a pan (betel leaf) 
 prepared with spices by the women of the family 
 for chewing, returns to his baithakhana, smokes his 
 hukha and lies down to S-leep for an hour or two 
 during the hottest part of the day, namely, from 
 about 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. 
 
 About 3 P.M. his siesta over, he does whatever 
 work of the morning he may have left unfinished, 
 or goes out to see his neighbours or his ryots, 
 returning shortly after dusk, when he takes some 
 refreshment (tijin) or lunch in the shape of sweet- 
 
71 MoDEEN Village Life in Bkmial. [hi. 
 
 meats. For the rest of the evening he sits in liis 
 haitlialhana conversing;- with friends and neighbours 
 wlio may have come in, or plays games with cards 
 or dice, or plays chess. In this manner he amuses 
 himself and passes his time till dinner, or the last 
 meal of the day is announced about 10 p.m.. a 
 female servant comes and says " rice is ready," and 
 he goes for his dinner to the same place \vliere he 
 took his breakfast, and eats it in tlie same fashion. 
 In fact, there is scarcely any dilference between tlie 
 morning meal, either in regard to the food or to 
 any nther particular. The second is essentially a 
 repetition of the first. 
 
 The women of the house always take their meals 
 after the men have finished theirs ; and all the 
 meinliLTS of the family retire to their sleeping 
 quai'tt'is immediately after the night meal. 
 
 The foregoing is a brief outline of the e very-day 
 life ol' a Bengali village proprietor belonging to 
 the gentleman class who lives on an income of say 
 from L's. 200 to its. .'JOO a year derived from land. 
 
III.] Domestic Life. 75 
 
 It should be added that the women of the family 
 do a great deal of domestic work, such as cooking, 
 pounding rice, fetching water, &c. Early in the 
 morning they sprinkle water over the uthcm, and 
 proceed to clean the thdls and the cups used the 
 previous evening. Of such a family as that just 
 described, the female members are not so secluded 
 as the women of a similar family would be in a 
 large town. In a Bengali village all the neighbours 
 are allowed to see and speak with the women 
 of the family (except the newly-married laus, not 
 belonging to the village) unless they are prevented 
 by village relationship. 
 
 Domestic life in a cultivator's family is, of course, 
 very different from that of the Ihadralog just 
 described. The exigencies of field labour, cattle 
 tending, and poverty introduce very considerable 
 disturbing causes. Still there are generic features 
 of resemblance between the two. The women 
 prepare the meals for the men, and these are eaten 
 in the more private part of the homestead which 
 
76 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [hi. 
 
 answers to the inner apartments of the gentlemea's 
 hari, also the women take their meals after the 
 men have eaten. The food is almost exclusively 
 rice, dcil and vegetable curries. Now and then 
 fish is an ingredient in it, and occasionally milk. 
 The front verandah of the principal hut of the 
 homestead is the ryot's Laithakhana, and there, 
 after his day's work is done, he will spread a mat 
 for his neighbour and share with him his bubble- 
 bubble. Or a village group will form under a 
 convenient ^/ipaZ tree, and gossip and smoke away 
 the affairs of the mauzali,. 
 
 It is the universal habit in Bengal prevalent in 
 all classes for the members of a family to live joint 
 and to enjoy the profits of property jointly. "What 
 this amounts to is by no means easy to describe 
 in few sentences. To take the instance of a ryot's 
 family, it grows joint somewhat in this fashion ; 
 namely, on the death of the father, his sons, who 
 before were dependent members of the family living 
 in the same homestead and assisting him in the 
 
iii.J Domestic Life. 77 
 
 cultivation of his jot, henceforward continue still 
 in the same homestead, cultivating the same jot, 
 but now in the capacity of owners. Sometimes 
 they get their own names collectively substituted 
 for that of their father in the books of the zamindar's 
 kaehahri ; and sometimes the dead man's name is 
 allowed to remain there unaltered. While thus 
 situated each brother with his wife and children, 
 if possible, occupies a separate hut in the home- 
 stead, and as often as is necessary for this purpose, 
 or when it can be afforded, an additional hut is 
 added to the group. 
 
 Also in this state of things, the brothers are by 
 law entitled to equal shares by inheritance in the 
 whole of any heritable property which they have 
 thus taken in common from their deceased father, 
 and each has a right at any time to compel a par- 
 tition. In the event of one of the brothers dying, his 
 sous, if he has any, if not, his widow, step into 
 his place and represent him in all respects. 
 
 This sort of process carried on for several 
 
78 MoDEKN Village Life in Bengal. [iii. 
 
 generations obviously would bring about a very com- 
 plex distribution of undivided shares ; but in the case 
 of ryots it very speedily comes to an end by reason 
 of the smallness of the original subject rendering 
 the aliquot parts insignificant. Before that stage 
 is reached the younger members of the family give 
 up or sell their shares to the others and find occu- 
 pation elsewhere as best they can. When the jnt 
 is inheritable in its nature the members of the 
 family while living in the same homestead will 
 actually divide the land among themselves according 
 to their shares and cultivate separately. In this 
 way the land in some villages has come to be sub- 
 divided into absurdly small plots, and this evil has 
 a natural tendency to increase rather than diminish. 
 
 When the family is well off and has considerable 
 possessions as well, it may be, in the M'ay of trade 
 as in the shape of zamindaries and other landed 
 tenures, the state of "jointhood" commonly long 
 remains. The whole property is managed by one 
 member of the family who is called the "karta" 
 
III.] Domestic Life. 79 
 
 and who is usually the eldest individual of the 
 eldest branch. He is theoretically responsible in 
 a certain vague way to the entire body of joint 
 co-sharers, each of whom can, if he likes, see the 
 family books of accounts and papers which are 
 regularly kept in a sort of office (or daftarkhdna) 
 by the family servants ; but as a matter of fact it 
 is seldom that any one interferes until some occasion 
 of quarrel arises and is fought out with acrimony, 
 a partition effected and accounts insisted upon. 
 Events of this kind happen from time to time, with 
 ultimate wholesome effect, but as a rule the co- 
 sharers are only too willing to let well alone, content 
 to be supported in the family house, out of the 
 family funds, without asking any questions, each 
 getting, as he wants, sufficient small sums of money 
 for ordinary personal expenses. This constitutes the 
 enjoyment of the joint family property by a joint 
 family. Whatever money is saved, after the disburse- 
 ment of the general family and proprietarj^ expenses, 
 is invested by the karta in the purchase of some 
 
80 Modern Village Life ix Bengal. [m. 
 
 addition to the joint property; and whatever 
 money is required for the performance of extra- 
 ordinary family ceremonies or religious performances 
 is commonly raised by the larta in the form of a 
 loan charged on the joint property. The family 
 proprietary body is thus a sort of corporation the 
 ostensible head of which is the harta, and in which 
 the individual members have acquired no pro- 
 prietary rights as distinct from those of the whole 
 body, except the right on the part of each co-sharer 
 to separate at any moment and have his aliquot 
 share of the common property divided off and given 
 to him. 
 
 The domestic community which in this system 
 of living grows up under, so to speak, the same 
 roof-tree is curiously heterogeneous and sometimes 
 very numerous. There are first the co-sharers; 
 these are brothers, nephews, and male coasins 
 whose fathers' shares have devolved upon them 
 and the widows or daughters of co-sharers, who 
 have died without leaving sons or grandsons ; and 
 
III.] Domestic Life. 81 
 
 secondly, there is the mixed class of dependent 
 members made up of the wives and children of exist- 
 ing co-sharers, the wives and daughters of former co- 
 sharers (whose shares went to sons) and individuals 
 labouring under any such infirmity as disqualifies 
 them from inheriting. Instances occur in Calcutta and 
 even in the Mofussil, of families comprehending as 
 many as 300 or 400 individuals including servants 
 living in one house ; and it is probably usual for a 
 family to amount to something between 50 and 100. 
 The Bengali's house is everywhere, whether in 
 town or in the country village, and whether large 
 or small, of one typical form, especially adapted to 
 the needs of joint family life ; its principal elements 
 are apparent even in the honiestead of the smallest 
 ryot. That of an old famUy may be described as 
 follows : — The building is of brick, and two-storied, 
 that is, it has a ground floor and a first floor ; the 
 term " upper-roomed house '' always designates a 
 house which ranks above the ordinary run of re- 
 spectability. The front is generally long, exhibiting 
 
 G 
 
82 MoBEKN Village Life in Bengal, [hi. 
 
 a pillared verandah or a row of French casement 
 and jillmilled windows on the first floor. The 
 entrance is by an archway, or large square-headed 
 door in the centre of the front ; and in the entrance 
 passnge, often on both sides of it, is a raised floor 
 with one or two open cells in which the darwans 
 (or door-keepers) sit, lie, and sleep — in fact dwell. 
 This is the deorlti and answers to the cmwicrgerie 
 of French houses. The entrance passage on the inside 
 opens upon a quadrangle which may or may not be 
 complete. On the quadrangle side the house is gene- 
 rally faced all round by a two-storied pillared verandah 
 which serves as a passage or corridor for each floor, 
 and gives access to the different rooms ; the upper 
 verandah is reached from the lower by a narrow 
 winding staircase of steep brick-built steps usually 
 situated at the corners and ^'ery closely resembling 
 turret stairs of an English country church. From 
 outside to inside the breadth of the house is always 
 very narrow, and as the rooms are less than the 
 full width by the width of the verandah, they are also 
 
iii.j Domestic Life. 83 
 
 necessarily narrow; sometimes, however, they are 
 found of considerable length. On one side of the 
 quadrangle is the puja dalan. This may be described 
 to be the verandah of the other sides very much 
 enlarged and deepened. It is approached from the 
 central area by a flight of steps, which in its breadth 
 occupies nearly the whole length of the side, and its 
 lofty ceiling is supported by inner pillars additional 
 to those which stand in the place of the ordinary 
 verandah pillars. Its chief purpose is to serve afi 
 a stage for the performance of religious and domestic 
 ceremonies on special occasions, the quadrangular 
 area then affording convenient space for the gene- 
 ral audience of dependents and invited guests ; and 
 the women of the house, themselves unseen, finding 
 gazing places in the upper windows and verandah. 
 At these times the quadrangle is commonly covered 
 in by a shamiana stretched across the top from side 
 to side. In this manner a magnificent reception 
 hall or theatre can be constructed in almost every 
 native gentleman's house at the shortest notice. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [hi. 
 
 Besides this first quadrangle, there is often in 
 large houses a second or a third quadrangle, and 
 even more, the one behind or annexed to the other, 
 much as is the case in our colleges at Oxford or 
 Ganibridge. Then, too, there is the thalwrhwri or 
 chamber, where the figure of the family deity 
 resides and where the daily service or worship of 
 the thalmr is performed by the inferior family priest. 
 Among Brahmans, and also lidin laists, who are 
 now-a-days privileged to receive the mantra, the 
 father and mother of any branch of the family may 
 for some purposes each have his or her private 
 personal thaJt'Kv quite apart from the family thakur. 
 But neither a laist nor even a Brahman woman can 
 themselves worship the family idol or any visible 
 thalaur, except the clay figure of Siva which is 
 made for every-day worship. They must make 
 their Aaily pujn and utter mantras apart from any 
 idol.i 
 
 1 The Shastras forbid to women and Sudrns all knowledge and 
 use of .sacred texts. 
 
ni.J Domestic Lira. 85 
 
 It is by no means easy to describe the mode in 
 which a large family distributes itself over a house 
 such as that just now sketched. If the stage which 
 the family has reached is three or four generations 
 removed from the common ancestor there wiU. be 
 several heads of branches ; and these branches will 
 settle themselves per stirpes, so to speak, in separate 
 parts of the house under their own heads, more or less 
 separate from the rest. Sometimes this separation 
 is so complete that the portion of the house allotted 
 to each branch is parted off from the remainder of 
 the house by such blocking up of doors as may be 
 necessary for the purpose and by the opening of a 
 separate entrance. Each group as a rule messes by 
 itself, and every adult member of it has a room to 
 himself ia which he lives, all the female members 
 together finding accommodation of some sort in the 
 inner apartments, i.e. the portion of the dwelling 
 house which is allotted to the females, and commonly 
 among Europeans called the zenana. AU the branches 
 usually keep joint with regard to the worship of 
 
86 ^FODERN VlLI.AGE LiFE IN BENflAL. [ill. 
 
 the family deity. And even when the different 
 branches have gone so far as to sever in everything, 
 i.e. in food, worship, and estate, as the phrase is, the 
 same family deity is commonly retained hy all, and 
 the worship of it conducted by the different separated 
 branches in turn, each turn proportionate in dura- 
 tion to the owner's share in the joint property. For 
 instance, if the family in its divided state is 
 represented by four heads, namely, tv.'o brothers and 
 their two nephews, sons of a third brother deceased, 
 the turns or pallas of wov-^hip would be respectively 
 four months, four months, two months, and two 
 months or equimultiples of these. 
 
 It is, of course, only in Calcutta or other very 
 large towns that the family swarm continues in the 
 family hive at such dimensions as those just men- 
 tioned. But in the few country villages, where the 
 zamindar's family has been fortunate enough to 
 maintain itself for many generations, much about 
 the same thing occurs. There will be the lirick- 
 built, quadrangled house with imposing front. 
 
Hi.j Domestic Life. 87 
 
 sheltering under one connected roof many families 
 of cousins who bear to each other varying degrees 
 of relationship and constitute in the whole a joint 
 family, all the adult independent members of which 
 have their own joint (but separable) coparcenary in- 
 terest in the property of the family whatever that be. 
 The harta of this family (generally by the nature 
 of the case the senior member) is in most respects 
 the ostensible head, and although in the village all 
 of the others are " the babus," yet he is especially 
 " the, babu " to whose activity such good work, when 
 it is done, as the maintenance of a dispensary, 
 the support of the mandir and its priest, and the 
 keeping the mandap in good condition, is to be 
 attributed. 
 
IV. 
 
 GEATE AND GAY. 
 
 Amusements do not appear to occupy any great 
 space of life in a Bengali village. Although the 
 circumstances of agricultural labour are such as to 
 leave the ryot in comparative idleness for the larger 
 part of the year, the truth seems to be that, for 
 generations, the rural population has been a pauper, 
 under-fed class, and does not possess the vigour and 
 excess vitality, which, in the case of the Burmese, 
 overflows in vivacious games and athletic sports. 
 Bright, hearty, healthy play of a boisterous charac- 
 ter is seldom or never to be met with among the 
 children. Gymnastics, however, of undoubted indi- 
 genous origin, is, in some places, a gieat favourite 
 
iv.J Grave and Gay. 89 
 
 and very successfully pursued, and there are parts 
 of Bengal iu which the boys have even laid hold 
 of cricket. Nevertheless, all Bengalis are possessed 
 with an iu'ordinate love of spectacles and shows of 
 every kind. The Hindus flock as readily to the 
 public religious processions and displays of the 
 Muhanimadans as to their own, and vice versd. The 
 Muhammadans find occasions for these at the 
 Muharram and some other periodic commemora- 
 tions of events in the lives of the Prophet and his 
 chief apostles. And the Hindus have their village 
 f'wjas, which are celebrated with more or less show 
 and magnificence according to the wealth and public 
 spiritedness of the local zamindar. Then there are 
 from time to time family festivals and ceremonies 
 already spoken of at the houses of the better-to-do 
 folks, such as marriages, shraddas, readings of the 
 Eamayana, &c. 
 
 The Bengali ryot is not often in a hurry. He 
 dearly loves an opportunity for a bit of gossip and 
 the hubble-bubble, and the evening groups under 
 
on Modern Village Life in Bexiial. [iv. 
 
 ihe pTjiiil tree are usually the wholesome substitutes 
 tor the tciH shop. Drinking does, however, obtain 
 to a considerable extent among the lower castes 
 und is said to be increasing. Native writers are 
 fond of attributing the introduction of this vice or, 
 at any rate, its encouragement in some way to the 
 English, but there can be no real doubt that it is 
 a natural produ.ct of the country itself.'^ In a por- 
 tion of the \"eds the delights of intoxication are 
 dwelt upon, and some of the iantric writings are 
 (levoted to the encouragement of drink. The habit 
 of drinking appears to have been so mischievously 
 prevalent in the best days of the [Muhammadan 
 rule as to ha\'e called for repeated prohibitive legis- 
 lation. And, indeed, the spirit which is everywhere 
 drunk, namely tari, is evidently of purely home 
 origin, and is made largely in every village by crude 
 native methods from many sorts of saccharine juices, 
 especially from the juice of the 1((ri palm. 
 
 Gambling has great charms to the Bengali of all 
 
 ' Jounud of Asiatic Society for 1873, Part I. No. 1. 
 
IV.] Grave and Gay. 91 
 
 ranks, and some very amusing modes of applyin;^ 
 the element of chance are in vogue. But gambling 
 with cards and dice is the common form prevalent 
 with the middle classes. 
 
 To describe fully the religious aspect of a Bengal 
 village community would be a very long and difficult 
 task — a task, indeed, which a foreigner could hardly 
 carry through with success. A few of its more 
 conspicuous features may, however, be pointed out 
 without much risk of error. The Muhammadans 
 exhibit two very distinct sects in Bengal, namely, 
 the Sunnis and the Shias. Both seem to be a 
 good deal given to observances and practices of 
 Hinduism ; and it is pretty clear that the Bengali 
 Musalman is nothing but a roughly converted 
 Hindu. He is quite undistinguishable from the 
 ordinary Hindu in all race characteristics, and 
 retains very marked caste notions and habits. In 
 the best and most fertile parts of the delta the 
 Muhammadan element exceeds 60 per cent, of the 
 population, and in the rest of Bengal Proper it rises 
 
92 Modern Village Life ix Bengal, [iv. 
 
 as high as 30 or 40 per cent. In some districts 
 the agricultural villages are either whollj' Muham- 
 madan or wholly Hindu, but more commonly each 
 village has its Muhammadan quarter and its Hindu 
 quarter. 
 
 Hinduism also has its sects quite apart from 
 its castes, though a marked distinction of sect is 
 apt in the end to become synonymous with dis- 
 tinction of caste. The peculiarity of Hinduism, 
 which has been already spoken of, namely, its 
 want of the congregational element, seems to favour 
 tlie growth of sects. At any rate, no one appears 
 to care much what particular form of faith his 
 neighbour professes, as long as it is not of an 
 aggressive character. It may look like making an 
 exception to say that Christians are a good deal 
 objected to in an agricultural village ; but this is 
 mainly for two reasons, i.e. — 1st, because it is 
 generally supposed to be of the essence of Chris- 
 tianity to -work actively towards the subversion of 
 Hinduism ; 2.ndly, because Christian ryots backed by 
 
IV.] Geave and Gay. 93 
 
 the support (by no means always judiciously given) 
 which they obtain from European missionaries are 
 apt to be a very contumacious, unaccommodating 
 set of people. 
 
 We find pretty universally in the rural villages, 
 Boistobs, Saktas, Sivas, Ganapatyas, &c. Of 
 Boistobs there are an immense number of vaiieties 
 or sub-divisions. Their chief distinguishing tenet 
 seems to be that Vishnu is the Brahma : that he 
 existed before all worlds, and was the cause and 
 creator of all. Tbey endue him with the highest 
 moral attributes, and they believe that, besides his 
 more exalted form as creator of all things, he has at 
 different times and for the benefit of his creatures 
 assumed particular forms and appearances. The best 
 known and most celebrated of these is Krishna ; 
 whose bright and frolicsome, and, indeed, somewhat 
 sensual career of adventure on earth is a very 
 fascinating topic of contemplation to his votaries.^ 
 
 ' It is perhaps noteworthy that a great many educated Bengalis 
 have the notion that our Christ is none other than their Krishna. 
 
94 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [iv. 
 
 The chief development of the Boistobs originated 
 with Chaitanya, who preached purity, meditation, 
 and the equality of all men, without distinction of 
 sect or caste, before God. He threw aside all cere- 
 monies and outward symbols. And a certain 
 freedom from caste trammels and disregard of 
 religious observances, with an appreciation of the 
 importance of conduct, still seem to characterise 
 the sect. The Boistobs have been, and even 
 now are being, recruited from all castes, but 
 taken togetlier in all their varieties they are 
 commonly reckoned as a sort of caste by them- 
 selves. Their especially ascetic members go liy 
 the designation of Bairagi (amongst others), and 
 live a life of mendicancy and freedom which, as 
 has been already mentioned, is not always altogether 
 reputable. 
 
 The Saktas, perhaps, constitute the majority of 
 the inhabitants of the villages. They have come to 
 be, in a great degree, united with the Saivas, These 
 latter look upon Siva (the destroyer) as the primary 
 
IV.] Grave and Gay. 95 
 
 and more exalted form of Brahma, and the Saktas 
 especially contemplate and worship the divine 
 nature in its activity, in other words, the female 
 forms of the supreme deity, as Diirga or Kali. The 
 Sivaite and Sakta worship is in a marked degree 
 a worship of dogma, of gorgeous ceremony, and 
 bloody sacrifices. The Sakta consider themselves 
 conservative of the purer and Puranic type of reli- 
 gion. Like the Pharisees of Judea, they are strict 
 in small observances with regard to food, meals, &c., 
 perhaps even to the neglect of the larger precepts 
 of the law. It was against this system and its 
 abuses that Chaitanya lifted up his voice, and that 
 the Boistobs are the protestants ; but the older faith 
 still appeals the most successfully to the passions 
 of men, and with its vicarious helps to acceptance 
 with God still holds sway ^Aith the masses of the 
 people. 
 
 The Ganapatyas hardly, perhaps, deserve to be 
 called a distinct sect. They particularly seek the 
 protection of Ganesa, and devote themselves to liis 
 
96 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [tv. 
 
 worship, but apart from this they may belong to 
 almost any sect of Hinduism. 
 
 The mention of these different sects of Hinduism 
 leads naturally up to a description of a very remark- 
 able institution, which although it does not by any 
 means find illustration in every village of Bengal, 
 yet is very common in certain parts of the presidency. 
 In most of the sects there is (as it may be termed) 
 a clerical class, which is itself separated into two 
 orders, namely, to use European designations, the 
 monastic (or ascetic) and the secular. The monastic 
 order is celibate and in a great degree erratic and 
 mendicant, but has anchorage places and head- 
 quarters in the maths. The original meaning of the 
 word maih seems to be cell or chamber, as of a 
 hermit.i Now-a-days the typical math consists of 
 an endowed temple or shrine, with a dwelling-place 
 for a superior (the Mohant) and his disciples (rhelas). 
 The endowment of a mryth is either the result of 
 private dedication, or it is the subject of a grant 
 
 ^ For the root of the word see Thomas's Jainism, note, p. 3. 
 
IV.] Geaye and Gay. 97 
 
 made by an already existing wealthy math. In 
 the latter case the new institution becomes an 
 off-shoot of the old, and remains allied with it 
 in some sort of subordination. The extent or 
 amount of the property is not generally very large ; 
 though in exceptional cases it is so, and in some 
 maths the Mohants, either by decline from the strict 
 path of sanctity originally marked out for them, 
 or even in prosecution of the founder's purpose, 
 make the acquirement of wealth by trade their 
 great object. Instances of this are most plentiful 
 in the north-western parts of the Bengal presidency, 
 where numerous trader Mohants of great wealth and 
 influence are to be found. 
 
 As a rule, the Mohant, when he devoted himself 
 to the ascetic form of religious life, ipso facto, severed 
 himself from all such worldly possessions as he 
 micht otherwise have been entitled to as an ordinary 
 member of society. He became theoretically dead 
 to the world, and incapable of holding or inheriting 
 propeity generally. But with regard to the pro- 
 
98 Modern Village Liee in Bengal. [iv. 
 
 perty of the math or MohantsMp it is different. 
 The Hindu law recognises a special devolution of 
 the property belonging to a math upon the occur- 
 rence of the death of the Mohant. A certain pre- 
 cept ^ in the writings of the sages to the effect that 
 the virtuous pupil takes the property, is the foun- 
 dation of the different rules observed in different 
 cases. The variation is in the manner in which the 
 virtuous pupil is ascertained. There are instances 
 of iiuiths in which the Mohantship descends to a 
 personal heir of the deceased ; and others in which 
 the existing Mohant appoints his successor. But 
 the ordinary rule is, that the maths of the same sect 
 in a district are associated together, the jMohants of 
 these acknowledging one of their number, who is 
 for some cause pre-eminent, as their head ; and on 
 the occasion of the death of one, the others of the 
 associated body assemble to elect a successor out 
 of the chdas (or disciples) of the deceased, if 
 possible ; or, if there be none of them qualified, 
 1 Mitalc. chap. 2, sec. 8, si. 1—6. 
 
IV.] Grave and Gay. 99 
 
 then from the chelas of another Mohant. After the 
 election the chosen disciple is installed oh the gaddi 
 of his predecessor with much ceremony. Sometimes 
 most unseemly struggles for the succession take 
 place. It has happened that two rivals, each backed 
 by a section of neighbouring Mohants and other 
 partizans, though neither, perhaps, very regularly, 
 a chela of the deceased, have started up to make 
 title to the vacant Mohantship. Both accompanied 
 the dead body a long distance to the sacred river 
 and put fire into the mouth, as the corpse was 
 launched into the Ganges. Both returned to be 
 formally elected by their respective adherents in 
 two separate majlis held within the same compound 
 of the math. Both were carried in a grand pro- 
 cession with elephants and horses and flags and 
 drums and a crowd of followers round the village ; 
 and, finally, both came into a court of law to esta- 
 blish, by prolonged litigation reaching even to the 
 Privy Council, rights which probably neither of 
 them was strictly entitled to. 
 
 II 2 
 
100 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [iv. 
 The mandir (or temple) of the math, if there is 
 one in the village, is generally a conspicuous object. 
 It has usually only one chamber, in which the 
 thcihur or image of the deity resides, and its ground 
 section is a square of no great dimensions; but it 
 is often carried up to a considerable height, end 
 terminates in various, more or less, conoidal forms. 
 In some districts it is acutely pointed, and presents 
 very much the appearance of an English church- 
 spire, as it is seen from a distance piercing the 
 village mass of foliage. 
 
 There are also very frequently to be seen, in or 
 about a village, mandirs which do not belong to any 
 math ; these commonly owe their origin to private 
 dedication. There is seldom, however, any endow- 
 ment attached to them, or, perhaps, just sufhcient 
 lakheraj land to maintain the attendant Brahman who 
 performs the daily worship and keeps the place in 
 order. More often the Brahman gets his living out of 
 the offerings made to the thalcur and the contribution 
 of the orthodox, or is supported by the zamindar. 
 
IV.] Geavh and Gay. 101 
 
 A shrine {dargah) or tomb of some holy Muham- 
 niadan fakir is often to be met with on the way- 
 side, with the hut or homestead of its keeper near 
 at hand. Passers-by of all creeds and denominations 
 tlixow in their cowries and pice. And if the sanctity 
 of the deceased be much out of the common, the 
 tomb may even be a valuable source of revenue. 
 In that case it is treated as a subject of property 
 which passes by inheritance from owner to owner, 
 and the keeper is paid by salary from the person 
 entitled to it. Generally, however, the keeper of 
 the place alone is interested in it, and transmits 
 his humble effects to his heirs. 
 
 In a large village there will be a mandap, i.e. a 
 spacious open-sided covered-in room, in a sense, a 
 vestry-room, where the village ]yix,ja festivals are 
 celebrated and other village gatherings occur. 
 Sometimes the mandap is a paJcka structure, the 
 roof being supported on brick-built pillars. But 
 more often it is of bamboo and thatch. It is usually 
 kept up by the zamindar. 
 
V. 
 
 EURAL CRIME. 
 
 EiTRAL crime does not assume any very varied 
 forms. One of the commonest is dacoity (dakaiti), 
 i.e. gang robbery. The ladmashes or bad characters 
 of two or three adjoining villages are, to a certain 
 extent, associated together. They are ostensibly 
 ryots, or sons of ryots, and like everyone else about 
 them are more or less dependent upon agricultural 
 labour for their livelihood. Though it generally 
 happens that they become to their neighbours the 
 objects of a somewhat undefined suspicion, stiU, 
 as a rule, they manage to maintain their social 
 position whatever that may be. Their method 
 of operation is very simple. Some one whose 
 
v.] EuKAL Ckime. 103 
 
 reputation for accumulated wealth makes him 
 worth attacking is selected. A dark or stormy 
 night is taken for the purpose, and then the band 
 assembles under a jplpal tree, or at some other con- 
 venient place of assignation. Each man wears a mask 
 or is in some other manner disguised, and carries 
 some weapon : Idtiees are the most common, but some- 
 times quaint old swords of an almost forgotten shape 
 make their appearance ; and instruments specially 
 contrived for cutting open mat walls and probing 
 thatch are brought out. From the place of assem- 
 bling the gang proceeds to the victim's homestead, 
 and surrounds it ; next, at a signal, when all is 
 ready, the more daring rush forward and break into 
 the homestead by cutting through the matting, or 
 forcing down a door, or climbing over the roof. The 
 males who may be sleeping in the outside verandah 
 are immediately seized and bound. Those who are 
 inside are not always so easily disposed of, because 
 they will probably have been aroused by the uproar 
 before their assailants reach them. In a very few 
 
104 Modern Village Life in BENfiAL. [v. 
 
 seconds, however, as the attacking party is invariably 
 greatly superior in force, and by no means scrupu- 
 lous in the use of their weapons, these too suc- 
 cumb and are bound hand and foot or are otherwise 
 secured. 
 
 Then commences the looting, which must be 
 effected very hurriedly, for a little delay might 
 suffice to bring the whole village down upon the 
 robbers. A torch or two is lighted, j^iteras forced 
 open, every likely corner is searched. The floor 
 of the huts is hastily probed or is dug up to discover 
 the buried pot, which is a favourite form of safe 
 for the custody of jewels or of spare cash when 
 it happens that the ryot has any. Or perhaps the 
 owner of the homestead is compelled by torture to 
 reveal the place of his valuables : for instance he 
 is rolled naked backwards and forwards over hot 
 ashes, or a burning torch is held under his armpits, 
 &c. All the booty which can in these modes be 
 laid hold of is promptly carried off, each man loading 
 himself with what he succeeds in putting his hands 
 
v.] EuRAL Crime. 105 
 
 upon. If there is a probability of immediate pur- 
 suit, everyone will go his own way, and take caxe 
 of himself, and all will meet again subsequently 
 in some previously determined spot to divide the 
 spoil. If there is no such danger, the dakaits will at 
 once go to a place of meeting (in a jungle if possible) 
 and settle each man's share of the stolen property. 
 
 The police are almost entirely powerless to 
 prevent these outrages, and they cannot always be 
 said to be successful in detecting the perpetrators 
 of them. There can be no doubt that in some parts 
 of Bengal the profession of a ddkait is sufficiently 
 lucrative to tempt idle men to brave its risks. If 
 somewhat irregular measures were not taken to 
 suppress it, probably it would attain unendurable 
 dimensions. Accordingly, the police may sometimes 
 be found waging a warfare against ddkaiti which is 
 very characteristic. When information of a ddJcaiii 
 having been committed reaches the thannah, a 
 Darogah with a few chaukidars goes at once to the 
 spot. He satisfies himself by inquiries as to who 
 
106 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 are the reputed badmashes of the neighbourhood, and 
 then immediately arrests some one, two, or three of 
 them, such as he thinks will be most likely, under 
 the circumstances of the case, to serve his purposes. 
 Having thus got these unfortunate men into their 
 hands, the pohce, by promises of pardon coupled 
 with material inducements, which, in most cases, 
 amount to a refined system of torture, procure them 
 to make confessions and to implicate a great many 
 others of the previously ascertained badmashes. The 
 next step, of course, is to arrest all these, and to 
 search their houses. At this stage of matters the 
 complainant is in a position such as to render him 
 a ready tool of the police. He will have a nest of 
 hornets about his ears for some years to come, unless 
 he succeeds in bringing a conviction home to each of 
 the arrested men. So he seldom finds much difficulty 
 in recognising in the searched houses articles which 
 had been stolen from him. If, however, for any 
 cause he cannot at first do this, the police have 
 recourse to a very simple expedient for the purpose 
 
v.] EuRAL Crime. 107 
 
 of assisting him. They obtain from the bazar, 
 or elsewhere, articles similar to those which the 
 complainant says he has lost ; and, under colour of 
 watching the prisoners' houses, manage to get these 
 articles secreted in or about the premises according 
 as opportunity may offer itself About this time 
 the Sub-Inspector or other officer charged, as it 
 is termed, with the investigation of the case, comes 
 upon the ground. Also the prisoners, who have 
 all of them been separately and constantly worked 
 upon by the police, have generally become pliable 
 enough to confess in accordance with the story 
 marked out for them, and sometimes even are 
 persuaded to point out (under the guidance, of 
 course, of the chaulddars) the very places where the 
 imported articles have been concealed ! These places 
 are generally, for obvious reasons, more often outside 
 the accused persons' homestead than inside, such as 
 in tanks, trunks of trees, under the soil of the khet, 
 &c. But sometimes opportunity serves for placing 
 the articles inside the very huts of the dwelling. 
 
108 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 The Inspector on his arrival thus finds his case 
 complete ; he takes it hefore the Magistrate ; the 
 evidence of the witnesses is written down ; the 
 articles are produced and sworn to. It seems 
 that they have all been found in the prisoners' 
 possession in consequence of information or clues 
 afforded by the prisoners themselves, and the case 
 of the prosecution is overwhelming. But even the 
 very last nail is riveted by the prisoners, or most 
 of them, confessing in the most satisfactory manner 
 possible. Thereupon they are all committed to 
 take their trial at the Sessions in due course. On 
 entering the prison walls the state of things changes 
 very much. The committed prisoners are relieved 
 from the immediate personal supervision and control 
 of the police. They converse freely with one another 
 and with other prisoners waiting trial ; they also 
 communicate with Mookhtars or law agents, con- 
 cerning their defence. They find that whether 
 innocent or guilty, they have made great fools of 
 themselves by confessing at the police dictation ; 
 
v.] EuRAL Crime. 109 
 
 and the upshot of it is, that when the trial in the 
 Sessions Court comes on they all plead not guilty, 
 and say that their former confessions were forced from 
 them by the police. This, however, avails them but 
 little. Their recorded confessions are put in against 
 them, and the Court with the remark that prisoners 
 always do retract when they get into jail, holds that 
 the confessions are supported by the discovery of the 
 articles, convicts the prisoners, and sentences them 
 to long terms of imprisonment or transportation. 
 
 When a case of this character occurs the Sessions 
 Judge is not usually quite unconscious of the police 
 practices in these matters, but he is almost invari- 
 ably, in the particular case before him (and often 
 rightly), so convinced of the guilt of the persons 
 whom he is trying that he is astute enough to find 
 out reasons why the confessions produced in evidence 
 were made voluntarily, and why the alleged finding 
 of the stolen articles may be depended upon. On a 
 comparatively recent occasion of this kind the Judge 
 said that he could not help seeing that the police 
 
110 Modern Villacse Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 had behaved very cruelly to the prisoners, and had 
 made them illegal promises of pardon in order to 
 extort confessions; but still he thought that the 
 discovery of the articles on the premises of the 
 different prisoners (effected, by the way, in a more 
 than ordinarily suspicious manner) entirely corro- 
 borated and rendered trustworthy the confessions 
 which were made.^ 
 
 1 The mode of action on the part of the police, which is above 
 illustrated, is a survival from former times, and is from its nature 
 very difficult of riddance. The tendency of the Bengal policeman 
 seems to be to force out truth rather than to find out truth. He 
 is not apt at building up a case with independent and circumstantial 
 materials drawn from various sources, and would certainly never 
 willingly venture to present to the court, which has to try the 
 case, merely the constituent materials, li'aving the court itself to 
 put them together. He feels it necessary to take care that some, 
 if not all, of the witnesses should narrate the whole case from 
 beginning to end. There is also extreme readiness in the lower 
 classes of Bengalis, when under coercion or pressure, as in all 
 whose civilization is of a servile order, to say anything even to the 
 extent of accusing themselves, which they may be led to think 
 will smooth their way out of immediately impending danger ; and 
 this is coupled with extraordinary quickness at perceiving the 
 existiag state of matters, comprehending what will be agreeable to 
 those who care for their information, aud making their statement 
 consistent therewith. The police are, therefore, naturally under 
 
v.] EUEAL CltlME. Ill 
 
 Little hesitation is felt even at this day in vindi- 
 cating family honour by taking life. Sometimes this 
 is done in a most savage and brutal manner. A story 
 constructed from the facets, slightly altered, of a case 
 vi^hich actually occurred not long ago will serve as 
 an illustration. An enterprising young Muhammadan, 
 who had been in the habit of finding employment 
 in some district remote from his native village, and 
 who may be called Abdool, returned home on one 
 occasion for a few weeks as he had several times 
 done before ; and while at home he stayed in his 
 family homestead, where his mother, a brother, a 
 
 great temptation to avail themselves of a means of evidence which 
 lies so near to their hands, and is so entirely adapted to their 
 purpose. But bad as confessions of prisoners, evidence of accom- 
 plices, declaration.? of dying men, who have played a part in 
 criminal occurrences, generally are in Europe, they are fur the 
 cause just mentioned greatly worse in Bengal. They cannot safely 
 be relied upon even as against the speakers themselves, except as 
 a sort of estoppel, unless they be corroborated. As against others 
 they are hardly of any value at all. If the circumstances of native 
 society were not siich that suspicion commonly directs the police 
 to the real offenders, convictions on a basis such as that exemplified 
 in the text could not be tolerated. 
 
112 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 cousin, and others resided. He visited his old friends 
 and, amongst others, he seems to have been received 
 with especial cordiality by the members of a Hindu 
 family who may be designated as the family of one 
 Kissori INIohun. Almost every evening he used to 
 go to their homestead, and played cards or dice with 
 them in the baitkakhana up to a late hour of the 
 night. One night, however, just as his home visit 
 was drawing to a close, he had not done so and he 
 was sleeping in the outside verandah of the family 
 hari in company with his brother, the other members 
 of the family being inside the huts ; about mid- 
 night some stranger came up to the verandah, aroused 
 him, spoke to him, and then the two went away 
 together ; the brother who was lying asleep near him 
 was partially awakened by the voices, saw the two 
 men go off in the dull light of the night, but 
 troubled himself no more about ' the matter, and 
 went to sleep again. In the morning Abdool was 
 nowhere in the iari, and in fact was never after seen 
 again. Still the members of his family did not fee 
 
v.] BuRAL Ceime. 113 
 
 any anxiety about him. They supposed that he had 
 for some reason gone back to the place of his employ- 
 ment without giving them notice of his intentions, 
 for he had on a former occasion acted precisely in 
 this manner. 
 
 Four or five days after this disappearance of 
 Abdool two boys who were tending cattle grazing 
 in the math, found a skull lying in a short sward 
 of arhar not very far from the bank of the Ganges. 
 The skull was entirely denuded of flesh, but was 
 stained with recent blood, and had the teeth in the 
 jaw. The news of the discovery soon reached the 
 village, and Abdool's mother and brother immedi- 
 ately went to the spot. They suspected at once 
 that the skull was Abdool's, and afterwards became 
 satisfied that it was so by reason of some peculiari- 
 ties in the teeth. Information was sent to the 
 nearest police thannah. The usual kind of investi- 
 gation took place. Several arrests were made and 
 confessions obtained. Two of these could be 
 depended upon, so far as the confessing persons 
 
 I 
 
114 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v 
 
 were concerned, though not further ; and coriobo- 
 ratiiig evidence manufactured by the police was nf 
 an unusually despicable character. From these con- 
 fessions it appeared that what had happened was as 
 follows : Kissori Mohnn's people had forrued the 
 notion that Abdool had become too intimate witli 
 a young married girl of their family, and they de- 
 termined, before he left the village, to piit him out 
 of the way. So on the eve (so to speak) of his 
 departure, a dependent of Kissori Mohun's was sent 
 at night to invite him to play as usual ; the attrac- 
 tion was great and he ^vent. On his arrival at the 
 Ii(tri he was surrounded in the darkness by half 
 a dozen members of Kissori Mohun's family, who 
 \\eve prepared for the task ; a cloth was twisted 
 round his neck by \\'hich he was dragged into the 
 hai//iiikli(nia, all present fell upon him, and killed 
 him by pounding him with their elbows. They 
 then carried the body to^^'ards the Ganges, and in 
 order to secure its rapid disappearance without 
 identification, they stopped half way in the ondth, 
 
V.J EuEAL Crime. 115 
 
 hacked it into small pieces with, a dao which they 
 had brought with them, put the pieces into a sack 
 so carried them to the bank of the river, and there 
 shot them out into the swift flowing current. But, 
 unluckily for them, in the hurry, and tlie darkness, 
 without noticing the fact, they left the skull in the 
 math ; jackals and vultures speedily bared the bone 
 and removed the features of the face, but enough 
 remained to furnish the clue, which led to the 
 discovery of the savage deed.^ 
 
 But there is a class of purely agrarian outrage, 
 which is, perhaps, more common than any other 
 form of rural crime. Its root lies in the complex 
 relations which connect the tiUers of the soil with 
 one another, and with the rent-receiver. A strong 
 sense of vested riglit unprotected by the arm of the 
 law leads in India as elsewhere to the endeavour at 
 vindicating it by violence. Very often a ryot, taking 
 advantage of a dispute between the zamindar and 
 
 ' This wa,s the case of the prosecution ; and it was only esta- 
 blished against one out of several jiersons accused. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 his neighbour, will get the plots of the latter, or a 
 portion of them (probably on higher terms) trans- 
 ferred to him at the kacliahri, but will be obliged 
 to resort to force in order to obtain or keep the 
 actual possession of them. Or one of several co- 
 sharers, cultivators, will pay the entire rent of a 
 holding, and failing to obtain from one of the others 
 the quota due from him, will forcibly prevent him 
 from tilling his plot till he pays — a very eifective 
 mode of coercion when it can be exercised, for the 
 sowing period of the year may be limited, and not 
 to till then means starvation. The following true 
 narrative is an example : — 
 
 Pakir Baksh, Somed Ali, Sabid Ali, and others, 
 were co-sharers of a certain jot, or holding of land, 
 as representing the different branches of what was 
 originally one family. There had been a great deal 
 of disputing about the shares, and when Fakir 
 Baksh was about to prepare his allotment for sow- 
 ing, Sabid Ali, who had paid up the full rent, or at 
 any rate more than his share, and felt aggrieved at 
 
v.] EuRAL Chime. 117 
 
 Fakir Baksh's refusal to recoup him, determined to 
 prevent him from cultivating his land until he did 
 so. In this state of things, at sunrise one morning, 
 Fakir Baksh and his three kinsmen, Somed Ali, 
 Sharaf Ali, and Imdaz Ali, began ploughing with 
 four yoke of bullocks, and almost immediately after- 
 wards, while they were so engaged and unarmed 
 Sabid Ali came upon them with eight or nine men 
 at his back and attacked them with the intention 
 of driving them off the ground. The members of 
 Sabid's All's party were all armed with lattees, 
 except one TaribuUah, who had a gun, and they 
 therefore expected to meet with an easy victory. 
 Somed Ali, however, and Sharaf, who were 
 both unusually powerful young men, left their 
 ploughs, and boldly facing the enemy actually 
 managed to wrench a lattee each from the hands 
 of their opponents. With these they laid about 
 them so lustily and with so much skiU that Sabid 
 Ali and his men were forced to retreat. Close in 
 their rear was a shallow Idial somewhat awkward 
 
118 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 to cross, and Taribullah, in desperation, raised his 
 eun, which was loaded with small shot, fired and 
 hit the advancing Somed Ali full in the chest, kill- 
 ing him on the spot. By the same discharge Sharaf 
 Ali was seriously wounded. On the happening of 
 this catastrophe the affray ended. Sabid All's 
 party, thoroughly frightened at the results of the 
 expedition, dispersed as best they could without 
 having attained their object. 
 
 A story of much the same kind may be told 
 wherein the zamindar's people figure as the aggres- 
 sors. A mauzah, or village, had been sold in execu- 
 tion of a decree, and a stranger had purchased it. 
 This new zamiudar very soon took measures for en- 
 hancing the rents of his ryots. He was successful in 
 obtaining kdbidyats at increased rates from several 
 ryots, but the headman of the village (inandal), 
 whose example was most influential, sturdily held 
 out and led the opposition. It was resolved that he 
 should be coerced ; so at day-break, one morning, a 
 party of the zamindar's peons and adherents, armed 
 
v] Rural Okime. 119 
 
 with lattccs and guns, started from the kachahri for 
 the mandal's homestead, with the view of capturing 
 him and carrying him off. This homestead fortu- 
 nately was a substantial one, and the different huts 
 were connected by pretty strong bamboo fencing. 
 Thus the hari admitted of being defended by a 
 relatively small force. In the mandcU's family were 
 four or five grown-up men, besides the women and 
 children, and in addition to these, as it happened, 
 two friends come from a distance had passed the 
 previous night under their host's roof. No one had 
 left the hari when the zamindar's party arrived. The 
 latter, very largely out-numbering the men of the 
 homestead, with threats of an abominable kind called 
 upon the mandal to surrender, but these threats only 
 nerved the mandal and his friends to resistance in 
 defence of the female apartment. For a time the 
 attacking party seemed unable to do anything, until 
 taunted by their leader they at last made a rush, 
 broke down the fence at one corner of the home- 
 stead, and fired a gun at the men inside, of whom 
 
120 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 two fell. The immediate effect, however, was not 
 that which might have been anticipated, for one 
 of the remaining defenders promptly seizing the 
 gun which had just been fired, knocked down its 
 owner ; two of his companions laid hold each of an 
 opponent, and the zamindar's party forthwith de- 
 camped, leaving three of their number prisoners in 
 the bauds of the imaidal and his kinsmen. The 
 cost of the victory was severe, for it was found 
 that one of the two meu who had been shot was 
 dead. 
 
 In another case the mandal of a village had, as 
 the ryots thought, been taking too much the side 
 of the zamindar iu certain matters, and it was 
 therefore resolved in " committee " that he should 
 be punished aud warned. A certain number of the 
 ryots were charged with the auty of giving him a 
 beating at the first convenient opportunity, and the 
 whole assembly undertook to hold them harmless 
 as far as money might afterwards serve to do so. A 
 few days after this, one evening, when it was dusk, 
 
v.] EuRAL Crime. 121 
 
 these commissioned ryots managed to meet the 
 mandal as he was alone driving two or three small 
 cows home from the khet. They succeeded in getting 
 into an altercation with him, and beat him, leaving 
 him on the ground, from which he never again 
 rose alive. 
 
 A last instance of rural crime may be given in the 
 shape of a faction fight. As frequently happens in 
 some parts of Bengal, the ryots and tenure-holders 
 of a certain village and its neighbourhood were 
 divided into two parties, the one consisting of the 
 partizans and adherents of the Eajah, ten-anna 
 shareholder of the zamindari or ten-anna zamindar, 
 as he was termed, and the other of those of the 
 Ghoses, the six-anna zamindars. One Asan and 
 his brother Manick, who li^'ed in one homestead and 
 held land under the G-hoses, had had a quarrel with 
 one Kalidas, a substantial ryot on the Eajah's side, 
 relative to the common boundary between their re- 
 spective plots of ground ; and some effort had been 
 made by the Eajah's people to make Asan give up 
 
V2-2 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [v. 
 
 his jote to Kalidas or to enter into T.unina relations 
 with the Eajah. Nothing, however, came of this 
 for many months, until one morning early four or 
 five hitlilals of the Eajah's party came to Asan's 
 homestead on some vaguely explained errand. jNIost 
 of Asan's neighbours were like himself, adherents 
 of the Ci hoses, but one or two and among these a 
 man called Kafi Mahomed, whose hari was only 
 two or three hundred yards distant from that of 
 Asan, belonged to the Rajah's faction. The latJiials 
 apparently, not succeeding at once in their mission 
 to Asau, retired for a time to the bari of their 
 friend Kafi ]\Iahomed, sending meanwhile a message 
 to the Eajah's kacJwhri. Two or three hours passed. 
 Asan . and his brother ]\Iauiek, having taken their 
 mid-day meal, were resting in their lari, when sud- 
 denly an uproar occurred — four or five men rushed 
 in to seize Asan and JManick, who then found some 
 100 or 150 men had come up to the assistance of 
 the lathials of the morning, and were approaching 
 in force from the south side to the attack of the 
 
V.J Rural Grime. • 12;^ 
 
 lari. The brothers attempted to escape, and Manick 
 was fortunate enough to get away on the north ; but 
 Asan was laid hold of by the men and was carried 
 off in triumph to the main body of the assailants, 
 who were collected on a ianga, running east and 
 west on the south side of the bari. Manick then 
 came up with some of the Ghose party, whom he 
 had hurriedly collected, and, seeing his brother a 
 prisoner in the hands of the enemy, rushed forward 
 to save him. He was, however, almost immediately 
 speared by two men in succession. On this Asan 
 got free and laid hold of one of these men, but 
 was beaten off, receiving himself a slight spear 
 wound in his hand. On Manick's falling, the cry was 
 raised that a man had been killed, and as is not 
 unusual on such occasions, the attacking party 
 immediately fled. Manick died a few minutes after 
 he was stabbed, and thus ended the conflict, as 
 suddenly as it had begun. 
 
VI. 
 
 AUllIXISTRATION AND LAND LAW. 
 
 Of course doings such in kind as those which 
 have been lately narrated (general!}'-, though not 
 always), come sooner or later under the cognizance 
 of the police and their English superior officers. 
 But the general peace of the village is, as a rule, 
 preserved by the influence of the zamindar and the 
 lMnclm,jnt. The English official is personally seldom 
 seen in the remoter country village. The reason 
 for this is very plain. A zillah district in Bengal, 
 which is sometimes roughly compared with an 
 English county, comprises an area of from two to 
 three thousand square miles, and has a population 
 of say from one to two million souls, while the 
 
VI.] Administeation and Land Law. 125 
 
 county of Suffolk, to take an example, has only an 
 area of 1,454 square miles and a population of some 
 360,000. Now aU the European officers in a whole 
 zillah, will be one magistrate and collector, with 
 three or four joint, assistant, and deputy magis- 
 trates, one district and sessions judge, one addi- 
 tional judge, one small cause court, or subordinate 
 judge, one superintendent of police, one assistant 
 superintendent of police, and one medical officer, say 
 eleven or twelve in number, of whom about one-half 
 are kept by their duties at the ziUah station. 
 
 It would be impossible, in a few lines, to convey 
 any very accurate idea of the functions of the magis- 
 trate and of the rest of the executive officers. Nor is 
 it needful to attempt to do so here. Their adminis- 
 trative powers are very considerable. The magistrate 
 and collector especially is to the people almost a 
 king in his district. His name and authority travel 
 into the remotest corners, though he himself in his 
 cold weather tours can only visit comparatively few 
 spots of it in the year. And, generally, the awe in 
 
126 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 which a magistrate or European official of any grade 
 is held by the people is very great. It must, how- 
 ever, in truth be said, that the feeling of the ordinary 
 village ryot towards these officials has not much 
 affection in it ; and this is by no means matter for 
 surprise. It is a very exceptional thing for one of 
 them to possess a real command of the colloquial 
 vernacular. To acquire it in any case, many years 
 are, as we all know, requisite under the most 
 favourable circumstances of intercourse between the 
 foreigner and the people ; and these do not exist 
 for many civilians. Scarcely any one thus is able 
 to converse easily with the ordinary ranks of the 
 people. The Englishman, moreover, is awkward, 
 cold, reserved ; his bearing becomes, in the eyes of 
 the native, at any rate, abrupt and peremptory. He 
 knows really next to nothing of the habits, stand- 
 points, and modes of thought of the mass of the 
 pcoide, though his position and circumstances too 
 often lead him to entertain the opposite opinion. 
 Want of consideration flows from want of intimacy. 
 
vi.J Administration and Land Law. 127 
 
 111 ways of life aad in associations which govern his 
 conduct and opinions he is separated by an im- 
 passable gulf from the people of the country. He 
 stands upon a platform apart and looks down upon 
 them. Whenever he makes a movement of approach' 
 it is with a feeling of superiority which cannot be 
 concealed. In most cases he does not care to conceal 
 it. He is self-reliant. All persons around liim have 
 to give way to his will in the arrangements which he 
 makes either for business or pastime. Too often, in 
 small matters, their feelings and wishes are needlessly 
 disregarded simply because they are misapprehended 
 or not suspected. On the other hand, his probity 
 and uprightness are next to never impugned. But 
 the result is that he is certainly not loved. Eather 
 it may be said ,that, to the eyes of the native, 
 the English official is an incomprehensible being, 
 inaccessible, selfish, overbearing, and irresistible. 
 
 However, for the causes already mentioned, the 
 great bulk of the people in the country villages have 
 no personal relations with the European officer of 
 
128 Modern Village Life in Bengal, [vi. 
 
 any kind. The small zamindar, who has been before 
 described, or the naib of a larger man, is commonly 
 the person of ruling local importance. And there 
 are no taxgatherers even : ' aU the taxation of the 
 country takes the form of land-revenue, stamps, 
 customs, and excise, for the assessed taxes, on the 
 whole, are insignificant, and certainly never reach 
 the mofussil villages. The excise tends to make 
 the tari somewhat dearer to the ryot than it other- 
 wise would be, a result which is hardly a grievance, 
 but it also increases the price of salt, a prime neces- 
 sary of life, and this is a serious misfortune. The 
 customs scarcely touch the ryot. Stamps, for special 
 reasons, he has very little objection to, and the 
 revenue is inseparable from his rent, so that, on the 
 whole, with the agricultural population, the inci- 
 dence of taxation is chiefly felt in three modes : in 
 the payment of rent, in the price of salt, and in the 
 staiivps, needed for every proceeding in a court of 
 justice or public office, or for a copy of any paper 
 
 1 This was written before the imposition of the license tajc. 
 
VI:] Administration and Land Law. 129 
 
 filed in any coiirb or office, or document of agreement, 
 or receipt, &c. 
 
 Omitting the latter as being in some degree of a 
 voluntary character, the two others remain as the 
 two great burdens upon the ryot. It has been ex- 
 plained, in the foregoing pages, how extremely poor 
 the ordinary ryot is, and how he depends upon the 
 viaJiajan system for the means even of paying 
 his rent. It seems impossible, then, at first sight, 
 to devise any method by which the public revenue 
 of the country can be increased by contributions 
 from this class of the community. Lately an attempt 
 has been made in this direction by the imposition of 
 a road cess. The cess may be roughly described as 
 a small rateable addition to- the rent of each ryot 
 which he has to pay to his rent-receiver through 
 whom it is eventually transmitted to Government, 
 together with a further small addition to be paid by 
 the rent-receiver himself. There are many very 
 grave objections to this form of increased taxation 
 intrinsically, but the fatal objection to it is that it is 
 
 K 
 
130 Modern VillaCxE Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 capriciously unequal ; it exacts more from the ryot 
 who is already highly taxed by his rent than from 
 him who is less so. And it is not possible, by any 
 general rules of exception, to bring about even 
 approximate equality in this respect. 
 
 If the amount of taxation must needs be increased, 
 it can only be done so equitably by a contrivance 
 which shall have the effect of apportioning the tax 
 to the means of the payer. While the general body 
 of ryots are miserably poor and can hardly bear the 
 existing taxation, there are no doubt many among 
 them who are comparati\e]y well off, some of them 
 being rent-receivers, in some manner or another, as 
 well as cultivating ryots ; and there are besides, in 
 every village, well-to-do persons, petty dealers, and 
 others, of more or less accumulated means. These 
 all have a margin of means which may be said to be 
 at present untaxed relative to their neighbours, the 
 ryots, and which will fairly enough admit of being 
 taxed if some equitable plan of making the levy 
 could be discovered. 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 131 
 
 It might, perhaps, be imagined that something in 
 the nature of 'an income-tax would answer this 
 purpose. But the fact is that an income-tax must 
 fail in India, even if it be only for the reason that 
 the necessary machinery for assessing and collecting 
 it is inevitably corrupt and oppressive. But pro- 
 bably the difficulty might be overcome by making 
 an assessing body out of the Tillage pancJiayat, who 
 should be charged with the duty of assessing the 
 means of every resident of the village above a certain 
 minimum amount; and by then allotting to each 
 village certain local burdens of a public character, 
 which should be discharged out of rates to be levied 
 from the persons assessed. under the superintendence 
 of local officers. In this way some of the work 
 now done at the cost of Government for local objects 
 out of the national funds might be better carried out 
 than it is at present, and even additional work done 
 by the village itself, and so the money in the hands 
 of Government would in effect be correspondingly 
 increased. This machinery would in particular be 
 
 K 2 
 
l:!2 MoDERx Village Life in T^exgal. [vl 
 
 singularly appropriate for meeting the emergency 
 
 of famines.-' 
 
 Another very useful end would possibly be served by 
 
 the creation of something in the nature of parochial 
 administration. The general tendency to engage in 
 litigation might be in some measure damped by provid- 
 ing occupation of this sort ; if it be the case, as many 
 well-informed persons believe, that the unquestionable 
 prevalence of litigation is due to the idleness in 
 which the ryot spends the larger portion of the year. 
 
 There are, however, ranch more potent causes 
 of litigiition existing in Bengal than the leisure of 
 the ryots : and as one of them, namely, the nature of 
 the land tenure, very greatly affects the different 
 phases of village life, some account of it will not be 
 out of place here. 
 
 In the foregoing pages^ the designation " zamindar " 
 
 ' This suggestion wu-i expauJed by the writer in a paper read 
 hcfoix- the East India Association in 1877. 
 
 '' Much of the matter in the immediately follo\\ing paragraphs 
 nppearcil in a paper wliich -ivas read ;it a meeting of the Social 
 Scii'uce Association of Bengal at Calcutta in 1873. 
 
VI.] Administeatiun and Land Law. l;!:! 
 
 has been given to the person who collects rents 
 from ryots by virtue of any sort of right to enjoy the 
 rents, and it will be presently seen that such a right 
 may be of various kinds and denominations. The 
 system throughout all India is, that a portion of the 
 rent, which every cultivator of the soil pays for his 
 plot, goes to Government as land revenue. In the 
 whole, the Government of India receives about 20^ 
 millions sterling per annum in the shape of land 
 revenue. Three very different modes of collecting 
 this prevail in, and are characteristic of the three 
 great Presidencies respectively. In Bengal the 
 amount of this revenue and the method of collecting 
 it formed the subject of the famous Permanent 
 Settlement of 1793. Previously to the assumption 
 of the Government of the country by the English, 
 a land revenue, more or less defined in its characters 
 — often spoken of as a share in the produce of 
 the land — had from time immemorial been paid 
 to the established Government of the day, Hindu 
 or Muhammadan, as the case might be. The 
 
134 MoDEEN VillaPtE Life in Bengal, [vi. 
 collection of the revenue and its payment to Govern- 
 ment was effected by officers who, in later days were, 
 in Bengal, generally called zamindars, each being 
 resiDonsible only for the revenue of the zaminrlnri, 
 talvq, or otherwise named district, of which he was 
 certainly the fiscal head, ^^^lether he was anything 
 more than this, whether he was regarded by the 
 people as the proprietor, in any degree, of the zamin- 
 dari, or whether he himself looked upon the land of 
 the zam'nidari as belonging to him personally, are 
 questions which, perhaps, cannot now be satisfac- 
 torily answered. As a matter of fact the son, on 
 the death of his father, usually succeeded to his 
 father's functions, and it was avowedly the principal 
 object of the legislation effected in 17P3 to turn all 
 these persons into hereditary landed proprietors, 
 whether they were so before or not. Under the 
 Permanent Settlement an engagement was entered 
 into by the Government with each existing zamindar 
 by the terms of which, on the one hand, the zamin- 
 dar became bound to pay a certain jnma, or fixed 
 
VI,] Admin'isteation and Land Law. 135 
 
 amount of money, assessed upon his zamindari as 
 land revenue ; and, on the other, the Government 
 recognised him as hereditary proprietor of the land, 
 and undertook never to alter his jama. At the 
 same time the Government required the zamindar to 
 respect the rights of the cultivator of the soil. 
 
 The results of this new arrangement will be 
 pursued presently. For the moment it may be 
 asserted positively that the zamindar never did 
 before the Permanent Settlement (and that he does 
 not to this day) stand towards the ryot in the posi- 
 tion which the English landlord occupies relative 
 to his tenant. The area of his zamindari covered 
 large districts of country, and was reckoned not in 
 highas (the unit of land measure = one-third of an 
 acre) but in communities of men, mauzahs. The 
 money proceeds of the zamindari were not spoken 
 of as rent, but as the jamas (collections) uf the 
 included villages. The assets of a zamindari made 
 up of the jamas of sub-tenures, and the collections 
 of the villages, scarcely, if at all, resembled the 
 
;J6 Modern Vili.ace Life in I'.kxcat,. [vi. 
 
 rental of an English estate. The zamindar himself 
 was a superiur lord enjoying pevsonal privileges, 
 and through nilicers, exercising some powers of local 
 administration. The populations of the villages in 
 his -ujiriiidan were his subjects (lyots), and it is 
 not until yoxi get within the iiiavrMli itself that you 
 find any one concerned with the actual land. Some 
 ciimparison might he made betv\een tlie feudal 
 lord, his vassals, and serfs, on the one side, and the 
 zamindar, his g;mtidars and r^ots, on the other ; but 
 how little the two cases of zamindar and landlord 
 ever have been jiarallel may be perceived at once 
 from a simple illustration. When an English landed 
 proprietor speaks of a fine cstalc he mentally refers 
 to the extent of the acreage, the fertility of the 
 soil, the beauty of the landscape, and so on ; not 
 at all to tlie tenants, the labourers, or the dwelling- 
 houses which may be upon the land ; whereas, if 
 a Bengali zamindar makes a like remark, lie has 
 in his mind the number and imi)ortance of the 
 villanes which form the zamindari and their 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 137 
 
 respective jamas, but he takes almost no thought 
 at all about the physical character of the land. 
 
 Whatever was the true nature of the right by 
 virtue of which the zamindar exercised his functions 
 and enjoyed his privileges, he made his collections 
 from the zamindari, and administered its affairs by 
 means of an organization very simple and enduring 
 in its character. It had its root in the village, and 
 no doubt remains the same now in all essential 
 particulars, as it was very many centuries ago. Pro- 
 bably, in the beginning, the village community itself 
 managed the matter of the allotment of land, and 
 the distribution among its members of the liability 
 to pay the zamindar's dues. But in Bengal, long 
 before the English came to the country, the zamin- 
 dar had got into his hands so much, even of that 
 business, as had not been consolidated and stereo- 
 typed by custom. The zamindar's village kachahri 
 has been already described, or rather spoken of 
 It was an office (as it would be called in England) 
 in each maiizah, with a head man, an accountant. 
 
138 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [xi. 
 
 and a field officer. The business of these men, as 
 has before been said, was to keep a close eye on the 
 ryots, to register in minute detail the subject of each 
 man's occupation, the payment and cesses due from 
 him according to shifting circumstances, and from 
 time to time to collect the moneys so due. The 
 system of zamindari accounts, which these duties 
 entailed has been commented upon in the passage 
 where the zamindar's position in the village was 
 referred to. The kachahris of every five or six 
 mavzahs, according to their size, were supervised 
 by a superior officer (say a tchsihlar) who had his 
 own kachaliri, with its books and papers, either 
 duplicates of, or made up from those of, the mauzah 
 lachahris. The collections effected by the officers 
 of the village Icuchahri were handed over to him, 
 and he passed them to a next higher officer. 
 
 In this manner the moneys at last arrived at the 
 zamindar's own lacliahri ; out of them he paid 
 the Government revenue which was due from his 
 zamindari and he kept the rest for himself. 
 
VI.] AdministExVtion and Land Law. 139 
 
 Zaynindaris in different parts of the country 
 differed very much from each other in their extent 
 and in their circumstances. No one description 
 could be given which should be true of them all. 
 But the foregoing may be fairly taken to represent 
 the type of the general system. 
 
 It is apparent almost at first sight, that the 
 system, though simple and complete, had a natural 
 tendency to disintegrate. Each middleman was the 
 apex and head of a structure precisely like the 
 principal structure in form and constitution, with 
 this difference only that it had -a smaller basis. A 
 slight disturT)ing force might serve either to detach 
 it and so leave it standing by itself, or to put it 
 into an appendent condition. 
 
 In the event, for instance, of the Government 
 finding difiiculty in obtaining all the money which 
 it required it might go direct to a middleman, who 
 was willing to make terms for his quota, and so 
 might be originated an example of a constituent 
 portion of a zamindari being converted into a 
 
140 MOIIEKX A^ILLAGE LiFE IX BeNG.VL. [TI. 
 
 malud paying revenue directly to Government. 
 Also the zamindar himself, for motives arising 
 from relationship, or from pecuniary or other obli- 
 gation, might allow a middleman to retain and 
 enjoy an exceptionally large proportion of the 
 collections for his own benefit, might, in fact, 
 leave to him the collections ^vhich centered in his 
 hands, and be satisfied with the receipt from him 
 of a jama only. Thus would arise a dependent 
 viahal paying a. javia to the zamindar which might 
 be considered as part of the zamindari assets, or 
 as revenue due to Government, only not payable 
 directly. Again, some zaminclaris, no doubt, as 
 Mr. Hunter well describes in his Orissa, lost their 
 coherence actually at head-quarters by reason of 
 the head officials dividing the office management 
 and care of the district between themselves, and 
 so in the end coming to be recognised as the 
 responsible heads of divisions. 
 
 In these various and other like ways, long before 
 the period of English legislation commenced, the 
 
VI.] Admnistration and Land Law. 141 
 
 original simplicity of the zaynindari system had been 
 lost; there were zamindm-is and taluqs of several 
 orders and designations paying revenue directly 
 to Government ; within these were subordinate 
 taluqs and tenures converted from the condition of 
 being parts of a homogeneous collecting machine 
 into semi-independence, and in that character paying 
 a recognised javia directly to the superior l-achahri 
 instead of sending on to it in ordinary course their 
 respective collections. 
 
 The practice of commuting collections, or allowing 
 them to drop into jamas, was obviously so con- 
 venient and advantageous to the parties primarily 
 concerned that it was certain to grow and prevail 
 in inverse proportion to the power or opportunities 
 of the immediate superior or principal to insist 
 upon an account. So that every subordinate ya7)ia- 
 paying mahal or tenure, when established, speedily 
 became a miniature zainindari, in which certain 
 jamas were talien in lieu of collections, and the 
 remaining collections were made by the old 
 
142 Modern Villace Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 machinery. Waste land grants or concessions 
 were also the origin of tcduqs, both dependent 
 and independent, and so, too, jaghir grants 
 for services. 
 
 Within the village itself an analogous process, 
 for much the same reason, came into operation with 
 regard to the occupation of the land. The principal 
 persons of the zamindari amla, and the headmen of 
 the ryots {mandals^ or others of influence, and privi- 
 leged persons such as Brahmans, often got recognised 
 as holding upon fixed and favourable terms larger 
 portions of the village lands than they could or 
 did cultivate. These, of course, they sub-let, either 
 wliolly or in part, and so arose varieties of jots 
 and ryottee-tenures. 
 
 And before the legislation of 1793, the middle 
 tenures, such as they then existed, depended for 
 their maintenance upon usage, and the personal 
 power and influence of the holder. The ryottee- 
 tenures and jots were regulated by usage also, and 
 by the arbitrament of the village jmncJuiyat and the 
 
vi.J Admxisteation and Land Law. 143 
 
 zamindari amla. Sir H. Maine has pointed out 
 {Village Communities, Section 3) the true nature 
 of customary law, upon the footing of which such 
 a system as this works, and has shown that it does 
 not involve the idea of a personal proprietary right. 
 Indeed, it was the absence of this element of pro- 
 prietary right which caused so much embarrassment 
 and difficulty to the first English inquirers into 
 this subject. They could not readily comprehend 
 a land system in which no one seemed to possess 
 an absolute proprietary right to the soil. Still less, 
 if possible, could they understand how the due 
 relation of the different parts of the system could 
 be legitimately maintained without express positive 
 law. The ills and confusing irregularities which 
 were the results of somewhat rude attrition between 
 feudal power and customary local authority, were 
 only too apparent, and the first Indian politico- 
 economists sought to remove them by simply 
 making the (as they supposed) already existing 
 personal rights of property more definite, and 
 
144 Modern A^illage Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 providing facilities for their enforcement by the 
 arm of the law. 
 
 With substantially this view the legislators of 
 1793 performed their task ; and in order that no 
 extensive disturbing force should remain, they took 
 care that the amount of the Government claim upon 
 the zamindar should be fixed in perpetuity. The 
 authors of the Permanent Settlement thought that 
 they had thus freed the subject of property in land 
 from incrustations which were merely the growth 
 of a lawless time, and reduced it to its pristine 
 proportions ; and they expected that the English 
 arrangement of landlord and tenant, with all its 
 simplicity and advantages, would assert itself at 
 once. 
 
 But in truth, nothing in the world was less likely 
 to happen than this. It could not happen until the 
 zamindar, or tenure-holder, came to look upon him- 
 self as the owner of the soil, personally interested 
 in, and responsible for, its physical condition,— until 
 the cultivator ceased to regard himself as ryot, and 
 
^^.j Administration and Land Law. 145 
 
 acknowledged that he was only a contracting party. 
 These contingencies are just as remote now as ever, 
 and the agricultural system of Bengal consequently 
 still presents us with the zamindar and ryot, not 
 with landlord and tenant.^ 
 
 Nevertheless, a very important change was brought 
 about by the legislation of 1793. The legislature 
 then for the first time declared that the property 
 in the soil was vested in the zamindars, and that 
 they might alien or burden that property at their 
 pleasure without the previously obtained sanction 
 of Government ; and the moment this declaration 
 was made, obviously all subordinate tenures and 
 holdings, of whatever sort, became also personal 
 proprietary rights in the land of greater or lesser 
 degree, possessing each within itself, also in greater 
 or lesser degree, powers of multiplication. When 
 the zamindar's right had become in a certain sense 
 an absolute right to the soil — not exclusive, because 
 
 1 A very close analogy to the state of things here described may 
 be found in some districts of Ireland. 
 
14G Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 the legislature at the same time recognised rights 
 on the side of the ryot — with complete powers of 
 alienation, the rights of all subordinate holders were 
 necessarily derivative therefrom ; and the ascertain- 
 ment, definition, and enforcement of them im- 
 mediately fell within the province of the public 
 Courts of Justice. Sir H. Maine writes (Village 
 Com., p. 73,) " If I had to state what for the 
 moment is the greatest change which has come over 
 the people of India, and the change which has 
 added most seriously to the difiiculty of governing 
 them, I should say it was the growth on all sides 
 of the sense of individual legal right — of a right 
 not vested in the total group, but in the particular 
 member of it aggrieved, who has become conscious 
 tliat he may caU in the arm of the State to force 
 his nuighbours to obey the ascertained rule." This 
 change was deliberately and designedly made by 
 the legislature, as regards the zamindar ; but no one 
 at the time perceived, and very few persons since 
 have recognised, that it also involved a like change 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 147 
 
 with regard to every one, from zamindar to ryot, 
 who had practically in any degree a beneficial 
 interest in the land system. Even now it is not 
 uncommon to hear fall from well-informed persons 
 expressions of regret that the forum of the mandals 
 and the zamindar's amla should be forsaken so much 
 as it is for the kachahri of the deputy-magistrate 
 or of the Moonsiff. And yet this result seems on 
 reflection to be the inevitable consequence of the 
 change effected in 1793. The first menace to any 
 member of the land system necessarily brought 
 him into Court to have his legal position authori- 
 tatively ascertained and asserted ; and nowhere 
 else could he afterwards go to have his pro- 
 prietary right maintained. 
 
 A further most important consequence bearing 
 a double aspect followed the change. "When all 
 intermediate (even to the very lowest) interests 
 became rights of property in land, not only could 
 the owner of any such interest carve it as a subject 
 of property into other interests, by encumbering or 
 
 L 2 
 
148 Modern VillaCtE Life in Lexgal. [vi. 
 
 alienating within the limits of the right ; but even 
 bis ownership itself might be of that complex 
 heterogeneous kind, which is seen in Hindu joint- 
 parcenary, and of which some examples have been 
 given above. 
 
 Let us look more nearly at the first side of this 
 proposition. Eemembering that a middle tenure 
 or interest below the revenue-paying zamindar 
 resembles the primary zamindari and is essentially 
 the right, on payment of the proper jama to a 
 sxiperior holder, to make collections from the 
 cultivators of land and to take the Jamas from 
 subordinate holders within a specified area, we see 
 that as soon as the tenure is converted into a pro- 
 prietary right, there must almost necessarily be a 
 constant tendency to the creation of minor tenures. 
 The owner of the smallest and lowest tenure is 
 severed from the land itself by the customary 
 occupation of the ryots and by ryottee-tenures, 
 if there are any, — indeed the i70t holdings contain 
 more of that ^^■hich goes to constitute the English 
 
VI. J Administration and Land Law. 149 
 
 idea of land property than do the middle tenures, 
 although it is not always easy to draw the line 
 which separates the two. The middle tenure of 
 every degree is thus in a great measure an account- 
 book matter, and is very completely represented by 
 the jamabcmdi paper. If the owner of such a 
 property desires to benefit a child or a family 
 connection, he can do so by making him a molMrari 
 grant, in some form, of a portion of his collections. 
 It would be no easy matter to describe fully the 
 various shapes which such a grant is capable of 
 taking. It may cover a part of a village only, or 
 a whole village, or many villages (according to the 
 circumstances of the grantor and the transaction), 
 and may convey the right to take the rents, dues, 
 and jamas within that area by entireties ; or it 
 may convey the right to take a fractional part only 
 of them ; or again, it may convey the entireties for 
 some villages and fractional parts for others, and so 
 on. Most frequently the tenure of the grantor 
 himself amounts only to a right to a fractional share 
 
150 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 of the rents, &c., and tlien his grant will pass a 
 fraction of a fraction, and so on. But not only may 
 a tenure-holder make a grant of this nature to some 
 one whom he desires to benefit, he may do the 
 like to a stranger in consideration of a bonus or 
 premium. Again, he may do so with the view to 
 ensure to himself, in the shape of the rent reserved 
 on the subject of grant, the regular receipt of money 
 wherewith to pay his own jama. Or he may, by 
 way of affording security for the repayment of a loan 
 of money made to him, temporarily assign to the 
 lender under a zar-i-peshgi ticca his tenure-right 
 of making collections. In these or similar modes, 
 the Bengali tenure-holder, landed proprietor, or 
 zamindar (however be may be designated), is 
 obliged to deal with his interest when he wants to 
 raise money, or to confer a benefit ; and it is obvious 
 that in each instance (excepting that of out-and-out 
 sale of the entirety of his interest, to which he 
 rarely has recourse if he can avoid it) he creates 
 a fresh set of proprietary rights. 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 151 
 
 And if we turn now to the second aspect of the 
 case, we find it is the rule, all but universal, in 
 Bengal that every subject of property, including, 
 of course, a middle tenure or right of any kind in 
 the land system just described, is owned not by 
 an individual, but by a more or less numerous 
 group of persons jointly, each member of the 
 group being entitled to his own share in the subject 
 of ownership, and such share being capable of 
 existing in any one of various, more or less com- 
 plete states of separation, or division, from the 
 rest. Thus, returning to an instance just now 
 given, suppose a fractional, say 9-| annas share 
 of a ^dllage (the whole being considered as 16 annas), 
 or of any number of villages to be the subject of 
 a mokarari tenure. This may be the case in 
 three or foiir different ways. It may mean that 
 the tenure-holder has a mokarari right given him 
 to the rents and dues arising out of a specified 
 portion of the area of the village which is separated 
 from the rest by metes and bounds, and which bears 
 
152 MoDEKN Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 to the entirety the proportion of 9-| to 16. Or it 
 may mean that he has the right to collect separately 
 by his own amla from the ryots throughout the 
 entirety of the village 9| annas out of each rupee 
 of rent. Or, again, it may mean that in certain 
 parts of the area covered by the grant he has a 
 sole right to the rents, and in other parts to a 
 fractional portion only, so arranged that in the 
 whole he gets 9^ out of 16 annas of the entire 
 proiits of the area. And it may further be, as it 
 usually is, that it is incidental to his right to 
 collect the share of rents, &c., due to him in 
 respect of the tenure by his own officers at his 
 own kacha/iri; though it may also be that he has 
 only the right to draw his fractional share of 
 the net collections which have been made at a 
 joint-kachahri belonging, so to speak, to several 
 shareholders. 
 
 But in whatever way this mokararl tenure of 
 9^ annas of property is to be possessed and en- 
 joyed, the owner of it is usually a joint-family, or 
 
VI.]. Administration and Land Law. 153 
 
 a group of persons representing an original joint- 
 family : and all the members of the group have 
 each his own share in the tenure, which, although 
 existing in a state undivided from the rest, is 
 capable of being assigned to a purchaser separately 
 from them. Also, very often, each member of the 
 group can, as between himself and his shareholders, 
 insist upon having an actual partition of the subject 
 of tenure. When this is done he becomes by him- 
 self separately entitled to a fraction, say, of the 
 supposed 9^ anna tenure. For illustration's sake 
 let us take the fraction to be Jth; then his 
 separate share of the rents and profits accruing 
 from the area which is covered by the tenure, 
 subject of course to the payment of the superior 
 rent or jama, is ^th of 9^ annas, i.e. 1 anna 
 9 pie. In this way it happens that even the 
 village (or mcmzah), the unit in terms of which 
 the zmnindari may be said to be calculated, comes 
 to be divided into small portions ; and the rent- 
 receiver who stands to a particular ryot in the 
 
154 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 position of zamindar may be, and often is, a very 
 small man indeed. Adhering to the instance 
 already given, we may say that the ryot may 
 have to pay the whole of his rent to the patwari 
 of the 1 anna 7 pie shareholder, or to pay 1 anna 
 7 pie out of 16 annas of his rent to him, and the 
 remainder to the other shareholders separately, or 
 in groups ; or he may only have to pay the entirety 
 of his rent to the joint-kachahri from which each 
 shareholder will get his share on division. 
 
 This system of sub-infeudation and sub-division 
 of joint-interests, accompanied by severalty of right, 
 prevails universally throughout Bengal. One result 
 of this is a condition of complexity of landed 
 interests which is probably without a parallel else- 
 where. And a still more serious consequence is, 
 that the so-called owner of the land has the least 
 possible motive for doing anything to benefit it. 
 It will be seen that the rent paid by the culti- 
 vator for the use of the soil does not go to one 
 person bearing the character of an English land- 
 
VI. J Administration and Land Law. 155 
 
 lord, but is distributed among a series of owners, 
 namely, tlie middle tenure-holders with the revenue- 
 paying zamindar at their head, each independent of 
 the others, and each probably consisting of several 
 persons with independent rights among themselves. 
 Why should one shareholder out of this lot advance 
 money for improvement, the advantage of which, if 
 any, will be shared in by many others over whom 
 he has no control or influence, to a greater extent 
 than by himself? Furthermore, under this system, 
 the locally resident zamindars are very generally 
 small shareholders of subordinate tenures, whose 
 means are not greatly superior to those of the well- 
 to-do ryots, and who cannot be possessed of any 
 amount of education or culture. 
 
 So much for the situation and circumstances of 
 the rent-receivers : that of the rent-payers, i.e. of 
 the cultivators of the soil, deserves some notice. 
 The lands of a village may be broadly distinguished 
 into two sets, namely, the ryottee lands, on the 
 one hand, and the zamindar's ziraat, Jchamar, nij- 
 
156 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 jot, or SM'-lands, or whatever they may be termed, 
 on the other. The ryottee-lands constitute the bulk 
 of the viUage area. They are in a certain sense 
 emphatically village lands ; the right to occupy 
 and cultivate the soil thereof rests upon a basis 
 of custom, and is in no degree derived from tlie 
 zamindar. Sometimes the resident ryots of the 
 village have a preferential claim, more or less ■ 
 openly acknowledged, to any portion of them which 
 may for any cause have become vacant. In others, 
 the zamindar is practically unfettered in the selection 
 of a new occupant. But in all cases alike the 
 occupier's interest is looked upon as bottomed on 
 something quite independent of the zamindar. 
 In Bengal, it is commonly termed the ryot's jof. 
 Even when the actual possession of a plot of land 
 comes, as it may come, into the hands of the 
 zamindar himself, by reason of abandonment by 
 the ryot, it is . more than doubtful whether the 
 jot interest disappears, or its character changes. 
 In short, on the ryottee lands the occupying ryot 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 157 
 
 holds liis jot, i.e. occupies the soil, by a customary- 
 right, to which he has personally succeeded, either 
 by inheritance from an ancestor or by transfer from 
 a predecessor, or by admission through the zamindar. 
 He may sub-let ; but it seems that, if he does so his 
 lessees never get any better position than that of 
 being his tenants, deriving everything from him and 
 going out of possession with him whenever he goes. 
 
 This right to occupy and till the land may be 
 of several kinds : it may be personal only, or may 
 be inheritable, or it may by custom involve, as 
 incident to it, a power of alienation ; or again, 
 the zamindar may, if he chooses, create in favour 
 of a ryot a perpetual inheritable right of occupation 
 with power of alienation. By legislative enactment, 
 actual occupation of the same land for a period of 
 12 years confers upon the ryot (if he has it not 
 otherwise), a personal right of occupation on pay- 
 ment of a fair and reasonable rent ; and occupation 
 for 20 years at a uniform rate of rent generally 
 confers a right of occupation at that rate. A very 
 
158 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vi. 
 
 large number of ryots in Bengal have in one way 
 or another acquired permanent rights of occupancy 
 in the land which they cultivate, but the remainder, 
 a larger number, merely occupy, on payment of the 
 rents and dues which have usually been paid to 
 the zamindar's kachahri in respect of their land. 
 These are commonly much less in rate than rents 
 paid by agricultural tenants in England. Theoreti- 
 cally, the zamindar is entitled to ask what he 
 thinks fit before the commencement of every year, 
 and perhaps turn this class of ryot out, if he does 
 not agree, but the zamindar seldom does so. 
 
 On ziraat, khamar, nij-jot, or sir-lands, in 
 contradistinction to ryottee lands, the zamindar 
 may cultivate the soil on his own account, if he 
 chooses, or put in cultivators on any terms which 
 they may agree to accept. In truth, there the 
 cultivators are tenants, and the zamindar is their 
 landlord in the ordinary sense of the word. The 
 ownership of the zamindar is unqualified by the 
 right of any one else to the use of the soil. 
 
VI.] Administration and Land Law. 159 
 
 In the conception of tlie agricultural community, 
 the distinction between the two classes of land is 
 substantially this, namely, in the ryottee-lands, the 
 use of the soU belongs to the ryots; in the other, 
 tlae zamindar may regulate and dispose of it as he 
 likes. 
 
 In an early part of this description it was 
 mentioned that the holdings of the village ryots 
 were commonly very small. In some parts of the 
 country, however, jots or ryottee interests in con- 
 siderable tracts of unreclaimed jungle, or other- 
 wise waste land, have at times been granted, of a 
 perpetual character, upon insignificant rents. The 
 land, which is the subject of these grants, has 
 afterwards come to be sub-let to cultivators. Under 
 circumstances such as these, it seems almost im- 
 possible to distinguish between the jot-dar, and an 
 ordinary middle tenure-holder. 
 
VII. 
 
 "WAYS AND .MEANS. 
 
 In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made 
 to describe a type specimen of a Bengali village, 
 and the principal conditions of the life led by its 
 inhabitants. By imagining the specimen sufficiently 
 multiplied an approximately correct idea of the 
 entire province, or at any rate of the deltaic portion 
 of it, may be reached. "We should thus have before 
 us a very large area of exceedingly fertile agri- 
 cultural country, covered by a dense population and 
 possessing most imperfect means of intercommuni- 
 cation between its parts : the whole divided into 
 petty communities, each of which in the ordinary 
 course of things may as a rule be said to be self 
 
VII.] Ways and Means. 161 
 
 sustaining, and to manage its own affairs without 
 much thought of an external force. There is, at 
 the same time, throughout the population an all- 
 pervading consciousness of a great superior power 
 which may at any time become specially active, 
 and which is remorseless when it interferes or is 
 invoked through its courts, in matters relating ■ to 
 revenue or to land. 
 
 The imperfection of the means of intercommuni- 
 cation between village and village, and between one 
 portion of a rural district and another, is sometimes 
 laid as an inexcusable fault at the doors of the 
 English administrators of this country. But it is 
 not really so ; although, no doubt, the Government 
 might with proper diligence have done more in 
 this matter during the last seventy years than it has. 
 The magnitude of the task of creating a sufficiency 
 of roads in Bengal, according to an English standard 
 of requirement, may be conceived by imagining the 
 whole of England, except the neighbourhood of large 
 towns, entirely without roads other than two or 
 
 M 
 
102 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vii. 
 
 three trunk lines, and a few unmetalled "hundred 
 lanes" in the different manors, coupled with an 
 absence of desire on the part of the people for any- 
 thing better. What could the efforts of the executive 
 Government do in a case like this? And in order 
 to make this picture approach a Bengal reality, it 
 must be added, that there is not a stone, or any- 
 thing harder than clay, to be found in the soil of 
 the delta; and that the floods of the rainy season 
 break down, and sometimes almost obliterate, such 
 roadways as have not been expensively constructed 
 by skilled engineers. To create in deltaic Bengal 
 such a network of permanent roads as an English- 
 man expects to find in a ci^dlised country would 
 be entirely beyond the strength of any Government 
 whatever. Any considerable advance in this matter 
 can only proceed from the exertions of the land- 
 holders and the cultivators themselves ; and as long 
 as the complexity of tenures, which has already 
 been pointed out, and the condition of the people, 
 remains substantially that which it is at present. 
 
vii.J Ways and Means, 163 
 
 it will be useless to look for any effort of the 
 kind. 
 
 And indeed the ordinary needs of the people in 
 this respect are met by the existing state of things. 
 The vehicles in use for the carriage of goods are 
 — boats, the heads of men and women, little tiny 
 bullocks, and bambu carts of very rude construc- 
 tion ; and if well-to-do folks travel they are carried 
 in palkis and doolies, or go by boat. In the dry 
 season the men, the bullocks, and the carts can and 
 do go almost anywhere. And the local traffic, such 
 as it is, usually takes place in detail of very small 
 quantities. The dana or other seed is trodden out ^ 
 by the bullocks at the Mialidn almost on the plot 
 where it is grown ; and both the grain and the straw 
 are very easily carried to the homestead on the heads 
 of the various members of the ryot's family. The 
 surplus produce, if any, of the ryot which does not 
 go to his mahajan passes in little items to the nearer 
 
 1 In some districts, as in Chota ITagpore, a, rude handflail is 
 used for thrashing grain, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vii, 
 
 hats, and so becomes diffused over the neighbouring 
 mauzahs, or is carried on further to the larger Jiats, 
 the mahajan and the modi affording the only village 
 depots. The larger hats again, or local centres of 
 country produce trade, are commonly situated on 
 roads or khals. The produce trader here, by his 
 agents, gathers in the result of his scattered pur- 
 chases, and sends it away in carts or boats ; and thus 
 the out-flow takes place very evenly, without the 
 thought, probably, ha^dng occurred to any one, that 
 the means of carriage admitted of improvement. 
 
 It is often said, on occasions of scarcity or famine, 
 that the stream will not reverse itself when necessary. 
 But this appears to be erroneous. Manchester piece- 
 goods find their way regularly by these very same 
 channels to the remotest Bengal village. In some 
 districts, too, there is in the normal state of things 
 an actual importation and distribution of grain in 
 this way every year to a considerable extent, and 
 there cannot be the least doubt that, as louo- as 
 the ryots are able to pay the requisite retail price. 
 
vii.J AVays and Means. 165 
 
 the village mahajans and modis will succeed in 
 keeping up their stocks, whatever the local deficiency 
 of crop. It usually happens, unquestionably, when 
 a season of scarcity is seen to he closely approach- 
 ing, that both the mahajans and modis are inactive. 
 They know very accurately the extent of their 
 clients' and customers' means. The mahajan, 
 although he does not, as some think, hold back for 
 starvation prices the stock which is actually in his 
 yolas, naturally enough declines to increase that 
 stock at great cost to himself, when his clients 
 are already hopelessly involved in debt to him; 
 and the village modi for like reason will not lay 
 in a stock at abnormal prices to retail it to those 
 who cannot pay for what they purchase. This state 
 of things would be completely changed if neither 
 the mahajan nor the village dealer had reason to 
 doubt the ability of the ryot to pay a remunerating 
 price for imported food. G-rain would then come 
 in, by the routes through which it ordinarily flows 
 out, smoothly and imperceptibly, in obedience to 
 
166 Modern Village Life in Bengal. [vii. 
 
 the attractive force of price ; and probably no one 
 but a most attentive observer would be aware tbat 
 anything extraordinary was taking place. It is 
 the occurrence of .pauperism in the ryots, when a 
 certain price of food-stuffs is reached, which throws 
 the ordinary machinery out of gear ; and it seems 
 to be obvious that this would be remedied, if by 
 any external means the purchasing power were 
 maintained to them. It is not the pm-pose of these 
 pages to discuss a question of political economy. 
 But it may here be added that in times of scarcity 
 the action of Government does not always appear 
 to have been directed immediately to this object. 
 The institution of relief works on a large scale, 
 where great numbers of people, drawn from their 
 homes, are massed together within limited areas, and 
 the transportation of grain in considerable quantities 
 from the outside to certain local centres, for the 
 support of those engaged on these works and for 
 distribution so far as practicable by the hands of 
 local committees in the pauperized districts, are the 
 
VII.] Ways and Means. 167 
 
 principal measures adopted by Government in emer- 
 gencies of this sort. Whatever may be the amount 
 of the relief which can in this way be afforded 
 (and no doubt it is often considerable), inasmuch as 
 it is independent of the natural channels of supply 
 which have just been described, it might appear 
 at first sight to be an unqualified gain to the dis- 
 tressed people. But, unfortunately, it is not so. 
 Apart from the disturbance of social and economical 
 relations, which is effected by large labour under- 
 takings of temporary duration, the preparations 
 which Government has to make for unusual work 
 themselves very greatly hinder ordinary trafiic in 
 rural lines of route; boats and carts, &c., have to 
 be collected — ^even impressed — -in all directions, and 
 become locked up, so to speak, for days and weeks, 
 before they are actually wanted, in order that they 
 may be certainly ready when needed. And thus, 
 not only while Government is importing, but also 
 long before it commences to do so, private enterprise 
 is left almost without a vehicle. Moreover, the 
 
168 ]\I(inERN Village Life in Bengal. [vii. 
 
 ( rovernineut method of proceeding;, by drawing away 
 as many persons as possible from their homes (and 
 those the able-bodied rather than the infirm) as 
 well as by supplying grain, directly tends to remove 
 the pressure upon the village mahnjuns and modis, 
 and to make the market vifhich they supply even 
 more uncertain, and less to be counted upon, than 
 it was before. And it probably may with strict 
 accuracy be concluded, that as soon as Government 
 announces its anticipation of a famine and its 
 intention to take extraordinary measures of pre- 
 vention, all natural effort at the village end of the 
 system ceases. Smae of th(> wealthy zamindars, 
 however, here and there do much to furnish an 
 artificial substitute very nearly resembling it in 
 effect, by causing their local (im/ic to lay in stores 
 for the benefit of their ryots. And this wholesome 
 action is capable of being most extensively applied. 
 The village jKnic/uiyiii suggested in an earlier page 
 as a means of effecting an equitable local taxation 
 would appear to be also an instrument which might 
 
vii.] Ways ^nd Means. 169 
 
 be employed for the direct stimulation of the ordinary 
 machinery of supply. But as yet, unfortunately, 
 this side of the great problem which the occurrence 
 of a period of scarcity forces upon the Government 
 has remained practically untouched. 
 
THE AGKICULTURAL 
 COMMUNITY IN CEYLON. 
 
I. 
 
 THE VILLAGE ECONOMY. 
 
 The more primitive and less changed form nf 
 the Singhalese agricultural community is to be found 
 in the interior of the Island of Ceylon, which, as 
 is well known, in shape and position resembles a 
 pear, pendent, with a slightly curved stalk to the 
 southern end of the Indian peninsula on its eastern 
 side. A mass of mountains rising in some instances 
 to the elevation of 7,000 or 8,000 feet, bordered at 
 its base with a margin of lower land which continues 
 to the coast on all sides, occupies the circular portion 
 of the pear, and the elongated extension of this 
 margin towards the north amounts to a moiety of 
 the entire island. 
 
 The new North Central Province which was con- 
 stituted on the 6th September, 1873, for adminis- 
 
174 Agricultural Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 trative purposes, mainly at the expense of the former 
 Northern Province, but with some contributions from 
 the North-Western, Central, and Eastern Provinces, 
 covers the mid-island portion of the northern plain, 
 abutting upon, and spreading outwards to the north 
 from the great umbilical knot of the southern 
 mountainous district. 
 
 The whole of this new Province may be said to be 
 one vast forest. 
 
 In looking down upon it from the top of such 
 rocky eminences as Dambulla or Mehintale, which 
 here and there arise abruptly out of it, or even from 
 the dome of an Anuradhapura dagoba, the eye sees 
 only interminable jungle in a state of nature, dotted 
 very sparsely with tiny specks of yellow-green culti- 
 vation. Some few pools of water, or tanks, may also 
 sometimes be detected glittering in the dense and 
 dark mass of extended forest. The hidden surface 
 of the country is, however, not absolutely flat. In 
 places it exhibits considerable undulation. In others 
 it is broken by low ridges or rounded bosses of 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 175 
 
 gneiss. As a rule, the pools seem to be by origin 
 merely accumulations of water in such natural de- 
 pressions of the ground as have no outlet sufficiently 
 low to drain them, a state of things which seems to 
 be favoured by the forest condition of the country. 
 But their depth and size have been, in most instances, 
 artificially increased by the expedient of an earthen 
 bund or embankment, thrown across the lower side 
 of the depression. In the drier seasons of the year, 
 as the water bulk shrinks back towards the bund, — 
 i.e. towards the deeper side, — it withdraws from the 
 greater portion of the tank space, so that the jungle 
 is enabled to flourish there (as it also does over 
 the embankment itself) just as vigorously as every 
 other where in the surrounding tracts. The result is, 
 that it is no easy task to obtain a view of a tank 
 even when you are in close proximity to it. And 
 when a tank is satisfactorily full, much of it closely 
 resembles a circuit of flooded forest. 
 
 Anuradhapura, the classic city of the Mahawansa, 
 for seven or eight centuries the metropolis of the dynas- 
 
176 Agricultural Comjiunity in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 ties which in succession ruled over the larger portion 
 of Ceylon, and for as many left to decay under the 
 powerful disintegrating forces of a luxuriant tropical 
 vegetation, is very nearly the middle point of the 
 new Province, and the population of the district, 
 such as it is — for at the census of 1871 it only 
 numbered sixteen to the square mile (the inhabitants 
 of the rural villages and modern bazar all counted 
 together) — has for a very long period of time, until 
 lately, been preserved by the remoteness and inac- 
 cessibility of its situation from the disturbing action 
 of foreign influences of any kind, and may be safely 
 taken, even at this day, to furnish us with an actual 
 living specimen typical of an agricultural economy 
 and civilisation which probably characterised the 
 Ceylon of very early times. 
 
 The people are Singhalese, and class tliemselves 
 with the Kandyan, or highlanders, as distinguished 
 from the low-country Singhalese who border the 
 coast on either side. They are of robust frame, 
 commonly of fine open countenance, though some- 
 
I.J The Village Economy. 177 
 
 what harsh in feature, and of a peculiar yellow 
 brown tint, in strong contrast to the comparatively 
 slight-limbed, black-complexione'd Tamils, who are 
 their neighbours on the north and east, and who, 
 indeed, constitute the population of the northern 
 portion of the island. 
 
 The Singhalese language doubtless belongs to the 
 Aryan group, and is apparently sprung from a 
 root closely allied to the Sanscritic prakrits of 
 Northern India. But the Singhalese people them- 
 selves generally have the appearance of being the 
 result of at least an intermixture of an Aryan with 
 some other, yellow-tinted, coarsely-built, ethnic 
 element. 
 
 It is remarkable that they are broad-shouldered, 
 deep-chested, and muscular, with a pronounced calf 
 to the leg, like all Mongolian peoples, and unlike the 
 Arj^ans of India.^ Birt their most striking pecu- 
 
 ' The description "delicate in limbs and features," giren in 
 Keith Johnston's Physical Geography, p. 321, only applies to cer- 
 tain of the low country Singhalese of the maritime provinces, who 
 appear to be of a mixed race. 
 
 N 
 
178 Agricultural CoiiMUNiTY in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 liarity, perhaps, is the excessive hairiness of both 
 male and female. The chest of the man often 
 resembles a door-mat, and the hair of his head 
 reaches low down his back, a feature which attracted 
 the notice of the earliest Greek geographers. The 
 lower part of the abdomen also, both in male and 
 female, is profusely hairy. This extraordinary capillary 
 development i- certainly the reverse of what we see 
 in those Mongolian peoples with whom we are best 
 acquainted. It seems, however, that the Ainos, a 
 Turanian race on the extreme east of Asia, possess it 
 even to a greater extent than the Singhalese, and 
 that they at an early historical period were widely 
 spread over the islands and tracts of country now 
 covered by the Japanese, Chinese, and Malays. 
 Can it be that the Singhalese are, by blood, in 
 a large measure traceable to an Aino or a cognate 
 origin, and that they owe little more than their 
 language, literature, and religion to the invasion 
 of Aryans from Upper Eengal, of which history 
 tells us ? 
 
I-] The Village Economy. 179 
 
 On the other hand, the Tamil inhabitants of the 
 Northern Province, undistinguishable as a whole 
 from their brethren of the mainland of India, with 
 their slight build, black skin, thick lips, open nos- 
 trils, and coarse hair, belong unmistakably to the 
 Dravidian race. 
 
 Naturally enough, too, on the marches of 
 the Tamil and Singhalese districts, low caste 
 villages are to be found in which no pure 
 type of either kind is preserved ; but these are 
 exceptional. 
 
 The distribution of the population of the district 
 is by agricultural villages, except only the cases of 
 the petty and often ephemeral bazars which have 
 sprung up at convenient places along the highways 
 — gradually as these have have been opened out 
 through the forest — and which are perhaos never 
 kept by the Kandyans, but by low country 
 Singhalese, Moormen, or Tamils. 
 
 The principal and controlling element of the village 
 is the paddy tract or paddy field, which itself is 
 
 If 2 
 
180 Agricultural Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 (to use mathematical language) a function of the 
 supply of water. 
 
 Usually the field is, so to speak, attached, or 
 appended to, a tank, and often is strikingly tiny 
 relative to the size of the entire tank. It is irri- 
 gated by the flow of water which passes out from 
 the tank through a masonry culvert piercing the 
 lowest part of the retaining bund, or more often 
 through a breach or cutting made in the bund itself 
 And the lie of the field will Ije such that the outflow 
 of water can be made to flood the whole of it in a 
 succession of flats from the upper part of its slope 
 next the tank, to the lowest and most remote from 
 it ; the line of soil surface from side to side being 
 ;dmost always horizontal throughout. According to 
 the local character of the ground the field will be of 
 more or less irregular shape, with its longer extension 
 stretching away from the tank bund. In all other 
 respects it is a simple clearing in that universal 
 jungle which prevails on all sides, and which even 
 covers up, as has been already mentioned, the actual 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 181 
 
 bund of the tank, and very much even of the tank 
 bottom itself. 
 
 With each field corresponds a gama or village • 
 i.e., the group of homesteads in which live the 
 people who cultivate the field. It is sometimes the 
 case, though not often, that a vUlage can boast of 
 more than one field. The group stands in the jungle 
 by the side of the field, obscured by the trees and 
 next the bund. It usually exhibits little if any 
 order of arrangement. A single homestead, if its 
 owner be well to do, consists of a low, thatched, 
 mud -wattled hut, of perhaps two unlighted rooms 
 opening upon the diminutive veranda which has the 
 earth platform of the hut for floor, and its projecting 
 eaves for a roof. In front of this hut will be small 
 mud-plastered attawas, or roofed cylinders of wicker- 
 work, raised upon supports (equivalent to the golas 
 of Bengal) for storage of grain. On one side, too, 
 will stand a large open shed, with its little loft 
 for cattle (if the cottier possesses any) implements, 
 curry grinder, rice pounder (the dlunki of Bengal), 
 
182 A(_;ricultural Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 &c. Under the back eaves of the hut also will be 
 found a place for ploughs, the surface-smoother, 
 harrows, &c. And abutting upon the little home- 
 stead's curtilage, or partially enclosing it, wiU be a 
 garden or loosely cultivated plot for fruit trees, con- 
 diments, curry vegetables {sag of Btnigal), &c. The 
 whole is usually most ill kept and neglected. And 
 the different homesteads of the village group are 
 separated from each other \)j irrregular, ill-defined, 
 muddy tracks. 
 
 The people who constitute the inhabitants of such 
 a village are related and subordinated, in a peculiar 
 connection with the land, to a territorial head, who, 
 in these modern days is commonly spoken of as the 
 proprietor of the village, though the term does not 
 seem to be in all respects accurate. This head 
 doubtless is, as will be presently explained, the 
 historical successor and representative of the primi- 
 tive chieftain. He may talve the shape of the 
 Crown, or of a religious foundation, or of a private 
 Singhalese gentleman ; and there are, nowadays. 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 183 
 
 certain diversities in the incidents of these three 
 several cases such as render this triple distinction 
 noteworthy. 
 
 The village field, or paddy tract, is shared among 
 the families of the village in the foUowing manner, 
 namely, it is divided into portions by parallel balks 
 drawn across it from side to side at right angles to 
 the line of water-flow. And each such portion is the 
 hereditary share, qualified by the special incidents to 
 be next mentioned, of some one person or family 
 resident in or belonging to the village. 
 
 The principal portion, or share, falls to, and is 
 termed the MottdUava (ziraat in Bengal), of the 
 head of the village ; and all the other shares, 
 although the tenure of them is permanent and 
 hereditary, are charged with some obligation of 
 subjection on the part of the shareholder to that 
 head, i e., the shareholder is in each case bound 
 either to make to the head some contribution of 
 produce in kind, or to render him some ' defined 
 and specific service, domestic or agricultural. This 
 
184 Ageicultueal Con ji unity in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 ilibtinction of tenure, or subjection, corresponds very 
 closely with the lulhu-nj and raiotti conditions of 
 holding in Bengal. Only that in Bengal the raiotti 
 holding, i.e., the holding by contribution of share of 
 produce, is the prevalent form, and the lakhiraj 
 holding is the exception, while in Ceylon the holding 
 ' by rendering of service lulalxtriya is (or rather was) 
 aU but universal, and the oilier the exception. There 
 is a further difference, also, namely, that in Bengal 
 the service of the lal-liifaj holding is always free 
 and honourable, such as that of the priest, the doctor, 
 the watchman, and so on ; but in Ceylon, that of the 
 nilal-uritja is usually menial. 
 
 It is generally the case that a plurality of 
 villages Irave a common head, and formerly the 
 household establishment and personal retinue of a 
 wealthy native chieftain used to be kept up by 
 a. method of turns of menial service discharged b}' 
 villagers, who were drawn for the purpose from 
 the many villages lielonging to him in due order 
 upon the footing of their land tenure obligation. 
 
I.J The Village Economy, 185 
 
 Changes in the state of society have caused nmch of 
 this to become obsolete, and the corresponding 
 service tenure to become, so to speak, freehold. But 
 where a Buddhist Vihara, or temple, is the head 
 or proprietor of th# village, as happens frequently 
 in the North Central Province, the- personal service 
 which in tins instance takes special forms, such as • 
 tom-tom beating on specified occasions, maintaining 
 illuminations, thatching or doing other repairs to the 
 pansala (i.e., the Buddhist priest's residence), &c., 
 is still in full activity. 
 
 The administrative organisation which is needed 
 to secure to the head of the village the perception 
 of all these service advantages and profits consisted 
 of one or two officials, namely, the Ganiercde, or 
 emphatically the village man, the LeJcham, writer 
 or accountant, &c. And some of the more wealthy 
 of the shareholders in the village field, probably 
 by reason of being by family origin of the same 
 blood with the chieftain, hold their share by the 
 service of filling hereditarily one of these offices. 
 
186 Agricultural Community ix Ceylon, [i. 
 
 or of yielding hospitality to the head of the village 
 when he comes, or to any other visitors whom the 
 village receives. 
 
 A penuma or present, which has its exact equi- 
 valent in the Bengali Tiazar, is due from every service 
 renderer upon presenting himself for the performance 
 of his service, and often the like when his term of 
 service is completed. 
 
 Some services consist in doing for the village 
 head such work as smiths', carpenters', dhobis' work 
 or even that of the doctor (Vcderolc). And in the 
 village these persons get paid in their turn liy 
 their fellow villagers for the exercise of their 
 professional or artisan's functions and skill (when 
 needed), either by labour done for them in the tilling 
 of their shares of the village field, or by a quota of 
 the paddy on the payer's threshing-floor, measured 
 out and delivered when the harvest is completed. 
 
 Other service again consists in supplying the 
 village head with oil, betel-nuts, or with honey 
 from the jungle, or with game, &c. 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 187 
 
 Besides services such as have been mentioned, 
 rendered to the village head alone, the exigencies 
 of cidtivation nnder the primitive conditions vi-^hich 
 obtain in the ISTorth Central Province, and indeed 
 throughout Ceylon generally, necessitate certain 
 combined action on the part of the villagers for 
 their joint benefit, e.g. fencing the village field every 
 season against the wild animals of the jungle which 
 surrounds it. The whole work much exceeds any- 
 thing that any one shareholder could execute unaided. 
 And if there be a flaw in it anywhere every share- 
 holder's plot is open to invasion. Every shareholder 
 is thus directljr interested in this work, and must 
 bear his portion of it in proportion to his share in 
 the field. Similarly if any breach in the bund has 
 to be filled up, or some repair to be done to it, or a 
 channel to be cut across it, this is done by all the 
 shareholders jointly furnishing out of their families 
 or dependents, each in due proportion, a continual 
 supply of labour in successive relays until the work 
 is done. 
 
188 Ageioultueal Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 Again, although each shareholder in the village 
 paddy field, has a certain hereditary right of pro- 
 perty in his plot, and of exclusively cultivating it, 
 yet the primitive method of cultivation which is 
 generally pursued connects him, whether he will 
 or no, in almost every step of his tilling with his 
 neighbours, above and below, either in a domi- 
 nant or a serviant character. The process of pre- 
 paring and clearing the soil for the seed sowing or 
 planting, of killing the weeds and keeping them 
 down, and of promoting the growth of the paddy- 
 plant, is from beginning to end in a large degree 
 effected by the aid of successive submersions of the 
 plot, which have to be varied as regards the depth 
 of water required according to the process and the 
 stage of it. There are commonly so many as three 
 prolon,L;ed submersions in the course of tilling, and 
 seven shorter ones during the growth of the plant. 
 And as the submergence of a relatively lower plot 
 generally means the submergence of the plots above 
 it, while the paddy plant cannot be depended upon to 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 189 
 
 grow equally fast in all the plots, therefore, in order 
 that there be no risk of one shareholder's operations 
 destroying the young plants of his neighbours, 
 the usual rule is that the shareholder at the lower 
 end of the field should commence the operations 
 of the tilling season in his plot before any one 
 else, and so get a safe start of the man next above 
 him. And the like order is followed by all the others 
 in succession. 
 
 If, too, in any year, either from deficiency in 
 the supply of water or other cause a portion only 
 of the village paddy field can be effectively culti- 
 vated, that limited portion is taken as the whole, 
 and is divided among the village shareholders, as 
 the original entirety was. And whether this is to be 
 done or not is determined upon by the shareholders as 
 a body. This does not now seem to be everywhere 
 known in practice, but it is provided for often enough 
 in the newly framed gansabaiva rules, at the instance 
 of the villagers themselves, to indicate that it was a 
 deeply rooted ancient custom. 
 
190 Ageicxjltxjeal Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 There is, thus, much matter for internal adminis- 
 tration in the village, in the interest of the share- 
 holders themselves, i.e., independently of their 
 relations to the head of the village, which calls 
 for an organisation for the purpose. And con- 
 sequently, in addition to the officers of the vUlage 
 head, concerned only to look after, and secure to 
 him his rights, there are in each village of the North 
 Central Province (and indeed this feature of primi- 
 tive agricultural economies prevails universally), the 
 vel vidahne and others chosen by the shareholders to 
 control and carry out the system of fencing, plough- 
 ing, sowing, shifting of allotment, when necessary, 
 &c., or generally the internal agricultural economy 
 of the village. 
 
 The rice production of the irrigated fields is not 
 sufficient even to form the principal portion of the 
 shareholder's support in the greater number of 
 the villages of this Province. The ordinary staple 
 of Mfe is the dry grain, koralehan, grown upon the 
 upland as it is called, i.e., on merely un watered 
 
I.] The Village Economy. 191 
 
 ground, or ground which the flow of water cannot 
 be made to reach. A piece of the forest which 
 surrounds the village and the village paddy field, 
 is felled and burnt, and a crop of korakkan is 
 raised thereon for a couple of consecutive years at 
 most, when the clearing is allowed to relapse into 
 jungle again; and the process is not repeated 
 on the same spot for another ten years at least. 
 
 This process of chena clearing is often done in 
 the ISTorth Central Province by the joint action of 
 the village shareholders, under the management of 
 their own officers : and sometimes the whole course 
 of cultivation which follows is also joint, with a 
 partition only of the produce. But sometimes, too, 
 after the clearing is effected, the land is divided 
 and allotted previously to the cultivation. And 
 this is always done in the case of the plots 
 required for the growth of each household's 
 vegetables or curry stuff. 
 
 In the maritime provinces this system of joint 
 clearing seems to be absolutely unknown. There 
 
192 Agficultueal Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 every one who lias dwnn land, ajjpears to own it 
 aljsolutely, and either clears and cultivates it him- 
 self at long intervals, or gets this done for him on 
 some terms of anda letting. 
 
 In some few instances there is, it is said, forest 
 and clicna ground recognised as appurtenant to 
 the village, in this sense, at least, that the share- 
 holders of the village paddy field can, without 
 question on the part of either the village head 
 or of the Government, clear and cultivate in the 
 manner just described any portion of it at their 
 discretion on the foundation of, and in proportion 
 to, their village holdings. But generally the Crown 
 asserts a paramount claim to all jungle and waste 
 land, wherever situated, which has not been before 
 ujipropriated to actual use; and no tree can be 
 felled or dicna cultivnted thereon except under 
 license from Government. 
 
 The actual work of tilling is usually done on 
 the portion of each shareholder by the hands of 
 the members of his family. The occupation of 
 
I-] The Village Economy. 193 
 
 cultivating paddy is in an especial degree respectable, 
 and has almost a sacred character. Women even 
 are not worthy enough to take part in all its 
 operations, and in particular they cannot be seen 
 on the threshing floor — at any rate while the so- 
 called hill paddy, or more highly valued sort of 
 rice grain, is being threshed. 
 
 In cases, however, such as those where the share- 
 holder is a woman without children, or where he has 
 other employment, or is well off enough to be able to 
 abstain from manual labour and others of a like 
 kind, it is a common arrangement that his share 
 should be cultivated for him by another person upon 
 the terms of this latter, the person who actually 
 cultivates, rendering to the shareowner a specified 
 share of the produce. This is designated a letting 
 in ande, i.e. Tialf share; and as a rule, perhaps 
 almost always, the agreed upon share amounts to 
 half the produce both in straw and paddy, the culti- 
 vator having also to give a share to the responsible 
 servant who is usually sent by the shareowner to 
 
194 AcracuLTUEAL Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 remain on the ground and look after his interests 
 from the day of reaping to the day of partition, 
 and having moreover to feed this man during the 
 interval. 
 
 Very nearly all vicarious cultivation assumes this 
 shape, for no such thing is known as the letting 
 of the land for a money rent, and there is no class 
 of agricultural labourers, working on the land of 
 another for money hire. In truth it may be said 
 that in the purely agricultural village of Ceylon 
 there is practically no money in use. Perhaps the 
 majority of the sharers in the village field are 
 deficient in the capital necessary for carrying on the 
 cultivation of their plots. They have not paddy 
 enough to last them for food till next season of har- 
 vest or for seed, or they have no plough, or no oxen. 
 These they obtain when and as they are required, 
 from the capitalist of the village, on the terms of 
 setting apart for him on the threshing floor a certain 
 .stipulated quantity or share of the produce in return 
 for each item of loan. In the same way (as has been 
 
I-] The Village Economy. 195 
 
 already mentioned) the services of the Vederale, 
 or of the village blacksmith and other artizans, will 
 be remunerated. And the like may be done some- 
 times in the matter of land labour also, but the 
 general custom is for neighbouring shareholders 
 to mutually assist one another in this particular 
 when needed. 
 
 The head of the village is more advantageously 
 situated in respect of his muttettuwa because he is 
 entitled to have that cultivated for him gratuitously 
 under the supervision of his officers by the turns 
 of tillage service due to him from those of the 
 village shareholders, whose tenures involve that 
 service. And when he carries on the cultivation 
 in this manner he of course appropriates the whole 
 of the produce at the harvest. But he, too, often 
 finds it the more convenient and even the more 
 profitable course to dispense with these services, 
 and to let out the muttettuwa land in ande, i.e., on 
 terms of receiving a specified (originally half) share 
 of the produce. 
 
 2 
 
196 Ageicultukal Community in Ceylon. [i. 
 
 The form and condition of village economy and of 
 agricultural industry, which has been here treated as 
 typical, and which has been mainly described from 
 examples furnished by the North Central and Kand- 
 yan provinces, does not of course prevail to the 
 exclusion of every other in all parts of the Island. 
 Not does it by any means always present itself, in 
 every instance, complete in all its features. Dis- 
 integrating influences have been, in modern times 
 at least, silently but surely at work within the 
 village itself. And on the outside of it by a process 
 which may be termed the converse of that which 
 led to the establishment of a regal hierarchy on the 
 basis of the village, the sovereign power, when once 
 constituted, in course of time became the instru- 
 ment for generating and developing entirely new 
 conditions and notions of property in land. 
 
II. 
 
 LAND TENCJEE AND STATE ECONOMY. 
 
 It is very commonly supposed that the king, 
 as theoretical proprietor of all land, from time 
 to time granted to his chieftains such as Adigars, 
 Dessaves, &c., tracts of land in considera- 
 tion of the grantees rendering him military and 
 civil services. That these Adigars and other 
 grantees sublet the land so granted to them, 
 to peasant cultivators, who paid their rent in 
 services. And that it was in this sort of de haut 
 en has method of proceeding that the Ceylon 
 agricultural village with its peculiar incidents 
 came into being. But it is not difficult to satisfy 
 oneself that agricultural villages must have been 
 
198 Agricultural Community in Cei-xon. [ii. 
 
 very generally distributed over the country and must 
 have attained an advanced stage of development 
 before there were any Dessaves, or king, to initiate 
 this process. And the safer inference from history 
 seems to be that royal and feudal grants of the kind 
 imagined, made in the earlier times by a chieftain 
 or king to his officers or companions, were grants 
 of dominion over populations, not grants of property 
 in land, as we now understand it, which in truth 
 is, comparatively speaking, the conception of a 
 relatively modern stage of society. 
 
 The primary result of these feudal grants was to 
 confer upon the grantee the chieftain's customary 
 rights over the villages and unappropriated lands 
 which formed the subject of the grant; and so, 
 doubtless, arose the Nindegama (or village under 
 private ownership) as opposed to the royal or 
 Gcibada-gama. 
 
 Sub-infeudation never seems to have had place in 
 Ceylon to any considerable extent. In this respect the 
 Singhalese land system offers much contrast to that 
 
II.] Land Tenure and State Economy. 199 
 
 of Bengal. But there seems to be difference enough 
 in the data of the two cases to account for this 
 diversity of consequence. Personal service, which 
 was the ordinary tenure obligation of the Singhalese 
 cultivator, is not so readily transferable as a debt 
 of money or of contribution in kind such as the 
 Bengalee raiat owed to his village chief. And 
 moreover the Bengal sub-tenures did not attain their 
 extraordinary modern development until after the 
 Permanent Settlement had given the zamindars an 
 absolute right of property in all the land of their 
 Zamindaries — a right which is without parallel in 
 Ceylon. Both the royal and the private seignior 
 however, in the latter island, made immediate grants 
 of unappropriated or waste land. Some of these 
 became cultivating settlements, having the grantee 
 (not, be it observed, the grantor) at their head, the 
 grantor having no other connection with the new 
 community than the link of service which bound 
 the grantee to him, and which often in course of 
 time wore out, or became unenforceable. Others 
 
200 Ageicultueal Community in Ceylon. [ii. 
 perhaps were from the very beginning exclusive and 
 free of continuing obligation. 
 
 To these several origins may perhaps be referred 
 with some degree of probability the very numerous 
 cases of cultivators, and even of non- cultivating 
 proprietors, who own lands by a right of an absolute 
 and independent character, free of all corporate re- 
 lations whatever, and of every feudal ingredient, 
 which are to be found in all parts of the country, 
 especially in the maritime provinces ; though pro- 
 bably in these latter the measures of the Dutch 
 dominant authority, which will be spoken of below, 
 effected the larger part of the change which has 
 taken place in modern times. 
 
 And in a sense an agricultural labourers' class 
 is now coming into existence ; for wealthy native 
 gentlemen who have obtained the command of 
 money by other pursuits than that of agriculture, 
 liave found themselves able to obtain the labour 
 of the poorer village proprietors for daily money 
 wages, and by that means to "farm" iheir own 
 
II.] Land Tenure and State Economy. 201 
 
 lands extensively in the English meaning of the 
 word — a practice which is prohably spreading to the 
 great advantage of the public. 
 
 The joint family system is as conspicuous in 
 Ceylon as it is in Bengal, though perhaps family 
 groups in the former are seldom seen of the large 
 dimensions which are common enough in the latter. 
 It is, however, distinguished -by a very remarkable 
 feature : two, or possibly more, brothers living to- 
 gether under one roof will have one wife between 
 them. This is evidently a survival from an early 
 stage of civilisation, and seems to point to much 
 difficulty in the way of securing the necessaries of 
 life, and to some artificial restriction on the number 
 of women. The practice has been discouraged for 
 the future by English legislation in regard to mar- 
 riage, but it is as yet by no means extinct, and still 
 enters as a curious factor in the law of inheritance, 
 which has to be administered by the civil courts. 
 
 The enjoyment of property by all the members of 
 the joint family together 'has in law very much the 
 
202 Agricultural Community in Ceylon. [ii. 
 
 incidents of the English tenancy in common. But 
 in the details of actual daily use it varies with 
 the subject, the custom of the district, the will of the 
 most influential coparceners and other circumstances. 
 The affair is managed by the agreement, express or 
 implied, of the whole of the adult joint sharers in the 
 family property, who often separate themselves into 
 smaller groups each taking its own plot of land. 
 The arrangement, however, for the common enjoy- 
 ment, whatever it be and however long it may have 
 subsisted, is liable to be upset by any dissentient 
 sharer claiming to have his sliare divided off for 
 him ; and indeed it is only by the exercise of this 
 right of partition that a sharer aggrieved by the 
 acts of liis copartners can obtain relief. 
 
 In the cases of cocoa-nut or areca-nut plantations, 
 of jak trees, and even of paddy fields, it is iTSual 
 that every gathering of the crop should be made 
 in the presence of all the sharers, and the produce 
 then and there divided according to the shares. In 
 such cases all the sharers together do the necessary 
 
II.] Land Tenure and State Economy. 203 
 
 work incidental to the cultivation or to the keeping 
 up of the plantation aud constitute in fact a co- 
 operative society. Another practice is for the 
 sharers to let out the land or plantation in anda 
 either to an outsider, or to one or more of themselves. 
 In this case, also, all the sharers ought to be present 
 at the division of the produce, which is effected in 
 two steps, i.e. first division into moieties, and then a 
 division of one moiety among the sharers. 
 
 Sometimes the enjoyment of the property is by 
 tatta maru succession. The subject is supposed to 
 be divided into as many eq^ual parts as will just 
 admit of the proportionate share of each coparcener 
 being represented by an integral number of these 
 parts ; and then instead of an actual division being 
 made accordingly, and every sharer obtaining his 
 proper number of parts, each takes the entirety for 
 the same number of seasons as he is entitled to parts, 
 giving it up at the end of such period of time to 
 the sharer who stands next in the rota, in order 
 that he may similarly hold it for his own number 
 
204 Agricultural Community in Ceylon. [h. 
 
 of seasons ; and so on for all the shareholders in 
 turn. Thus if A, B, and C were jointly entitled 
 to a paddy field in undivided shares proportionate 
 to 2, 3 and 4, i.e., to a fth, J-rd, |th share of the 
 whole respectively, then by this method of enjoy- 
 ment A would take the whole field for two years, 
 after him B for three years, and after B again C 
 would take it for four years; and then the 
 set of turns would be repeated in the same order, 
 for successive periods of nine years, until some 
 sharer should insist upon having an actual partition 
 of the field. 
 
 A similar sort of succession is adopted in some 
 villages on the coast for the enjoyment by the 
 villagers of the fishing grounds belonging to the 
 village : these are divided into localities ; and the 
 recognised boats of the village fish these localities 
 by turns which are settled by gansabawa arrange- 
 ment. Each of these boats with its nets is a 
 valuable piece of property, belonging to many 
 co-sharers jointly, who are commonly members of 
 
II.] Land Tenure and State Economy. 205 
 
 one family, and have become entitled to their 
 shares by inheritance.^ The mode in which the 
 copartners share in the earnings of a boat is 
 interesting. On a day's fishing the produce is 
 drawn ashore, is divided in a sufficient number of 
 lots, each estimated to be worth the same assigned 
 value ; and these lots are then so distributed 
 that : — 
 -^th, say, goes to the owner of the land on which the 
 
 fish are brought ashore, 
 ^th to those engaged in the labour, 
 ^th for the assistance of extra nets, &c., rendered by 
 
 third parties in the process of landing and 
 
 securing the fish, 
 
 , . , , ^, 2 + 25 + 20 47 
 which together = — =— ; 
 
 and the remaining ^nnrths go to the owners of the 
 boat and net according to their shares therein. 
 
 1 Some interesting facts of village organisation, survivals of 
 early practices, are given by Mr. Nell in a valuable note which 
 forms the Appendix to Part I. of Grenier's Reports (Ceylon) 
 for 1874. 
 
III. 
 
 CEYLON AND BENGAL. 
 
 The sketch, which has been attempted in the 
 foregoing pages, seems to he sufficient to disclose 
 a very close parallelism between the agricultural 
 ^'illage of Ceylon, and the agricultural village of 
 Bengal or Upper India. The village head proprietor 
 or seignior of Ceylon is the zamindar of Bengal. 
 The muttettinoa of the former is the ziraat of the 
 latter. The Singhalese nilal-ann/a with his jMnguwa 
 or share of the village paddy field is the Bengalee 
 i-i/ot with his jot — with this difference, that the 
 nilnlariya's right in his land is almost universally 
 hereditary and absolute, subject only to the rendering 
 of the special service to the lord, while the ri/ot's 
 
III.] Ceylon and Bengal. 207 
 
 tenure does not generally nowadays rise above a 
 right of occupation with liability to variation of 
 rent. Also the middlemen, or under-teimre holders 
 of Bengal, are absent lq Ceylon, mainly (as has been 
 above suggested) because in this island personal 
 service to the lord early took the place of the 
 original contribution of produce, or of its equivalent 
 in later days, namely a money commutation in lieu 
 thereof ; and also possibly because the develop- 
 ment of the Bengalee tenures was the outcome of 
 an idea of property in the samindari, which has 
 never yet been reached in regard to the relation 
 between the nilakaraya, and the head of the Ceylon 
 village. 
 
 The cultivation in ande of the one people is also 
 the precise counterpart of the hatai cultivation of 
 the other. And the deputing of the right to culti- 
 vate the soil, as distinguished from the letting out 
 land as a commodity for a price, seems to charac- 
 terise both agricultural systems. The usufructuary 
 mortgage, it may be added, which flows from this 
 
208 Agricultural Community in Ceylon, [hi. 
 
 conception, is the prevailing form of dealing with 
 both the "panguvja and the jot respectively, as 
 commodities. 
 
 Lastly we see in Ceylon as in Bengal the 
 double set of village officers, to which the relation 
 between the members of the little village republic 
 on the one hand, with their lord on the other, 
 gives rise, namely, the gameralc, leMiama, kan- 
 kanamc answering to the naih, the patwari, the 
 fioriiashta ; and the rd vidane equivalent to the 
 mandal. 
 
 The ways of life, customs, and laws of the 
 two populations are almost identical ; their 
 methods and behaviour in the English Courts of 
 Justice the same. And the constitution and 
 corporate characteristics of the Buddhist religious 
 foundations agree most closely with those of the 
 Bihar maths. 
 
 Preference has already been made to the assump- 
 tion that the existing system of land tenure in 
 Ceylon is primarily attributable to grants of land 
 
III.] Ceylon and Bengal. 209 
 
 made by the king as lord paramount of the soil, 
 subject to conditions of service or other obligation. 
 But in view of the corresponding system of Bengal 
 it seems to accord better with the social facts of the 
 present day, and such little evidence bearing upon 
 primitive Aryan civilisation as remains to us, to 
 suppose that the Singhalese society first developed 
 itself, clearing by clearing in separate village com- 
 munities, isolated from each other and scattered 
 over the land very much, as they even now still 
 are in the existing condition of the North Central 
 Province. Each cultivating settlement developed 
 for itself insensibly its own internal organisation, 
 all doing so after the same type, as a neces- 
 sary consequence of the almost complete iden- 
 tity of materials, process, and circumstances, by 
 which they were severally affected. The aggre- 
 gation of a plurality of villages together under 
 a common head or seignior must, however, have 
 very soon followed upon the establishment of 
 the village organisation. After the consolidation 
 
 p 
 
210 AGltlf.ULTUKAL COMMUNITY IN CeYLON. [TII, 
 
 of the village unit, and the complete appropriation 
 of the local tilling resources, a flourishing community 
 would throw out new settlements, or cultivation 
 clearings, generally in the neighbourhood of the 
 parent village, to which they would be reckoned as 
 affiliations. By marriage, too, and often perhaps by 
 hii'li-handed measures, one family would become 
 the dominant and privileged family of several 
 villages. And when the petty chieftain is thus 
 reached, a progress of the like kind, though possibly 
 displaying the larger and more regal features of fight- 
 ing and spoliation, and involving every diversity of 
 incident, leads easily to the rajah and the king. 
 
 There is nothing, however, in this process to 
 introduce any new notions of territorial proprietor- 
 ship, such as those of which we of Western Europe 
 find it difBcult to disabuse our minds. The right to 
 exclusively cultivate, (whether by his own hands or 
 vicariously,) and to enjoy the usufruct of a certain 
 specified share of the village culturable land as in- 
 cident to his membership in the village community, 
 
III.] Ceylon and Bengal. 211 
 
 and subject to an ascertained obligation towards the 
 village chief, constituted the extent of the villager's 
 idea of proprietorship. The chieftain himself had 
 the like right in respect of his muttettuwa, coupled 
 with the right to exact the obligations which were 
 due to him from the other shareholders. The 
 common lands of the village, chiefly pasturage, 
 were almost universally kept in the direct manage- 
 ment of the village itself, by the hand of its officials. 
 And the jungle was pretty well left to itself, un- 
 cared for, each member of the village probably at 
 first taking out of it such wood as he from time to 
 time had need for, and gathering honey and other 
 wHd products according as he had opportunity. In 
 process of time, however, the chieftain, as leader in 
 the constant war of the cultivator against wild 
 animals, early came to have recognised privilege in 
 respect to the game of the forest, and from thence 
 advanced to general rights over the forests them- 
 selves, and over purely waste lands ; and on a footing 
 of this kind he eventually managed to secure to 
 
 P 2 
 
212 AQRICULTUilAL COJIMUXITY IN CEYLON. [ill. 
 
 himself toUs for ferries, stallage in markets and 
 the like. 
 
 The larger development of the chieftain into the 
 Rajah or any other form of sovereign personage did 
 not bring any new proprietary element into the 
 political system. The chieftainship of all the 
 villages came to reside in the new centre of power, 
 except so far as, either from favour or convenience, 
 it might in some instances be left in the hands of 
 the old possessors, or bestowed upon new men, in 
 either case in consideration of services to be 
 rendered, or it might even be given over gra- 
 tuitously, from motives of piety, to religious insti- 
 tutions in hopes solely of advantages to be derived 
 in a future state of existence. 
 
 In this way we arrive at a state economy in 
 which the Crown is paramount village head or 
 chieftain, with certain lay village heads holding 
 under it, generally on obligation of military or 
 other service of honour, and also ecclesiastical 
 village heads, similarly holding under it, thoinrh 
 
iii.J Ceylon and Bengal. 213 
 
 without any positive obligations, and therefore 
 virtually independent. 
 
 The services and aids receivable from the lay 
 headman, aud the services and contributions due 
 directly from the shareholders of those villages, 
 in respect to which no middleman existed, to- 
 gether with the produce of the chieftain's mvttet- 
 tiava lands therein, constituted the principal 
 revenues and means of the supreme power ; though 
 these Were supplemented, especially in relatively 
 modern times, by dues of very various kinds levied 
 simply by the exercise of sovereign authority. 
 
 It is remarkable that while in the Aryan vil- 
 lage system of India the obligation of the raiat 
 to the zamindar almost universally took the form 
 of contribution of a specified share of the pro- 
 duce, or the discharge of a village office, or of a 
 religious duty, in that of Ceylon the contribution 
 of a share of the produce is the exception, and the 
 tenure obligation is far the most commonly one 
 of personal service. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE GRAIN TAX. 
 
 In the preceding description one universally pre- 
 vailing obligation, resting throughout Ceylon on the 
 cultivator at the present day, has been omitted, 
 namely, the obligation to pay to the Crown a tithe 
 or share of his paddy crop if he has any, and, in 
 some parts of the country, also of his other grain 
 crops. Many of the witnesses, both Native and 
 European, who gave their evidence before the 
 recent Government Grain Commission, seemed in- 
 clined to identify this obligation with that which 
 is spoken of in j\Ianu and the other Hindu 
 Shasters as the duty of every cultivator to con- 
 tribute a share of his produce to the lord or to 
 
IV.] The Gkain Tax. 215 
 
 the state. And nearly all thought it stood upon 
 some very ancient custom. But it can hardly 
 be doubted that in Ceylon the services and 
 the liability to make special contributions to the 
 village head which have been already described, 
 are the equivalent, and the representative of that 
 ancient contribution in kind, which comprises the 
 modern revenue of India ; and that consequently 
 the Government tithe of Ceylon must be attri- 
 buted to some other source. And on a close 
 scrutiny of historical facts its origin appears to 
 be of comparatively modern date. Upon the basis 
 of the village organisation the sovereign power of 
 the state, which was, so to speak, the concentration 
 in one regal person of the seignioral rights over 
 each of the village units, enjoyed those rights 
 through more than one channel, or in diverse 
 forms and methods. 
 
 In very many cases, as has been already men- 
 tioned, the seigniorship of the village was bestowed 
 upon, or allowed to faU into the hands of, religious 
 
216 Ageicultural Community in Ceylon, [iv. 
 
 foundations, free of any obligation to the state, the 
 public advantage derivable from the maintenance 
 of the religious institutions constituting ample con- 
 sideration for the alienation ; in others the seignior- 
 ship was granted to influential men, or to royal 
 favourites or connections, in consideration of feudal 
 or other services on the part of the grantee, or 
 even sometimes gratuitously. 
 
 In far the greater number of cases, however, the 
 exercise and perception of the seignioral rights was 
 delegated to local Government officers, heads of 
 districts, into which the country was parcelled, who 
 were endowed with an executive or "administrative 
 character as representatives of the Crown, but 
 who no doubt generally contrived in the end to 
 make their office hereditary and to convert and 
 attach to it some portion of seignioral rights as 
 personal profit. 
 
 And lastly, in very many instances villages were 
 kept in hand by the Crown (held JcJias as it is 
 phrased in India) for the especial support of the 
 
IV. J The Geain Tax. 217 
 
 central establishments : the tmittetuwa therein was 
 service-tilled, or let out in ande, as the case might 
 be, under the direction of royal servants ; the pro- 
 duce thus accruing was deposited in kind in royal 
 storehouses (gabedawa), arsenals (awudege), or trea- 
 suries (arramudale), according to its sort, and the 
 personal services due were rendered at the palace 
 or elsewhere, to meet some immediate royal re- 
 quirement. The Crown villages or lands were 
 known under various designations, as ratninda or 
 ande, original Crown lands, nillapalla, those which 
 had fallen into the Crown from failure of the office 
 to which they" were attached, mallapalla, those which 
 reverted to the Crown from death of the grantee. 
 
 The whole period throughout which the Portu- 
 guese exercised any authority in the island was 
 marked by great disorganisation of the state 
 machinery. Several independent native powers 
 at times maintained a separate simultaneous ex- 
 istence in the different provinces. And there 
 was but little continuity of general municipal 
 
218 Agkicultural Cojimuxity in Ceylox. [iv. 
 
 administration of any kind. The village system, 
 however, was still in activity, even in the low 
 part of the country near the coast, i.e., the part 
 of the country most affected by foreign influence 
 and other disturbing forces ; and it was by the 
 services and contributions derivable from this 
 source that, first the native powers of tbe low 
 country, and after them the Portuguese, recruited 
 their military forces and obtained the means of 
 government. The Portuguese, wh^n they had 
 become supreme over the southern maritime 
 circuit of the island, took up the position of the 
 native kings, whom they superseded, and adopted 
 their fiscal and administrative machinery as it 
 stood. 
 
 The Dutch, on the other hand, after turning out 
 the Portuguese, and upon being settled in power 
 throughout the maritime provinces, displaced all 
 the native local heads and oiiicials; and their 
 Government assumed to itself the direct collection 
 and beneiit of the various dues, cesses, and services, 
 
IV.] The Geain Tax. 219 
 
 which the previous course of things had had the 
 residt of fastening upon the holder of land, as the 
 incident of his tenure, to whomsoever these had 
 been hitherto rendered. 
 
 The English in assuming the government of the 
 maritime provinces from the Dutch at first merely 
 stepped into the shoes of their predecessors, availing 
 themselves, and making use, of the services of those 
 who held land on tenure of service (and on that 
 account duty free), also receiving at the store-houses, 
 &c., the seignior's share of produce in kind, from the 
 Mallapalla, Nillapalla, Ratninda, or Ande lands, and 
 thirdly taking immediately such benefits as were 
 derivable from holders of land on other and uncer- 
 tain tenures, inclusive of, among other things, the 
 payment of quotas of produce, and of measures 
 of paddy. 
 
 These third set of dues were converted by Eoyal 
 Proclamation of May 3, 1800, into a tax of 1-lOth 
 of the produce. What they previously were, or 
 what was the territorial extent to which they related. 
 
220 Ageicultueal Commuxity in Ceylon, [iv. 
 
 does not appear in the statute book, but from the 
 phraseology of the proclamation it would seem that 
 they had respect to lands which formed the residue 
 of the maritime provinces after exception made of 
 the Government lands, and the lands held on 
 tenure of service to G-overnment. Evidently the 
 private seignior and the vihara headship had both 
 alike disappeared before the Dutch. 
 
 In the following year (1801, September 3) by 
 proclamation the obligation to service on tenure 
 of land throughout the maritime provinces was 
 abolished (as from 1st May, 1802), and land held 
 duty free on account of that service was subjected to 
 payment to Government of 1-lOth of the produce 
 if high land, and l-5th of the produce if low land. 
 
 At the same time the payment of ^ of the 
 produce in respect of MaUapalla, Nillapalla, 
 Eatninda or Andc lands was reserved. 
 
 But though the obligation to service was thus 
 divorced from the land, power was still reserved to 
 the governor to exact it by special order from 
 
IV.] The Grain Tax. 221 
 
 persons of whatever caste and condition for adequate 
 pay to be given therefor. The exigencies of the 
 Kandyan war afterwards led to a renewal of the 
 general claim of Government to the services of the 
 people, this time without reference to the possession 
 of land, but on the ground of custom and caste, 
 payment to be made at rates fixed by Government. 
 And in 1809 the making of roads was declared to 
 be gratuitous service, lying on the inhabitants of 
 the district through which they passed. 
 
 These enactments applied only to the maritime 
 provinces of the island acquired from the Dutch. 
 In 1815, however, the English also obtained by 
 conquest and treaty the government of the Central 
 or Kandyan Province, which up to that time had 
 been solely under the administration of native 
 powers. And in 1818, by the proclamation of the 
 21st November, it was enacted that all duties there- 
 tofore payable into the royal store-house, treasury, 
 or arsenal, and all duties or other taxes whatever 
 were abolished, and in lieu thereof a tax of 1-lOth 
 
222 Al IRICULTUEAL COMMUNITY IN CeYLON. [IV. 
 
 of the produce on all paddy lands was substituted, 
 reduced to l-14th in certain specified Korles. 
 
 This was evidently a step of no very discriminat- 
 ing character. The dues and cesses which were 
 abolished were payable out of very various subjects, 
 and on some diversity of obligations. And the sub- 
 stitution which is thus made for them is a general 
 average levy, not even from all lands, but from all 
 paddy lands. At the same time the services due in 
 respect of service tenure lands, on which mainly this 
 new tax must have fallen as well as on others, were 
 retained, though it was stipulated that the services 
 should be generally paid for at an established rate, 
 the repair and making of roads only being, as in 
 the maritime provinces, gratuitous. 
 
 The liability of certain inhabitants of temple lands 
 to perform service to Grovernment was also retained 
 (cl. 21, of Procl. 21st November, 1818). 
 
 On the 24th of December, 1831, Lt.-Col. Cole- 
 brooke made his report to the Secretary of State 
 after the inquiry into the administration of the 
 
IV.] The Grain Tax. 223 
 
 Government of Ceylon whicli he and Mr. Cameron 
 had been commissioned to carry out ; and on the 
 footing of this report an Order of Council dated 
 12th April, 1832, declared that none of His Majesty's 
 native or Indian subjects within the island should 
 be or were liable to render any service to His 
 Majesty in respect to the tenure of their land, or 
 in respect of their caste or otherwise to which 
 His Majesty's subjects of European birth or descent 
 were not liable, any law, custom, or regulation 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 But even this proclamation contained the reserva- 
 tion of services to the Crown of holders of land in 
 royal villages in the Kandyan Province, and the like 
 for vihara and private owners in the same province. 
 
 The results of all these measures may be sum- 
 marised thus; — on taking over the maritime pro- 
 vinces from the Dutch, the English found the lands 
 held under one or other of three general classes 
 of tenure, namely: — 
 
 1st. Lands held on tenure of service. 
 
224 Agkicultukal Community in Ceylon, [iv. 
 
 2nd. Lands held in ancle, which were formerly 
 Crown lands. 
 
 3rd. Lands held on any other tenure, spoken 
 of in the proclamation as uncertain, or clogged 
 with inconveniences. 
 
 And they converted tenure No. (1) into a tax 
 of 1-lOth of the produce if the lands were high lands 
 and l-5th of the produce if they were low lands; 
 tenure No. (2) into a tax of \ of the produce ; and 
 tenure No. (3) into a tax of 1-1 0th of the produce. 
 
 On assuming the Government of the Kandyan 
 Province, they did not inquire into and discriminate 
 the tenures there existing, but abolished at one 
 stroke all duties payable in kind to Government, 
 and all other duties and taxes whatever, and sub- 
 stituted in their stead a tax of 1-lOth of the annual 
 produce upon all paddy lands. 
 
 And while doing away with all services due to 
 Government, as they thus eventually did, they 
 reserved the services of tenants of lands in the 
 royal villages of the Kandyan Province, which were 
 
IV.] The Geain Tax. 225 
 
 tacitly treated as lands still belonging immediately 
 to the Crown. According to Eibeyro, Knox, and 
 Valentyn, the fact seems to have been that in the 
 Portuguese and earlier times there was almost no 
 nioney in the country. All trade which was not 
 a Crown monopoly was effected by barter. Paddy 
 was the commodity which commonly filled the 
 place of coin. Most of the presents which, as we 
 have seen, accompanied all service, took the form 
 of paddy, and nearly all obligations by way of 
 remuneration or duty were discharged by a 
 measure of grain drawn from the contents of the 
 thrashing-floor at harvest. 
 
 So that, to generalize somewhat, when the 
 English came the demesne lands of the Crown, 
 as they may be termed, comparatively limited in 
 extent, were cultivated by tenants, upon the con- 
 dition of rendering from J to -j of the produce 
 into the Crown store-houses ; most of the remain- 
 ing cultivable land of the country was held upon 
 some service more or less skilled (as is described 
 
 Q 
 
22G Agricultueal Community in Ceylon, [iv. 
 very graphically by Eibeyro), and such other 
 occupiers of land as there were, were obliged, 
 without any very definite principle, also to make 
 contributions of paddy, which were generally in 
 lieu of, and practically stood as a money commu- 
 tation for, some less acceptable service: and all 
 occupiers alike were subjected to irregular cesses 
 in kind at the time of harvest. 
 
 The English administration reformed this state 
 of things by (sooner or later) sweeping away 
 all these obligations except that of the tenants 
 of the demesne lands ; and by replacing them 
 with a tax of 1-lOth of all the produce of the 
 soil in the maritime provinces, and of 1-lOth of 
 the paddy in the Kandyan provinces. In the 
 latter arrangements they do not seem to have 
 recognised the fact that the paddy payments 
 which they thus replaced by a tax of 1-lOth of 
 the paddy crop were in their character generally 
 money commutations of dues payable in respect 
 of all kinds of crop. 
 
IV.] The Grain Tax. 227 
 
 ^ The earliest mention of any tax, or any contribu- 
 tion of the people towards the support of a royal 
 person which is to be found in the historical books 
 of Ceylon, occurs in the Aggauna Sutta in Digha 
 Mtraya, and in the commentary thereon called 
 Sumangala Vilasani. 
 
 The Aggauna Sutta is a sermon by Buddha 
 himself, and the commentary is the work of 
 the well-known and learned Buddhist divine 
 Buddhagosha. 
 
 The passage in the sermon is " Salinam Bhagam 
 Anupa dassama." In English, " We shall give a 
 portion of our paddy." 
 
 Buddhagosha's commentary on this is : " Mayam 
 Ekakassa Khettalo Amanam Ammanam Aharitva 
 Tuiham SaU-bhagam dassama. Yan Jaya Kinclii 
 Kammamua Katabbam Iwam Amhakam lettarat- 
 thane litthati." In English, " We shall give you at 
 the rate of ammunan of paddy from each field of 
 
 ^ For the followiug information I am indebted to the learned 
 Suriyagoda Unause, Librarian of the Malagava, Kandy. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 AGRICULTaKAL COMMTJNITY IN CeYLOX. [IV. 
 
 ours. You need not follow any trade. But be you 
 our chief." 
 
 The word "Sali" which is here used signifies 
 literally a particular kind of rice, but it is under- 
 stood to be intended in these places to stand for 
 all grain produce. 
 
 No other tax, or obligation towards the governing 
 power is noticed. And it does not seem unreason- 
 able to infer that this contribution of one ammunam 
 of grain produce per field (whatever that amounted 
 to) was nothing more than the Singhalese form, in 
 the time of Buddha's teaching, of the ancient Indi)- 
 Aryau land tenure. The growth of the system of 
 services, which in modern times very largely dis- 
 placed it, must have taken place subsequent! \'. 
 And the paddy cesses, which ultimately were often 
 again super-imposed upon the services, probably 
 came in later still, with an increase in the central 
 power of exaction. 
 
 The Singhalese word " otu," by which the Govern- 
 ment tax or claim is commonly designated, means 
 
IV,] The Grain Tax. 229 
 
 " one " ; and is probably equivalent only to one 
 portion, or one share, without indicating anything 
 with regard to the proportion of the share to 
 the entirety. 
 
 How tlie proportion, therefore, of 1-lOth in the 
 English impost was arrived at is not very clear, 
 though it seems to have been founded upon the 
 practice of the Dutch in granting out Crown lands. 
 
 The grain tax appears consequently to be no 
 older than the century, and if it be justified as 
 being in effect a return, under some modification, 
 to the earliest and most widely prevalent form of 
 national revenue which was developed from the 
 basis of the village organization among the Aryan 
 races, it is noteworthy as a characteristic of the 
 Ceylon Aryans that from the same basis they 
 produced the service system in its stead. 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE INDO-AEYAN 
 SOCIAL AND LAND SYSTEM. 
 
FROM THE JOINT FAMILY TO THE 
 VILLAGE. 
 
 Many years ago I ventured to describe ia this 
 place ^ some of the more prominent features of the 
 Hindu joint-family as they appeared to one who had 
 then recently arrived in this country. At that time 
 I was unacquainted with the labours of Nasse, Sir 
 H. Maine and others, who have shown the true 
 character of this still living institution and the place 
 it has held in the progress of Aryan civilization. 
 
 ^ The following pages reproduce a paper whicli was read at a 
 meeting of the Bethune Society, Calcutta, in 1872. At that time 
 the writer had no knowledge of Ceylon, and the paper has been 
 allowed to retain its original form because of the completeness 
 with which it seems to account for the facts of the Singhalese 
 agricultural village, to which it was not directed, as well as 
 those of the Bengallee village for which its explanation is 
 designed. 
 
234 From the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 I may now assume that its historical value is 
 generally well understood. 
 
 On inquiring into the growth in India of proprie- 
 tary rights in land, we find the joint-family at its 
 very origin. Tlie village was at first, and still is 
 in a large degree, a group of such families, often all 
 sprung from or appendant to a central family. They 
 were seldom, however, even from the very outset, 
 all of equal rank. 
 
 The mode in which this came about may be 
 taken to be pretty accurately ascertained, for the 
 founding of a new village in waste and unoccupied 
 ground has always been, even down to the present 
 day, a not uncommon occurrence. In the days of 
 Manu, according to the Institutes, it was quite pro- 
 bable in any given case that persons might be alive 
 who remembered the foundation of the village ; and 
 at the present time every settlement report sent in 
 to Government will be found to furnish instances, 
 and to describe the circumstances, of newly created 
 agricultural communities. We shall hardly be 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 235 
 
 wrong if we assume that the process which we see 
 iu operation now-a-days does not differ essentially 
 from that which gave rise to the village in archaic 
 times. I imagine that one or two enterprising 
 persons more or less connected together by ties of 
 relationship, started the little colony. Of these, 
 doubtless, one would, in some special manner, 
 be leader, and would together with his family after 
 him maintain a pre-eminence in the new society. 
 Next would come the family of the man who was 
 especially learned in, or who became charged with 
 the care of, religious matters — precepts and cere- 
 monies — iu other words, who was the repositary 
 of the higher law of the small community. 
 
 Very soon other persons would be allowed to 
 cultivate land, and to have place within the ambit 
 of the new settlement upon terms prescribed to 
 them as to the situation of their allotment, per- 
 forming work on the land of the leaders, and other 
 conditions of subordination. Others again would 
 merely obtain the comparatively civilized shelter 
 
236 Fkom the Joint Family to the A'illage. 
 afforded by the village against the perils of the 
 outside wilderness, pursuing therein convenient 
 handicrafts, or performing servile tasks. 
 
 Land was not conceived of as the subject of 
 property in the modern sense, or as belonging to 
 any individual. Each village had its boundaries, 
 which early came to be most precise, and the 
 entire space within these belonged to the whole 
 village. Every family, however, appropriated to 
 itself or became the owner of the homestead which 
 it occupied, and the garden or orchard attached 
 thereto, and often too its particular tank. So 
 much of the land within the village boundaries as 
 was needed for cultivation was apportioned among 
 the recognised families. At first this was done 
 merely for the year's tilling, then at longer intervals, 
 and later still only on the occasions of considerable 
 changes in the families, and so on. The grazing 
 ground, the waste, and the woodland (or jungle) 
 was common to all alike In the early days of 
 village civilization, the agricultural element was 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 237 
 
 comparatively small, and it was both easy and advan- 
 tageous that the culturable plots should be changed, 
 as just mentioned, at more or less frequent periods. 
 As, however, larger areas came to be taken into 
 cultivation, and increased skill and labour to be 
 applied to the reclamation and culture of the soil, 
 and non-annual crops to be grown, it followed natur- 
 ally that the different famihes ultimately got to 
 retain permanently in their hands either the whole 
 or the better portion of their respective allotments. 
 The cultivation of the family plot was effected, 
 as a rule, by the members of the family alone. But 
 the leading family and the priest or cultured family, 
 no doubt, from the beginning inherited and enjoyed 
 much prestige and priority of consideration which 
 enabled them to attain to a position of privilege. 
 They seem generally to have cultivated more or less 
 by servants, or by the means of latai agreements — 
 i.e. agreements under which the tilling is done by 
 a person not the owner — in consideration of a definite 
 share of the produce being yielded to the owner. 
 
238 From the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 And it is not improbable that, originally at any rate, 
 their servants and hatcii occupants were drawn from 
 the, so to speak, interloper portions of the inhabitants 
 of the village — i.e. those who could not claim their 
 part in the village soil by derivative rights from the 
 founder. 
 
 Thus there grew to be, even from the commence- 
 ment, a gradation of respectability and employment 
 within the village itself; and it is especially 
 noticeable that there were two privileged heads of 
 the village, the secular and the religious or clerical. 
 
 As population increased and became more fixed, 
 the cultivation of cereals and pulses became more 
 necessary and engrossing; and the value of cattle 
 became greater, as being both the cultivating power 
 and the means of exchange. For reasons already 
 suggested, the recognised founder's family and the 
 priests' families, doubtless, obtained advantages in 
 the allotment of khets, or culturable plots, both in 
 regard to situation and quantity, and became the 
 wealthiest members of the community — i.e. possessors 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 239 
 
 of the largest herds, and cultivators of the biggest 
 khets with the least expenditure of manual labour. 
 They were also the principal guides and directors of 
 village affairs. And so it came about that to own 
 and look after cattle (the symbol of wealth) was 
 respectable, and, in modern phraseology, the occu- 
 pation of a gentleman, as distinguished from the 
 manual labour of the field. 
 
 After these we have the remainder of those 
 families who were entitled, as of old right, to par- 
 ticipation in the village lands, and were essentially 
 agricultural in occupation. 
 
 And lastly there is the class of relative strangers 
 or outsiders, namely, artizans and petty traders, 
 followed by a servile class, hewers of wood, drawers 
 of water, scavengers, &c. 
 
 Thus far we encounter no indication that any 
 real approach has been made towards personal pro- 
 perty in land. We have found that each family 
 in time got the right to retain continuously 
 year after year its own particular plots for 
 
240 Fbom the Joint Family to the Village. 
 cultivation ; or at any rate did so in the case of 
 those plots which they had respectively by especial 
 pains reclaimed from a state of waste, or which 
 had other peculiarities ; and we have arrived at 
 the conclusion that the leading families, out of 
 all the families entitled to the village lands, got 
 the better of their neighbours in these matters. 
 Subsequently, again, as families broke up, it came 
 to be acknowledged that the members of each had 
 a right to distribute among themselves the family 
 Iclids for cultivation. 
 
 But still the proprietary conception went no 
 further than this, namely, that the particular plot 
 of land which the family or individual claimed was 
 that part of the village land which he or it was 
 entitled to cultivate, or to have cultivated for his 
 own benefit. 
 
 At the same time the business of allotment (so 
 long as the practice of allotting obtained), the order 
 of cultivation, the maintenance of the water supply, 
 the keeping up of fences, and all other affairs of 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 241 
 
 common interest to the little cnmmunity, were 
 managed by tlie heads of families, entitled to 
 their share of the village lands, in panchaynt 
 assembled. 
 
 A further development of the social system, and 
 a new source of land rights, was brought about by 
 the attrition of village with village. 
 
 The exclusiveness of the Aryan family was its 
 marked characteristic. In the earliest beginnings 
 to which we can get back, to use the words of a 
 recent historian of Greece,'- " the house of each man 
 was to him what the den is to the wild beast which 
 dwells in it ; something, namely, to which he only 
 has a right, and which he allows his mate and his 
 offspring to share, but which no other living thing 
 may enter except at the risk of life." The same 
 spirit can be perceived animating the Hindu family 
 throughout all its stages, even down to the present 
 time ; and so it was necessarily the governing prin- 
 ciple of the group of families which constituted the 
 ^ Cox's Greece, p. 13. 
 
242 From the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 village, in its relation to its ueighhours as soon as 
 it had any. 
 
 Each little colony or abaci held itself aloof from 
 and independent of all others; jealous of its rights, 
 and quick to resent, as well as to defend itself from 
 encroachment. As villages thickened, causes of 
 quarrel increased, for instance, — pasturage grounds 
 — reclamations — profitable jungle tracts — fuel — 
 thatching grass — bamboo clumps, &c. &c. — until 
 at last, it may be said, the normal relation between 
 the ahads was one of chronic hostility. 
 
 Collision on these points led to fights, in which 
 no doubt the head of the lending family in the 
 village was the director, and the different members 
 of that family, both from their position and from 
 their compjarative independence of manual occupation, 
 were the principal actors. 
 
 The common consequence of these fights was that 
 the successful party not merely vindicated its own 
 rights, but seized and occupied some of the best 
 lands of its antagonist, and carried off his herds. 
 
Pkom the Joint Family to the Village. 243 
 
 And as in those early days fighting was mainly 
 an affair of personal prowess, these acquisitions 
 were appropriated by those whose strong arms 
 had won them. The conquered khets came to 
 belong, in a new sense, to the leader of the expedi- 
 tion, and those to whom he awarded them. And 
 we may safely assume that he appropriated to 
 himself the lion's share of the captured cattle. 
 Thus was introduced a peculiar cause of aggran- 
 disement of the leading family and its adherents. 
 Already distinguished by family blood, by wealth, 
 and by hereditary position and partial immunity 
 from hard labour, they now acquired great addi- 
 tional wealth from the outside, became possessors of 
 n-ij, or private, lands in foreign villages ; and above 
 all became invested with that personal influence 
 and authority which attaches to successful fighters. 
 The beaten villages, at first, probably only suffered 
 the loss of the appropriated khet and of the stolen 
 herds. But this must have had the effect of impo- 
 verishing some of its inhabitants, and of increasing 
 
 R 2 
 
2-14 Fkom the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 the numbers of the dependent population. So 
 that the invaders would at once find it easy to 
 enforce or procure the cultivation of their newly- 
 acquired lands upon latai terms. But cultivation 
 by servants, or on iatni conditions, Avas not in itself 
 novel ; it was only extended as the result of these 
 proceedings. The really new ingredient of tenure 
 which came in through them was the complete 
 independence of the village community even in 
 theory which characterised the victor's retention of 
 these lands. 
 
 Eesults such as these, of course, tended very soon 
 to give rise to fighting expeditions for their own 
 sake, and upon an enlarged scale. Time and dis- 
 tance were involved in them ; and the fighters had 
 then to be maintained while away from home. At 
 first this would be managed out of the principal 
 man's wealth : he assigned portions of his land to 
 the more prominent among them, generally on con- 
 ditions of service, and supported others out of his 
 own stores, flocks, and herds. Then the non-fighters 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 245 
 
 of the primary village would contribute rations in 
 kind. And next, perhaps even before this step, 
 each subdued village would be made to pay a 
 permanent tribute of produce in kind. 
 
 Here we have before us the growth of a chief- 
 tainship and a fighting class, mostly sprung in the 
 first instance from the village founder's family, but 
 also including others who had won their place by 
 the side of these through strength of arm. And 
 when in this way an energetic and relatively 
 powerful family had gained supremacy over many 
 villages, its head became a hereditary local chief, 
 and the fighting men constituted a diminutive 
 aristocracy, most of them actually and all re- 
 putedly of the same blood as the chief. The causes 
 which led to this development were of universal 
 operation; and so, sooner or later, aU villages fell 
 under this kind of dominion, and the originally free 
 abads became subordinated in groups to chiefs and 
 rajahs. Also the chiefs and rajahs with their 
 several little attached aristocracies, each hereditarily 
 
246 From the Joixt Family to the Villaoe. 
 separati^ Irom their people, came to be collectively 
 regardeci as a noble military governing race, such as 
 the rajpoot of historical times. If the celebrated 
 Ksliatria caste ever had more reality than belongs to 
 mere mention in Brahmardcal pages (and it certainly 
 has no reality now) it doubtless arose in this fashion.i 
 Similarly, from those of the original settlers, 
 who discharged in each almd the functions of 
 priest and moral teacher, came the great clerkly 
 race-caste of Brahman. They were in the first 
 instance generally, no doubt, closely connected 
 with the head of the colony himself, and like him 
 obtained advantages in the allotment of land, and 
 m getting it tilled for them. Thus freed from the 
 necessity of manual toil, and devoted to the human- 
 izing pursuit of religion, law, and advancement of 
 knowledge, they ultimately came to constitute, by 
 hereditary separation, a singular class of aristocracy 
 — seldom wealthy, but always of vast influence in 
 their several communities. 
 
 ' See Growse's llathn.ra. 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 247 
 
 As their generations widened, their increasing 
 wants were met by assignments of land made by 
 the chief and others. 
 
 And being the repositaries of all learning, and in 
 possession of priestly powers, as society progressed 
 they gradually monopolised all that existed in the 
 way of public offices, and attained an importance 
 which, as a rule, much exceeded that of an ordinary 
 member of the fighting or warrior class, and closely 
 approached that of the chief himself. The aggre- 
 gate of these everywhere were L'rahmavs. It is 
 possible that out of the same materials a third here- 
 ditary class, also reputed to be of pure and unmixed 
 descent from the founders of the settlement, maj' 
 have developed itself and acquired a social status 
 of privilege. For it is conceivable that besides 
 the fighting men and the teachers, some few others 
 of the original settlers or their descendants may 
 by good fortune in husbandry, or likely enough by 
 joining trade therewith, have contrived to distinguish 
 themselves in wealth above their fellows, and to 
 
248 Fi;(jM THE Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 free themselves from the toil of agricultural labour ; 
 and may at the same time have avoided the ranks 
 of the chief's adherents. I confess I think this 
 last supposition extremely improbable, for in the 
 stage of civilisation which is here being considered 
 an unlettered man of leisure and wealth could 
 scarcely have found a respectable alternative to 
 that which for want of a better term we may call 
 the profession of arms, and which must have been 
 looked upon as the gentleman's occupation. If, 
 however, such a segregation could have originally 
 taken place, and if notwithstanding the want of the 
 compacting force which is incident to community 
 of employment, purity of family blood could be 
 maintained in this body, then like the fighting and 
 the clerkly classes it would enjoy an aristocratic 
 pre-eminence, and would answer to the caste which 
 has been described by Brahmanical writers under 
 the designation Vaisya, but the existence of which, 
 su far as I know, has never been otherwise evidenced. 
 Tlie great bulk, however, of the descendants of 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 249 
 
 the original settlers (speaking of villages in the 
 mass) were unable to rise ahove the common level, 
 were less careful of purity of blood, or of pre- 
 serving any mark of descent from the immigrant 
 race. With them gradually came to be intermixed 
 people of all kinds, aborigines, run-aways from other 
 (ibads from cause of pauperism, feud, or otherwise, 
 some of whom came to be even allowed a portion 
 of the village lands. 
 
 The social development which I suppose to have 
 been thus effected may be concisely and roughly 
 described as follows : — 
 
 (1.) The immigrant and growing population in 
 each different tract or district of country, although 
 made up of village ixnits, in course of time acquired 
 as a whole a certain homogeneity of physical ap- 
 pearance and of character, peculiar to itself, being 
 the product of various influences, such as circum- 
 stances of the district, general habits of life of 
 the people, infiltration of foreign ingredients, and 
 so on. 
 
250 From the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 (2. ) A hereditary aristocratic class rose to the 
 top of each community or people (so distinguished), 
 and established over it a domination which bore 
 characteristics resembling those of feudalism in 
 Europe. 
 
 (3.) And a clerkly class in substance hereditary 
 known everywhere as the Brahmans, in like manner 
 came into social pre-eminence, and managed to 
 appropriate to itself the influence and authority of 
 the priest and the teacher. 
 
 I may venture here to say (though my opinion in 
 itself is worth very little) that I quite agree with 
 Mr. Growse in thinking that there never was at 
 any time in Indian Aryan society a hereditary 
 Vaisi/ii class ; and as I have already mentioned, 
 I cannot perceive in the conditions under which 
 I imagine that society to have been developed any 
 cause adequate to its production. Probably the 
 Brahman, Kshatria, Vaisya, and Sudra of the 
 Brahmanical codes were only the Utopian class 
 distinctions of a prehistoric More. 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 251 
 
 A.1 though there may be some difficulty in con- 
 ceiving the exact nature of the process by which 
 the result (1) is produced, there can be no doubt, 
 I apprehend, that, in some stages of society at any 
 rate, it is a reality of very active operation. In 
 quite recent times, we have familiar to us under 
 the designation of Yankee an instance of the ori- 
 gination, by immigration into a new country, of a 
 novel and very distinct type of people, marked by 
 physical and intellectual characteristics of the 
 highest order. 
 
 And a glance over the ground which is covered 
 by the Aryan race in India will show, that while 
 there can be no question as to a certain community 
 of race character possessed by the different popula- 
 tions, there have also been at work upon them 
 respectively strong local influences and special 
 modifying causes. To take large divisions, it is 
 impossible not to see that the population of the 
 Punjab differs uniformly and materially from that 
 of the Kumaon, and similarly the latter again from 
 
252 JFkom the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 the populations of Bengal and Orissa. I will make 
 no endeavour now to seek out these influences and 
 causes for each case, because to do so would carry 
 me somewhat wide of my present purpose. 
 
 On the theory put forward, the two privileged 
 classes (2) and (3) ought to be distinguished from 
 the commoner local population by such marks as 
 purity of descent {i.e. descent preserved from the 
 freer intermixture prevailing around), together with 
 the relatively elevating habits a leisured life can 
 confer ; and yet should participate with that popu- 
 lation in the general characteristics which serve 
 to separate them from the population of other 
 localities. And that this is so in India is, I 
 think, as a rule, abundantly apparent. In the 
 Chapter of the Star of India lately held in Calcutta, 
 the small groups of noblemen who stood around, 
 say, for example, the ]\Iaharaja of Pattiala, the 
 Maharaja of Q-walior, and the Maharaja of Rewah 
 respectively, were as markedly different from 
 each other in feature of countenance and bodily 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 253 
 
 proportions, and could be as readily recognised 
 separately, as if the comparison were made between 
 them and the like number of Englishmen. And the 
 same assertion may be made relative to the Brahman. 
 The general results in regard to rights of pro- 
 perty in land, of the social progress and course of 
 change "which I have endeavoured to represent, 
 were very simple. The village community stood 
 out with great distinctness as a self-governing agri- 
 cultural corporation. Every family in it except 
 those which were purely servile or which had 
 never become recognised as sharers in the customary 
 rights, had its allotment of village land for culti- 
 vation ; it had also the right to pasture its cattle 
 over the belt surrounding the village and on other 
 pasture grounds of the village, if any ; and a right to 
 take what it wanted of the jungle products within 
 the village limits. 
 
 The local, chieftain had a portion of lands in all 
 the villages subordinate to him which was in a 
 special manner his own, and was additional to the 
 
254 Feom the Joint Family to the Vu-lage. 
 
 substantial share which he had of the communal 
 rights. The other members of the warrior class 
 often had, besides their own village lands, an 
 assignment of land from the chief in some village, 
 not necessarily their own, which they held in more 
 or less dependence upon him. And the chief, 
 further, had a tribute of a certain portion of the 
 produce of every village allotment (exclusive of 
 those of the Brahman and the warrior) which he 
 could use as he pleased for the support of himself 
 or his followers, and which he often no doubt 
 assigned pretty freely to favourites and others on 
 conditions of service and otherwise. 
 
 The chief and the other members of the warrior 
 cla'^s (or feudal aristocracy) and the Brahman 
 seldom or perhaps never took any personal part 
 in cultivation. They either tilled their lands 
 through servants, or oftener allowed other persons 
 to occupy and till them upon condition of yielding 
 up a portion of the produce, they themselves pro- 
 bably (at least in the earlier days of the practice) 
 
Tkom the Joint Family to the Village. 255 
 
 furnisliiDg cattle, seed, and other agricultural capital. 
 And arrangements of this kind could he altered 
 by the persons concerned at their convenience. 
 But the land allotment generally was an affair 
 of the village, and although the ordinary village 
 cultivator was obliged to pay tribute in kind in 
 respect of his share to the chief, he could not be 
 disturbed in the possession thereof by liira. There 
 never was, so far as I can discover, any assumption 
 on the part of the chief of a right of possession in 
 respect of the cultivators' share of the village land 
 or of a right to disturb that possession. And all 
 questions of right, and all disputes within the village, 
 were settled on a basis of custom and equity by 
 the village panchai/at, wherein the chief, either in 
 person or represented by a superior servant, had a 
 voice. In all this there is at most conceived only 
 the right to cultivate land, and a deputing of that 
 right to another in consideration of a share in the 
 produce. And little or no approach had up to 
 this stage been made to the idea of property in 
 
'2.16 FRo^r THE JoixT Family to the Village. 
 
 land as a commodity, and of power to alienate it, 
 or even to hire out the use of it for a money pay- 
 ment. The chief was in a sense lord of the villages 
 which were subordinate to him, and entitled to a 
 share of the , produce from every cultivator therein : 
 but he was not owiier in the modern English sense, 
 and had no power to dispose of the possession of 
 any land except his nij, or private, land ; and with 
 regard to this he only had the right to cultivate by 
 himself rir by his servants, or to get somebody else 
 to do it on condition of dividing the produce. No 
 other practice was known or thought of, and it 
 need hardly be remarked that in early stages of 
 society, practice or custom precedes and is the 
 measure of right. 
 
 At first sight the distinction which I am endea- 
 vouring to draw may appear to be without a differ- 
 ence; the produce of the land must have been iv 
 effect divided much in the same way between the 
 cultivators and the chief, who took tribute in kind 
 as if the parties were true landlord and tenant. 
 
Fkom the Joint Family to the Village. 257 
 
 But on looking closer it will be found that the 
 two relations differ very materially, and that the 
 one I am dwelling upon is anterior to the latter 
 as a matter of progress. It is especially important 
 to remember that the share of produce which the 
 Chief could take was not regulated by his own 
 pleasure, or by the making a bargain, but by 
 custom, or practice, in regard to which the village 
 panchayat was the supreme authority, and that 
 the Chief had no power to turn the cultivator out 
 of possession. 
 
 When these quotas of produce were in the course 
 of progress turned into money payments, or their 
 equivalent (an event which has not happened 
 universally even yet), they still did not become 
 rent paid for occupation and use of land as an 
 article belonging to and at the disposal of the 
 person paid, but were dues payable to a superior 
 ruling authority by the subjects of that authority. 
 The Chief, though zamindar of all the land within 
 the zamindary, was at most landlord (and that in 
 
 s 
 
25S From the Joint Family to the Village, 
 
 the very qualified sense of one merely havinc; the 
 right to dispose of the occupation and tillinfj of the 
 soil) of so much of it as was his nij land, and 
 in some instances probahly of the wastes. The 
 machinery of this system was the zamindar's l-n- 
 rJ/riJm. the centre of local authority, side liy side 
 with which was the p«/tr/?,(n/a/!, i.e. the old nhaJ. 
 self-government. 
 
 I am unable to adduce the direct evidence of 
 any historical 'wi'iter in favour of this view, but 
 there is a good deal in the old codes which tend^ 
 to snpport'^it indirectly. 
 
 In the Institutes of Manu, not perhaps a very 
 ancient compilation in the form under which it 
 has come down to us, though probably as old and 
 respectable an authority as we can go to, there is 
 nowhere any mention of land as a subject of 
 property in the modern English sense. Private 
 ownership of cultivated plots is recognised, but it 
 is simply the ownership of the culti^-ator. The 
 land itself belongs to the village. There is no 
 
Feom the Joint Family to the Village. 259 
 
 trace of rent. The owner is only another name 
 for cultivator He is indeed under obligation to 
 cultivate lest the Eajah's or lord's dues in kind be 
 shortcoming. But he might cultivate by servants, 
 of whose doings he knew little or nothing, or 
 arrange with some one else to cultivate on a 
 division of crops (i.e. the hatai system, a form of 
 metayer). 
 
 In another place of Manu we find every one 
 enjoined to keep a supply of grain sufficient for 
 his household for three years. And it is evident 
 that almost everybody is supposed to be an actual 
 cultivator. 
 
 Although the practice of iatai is very like the 
 small end of a wedge, which might have disrupted 
 the primitive system, yet it did not in fact lead 
 to the letting of land : and rent in any form seems 
 to be altogether unknown to Manu. 
 
 Selling of land, or even of the use of land, does 
 not appear to be anywhere directly alluded to. 
 Contract of sale in some variety is spoken of, but 
 
 s 2 
 
■2(50 From the Joixt Tamily to the Village. 
 
 nowhere, so far as I remember, in immediate 
 reference to land. Appropriating a iield, giving 
 a field, and seizing a field, have all a place in 
 Wanu's pages, but not buying or selling a field. 
 The passage in p. 303 § 114 of Sir W. Jones's 
 translation (4to. ed.) when rightly rendered, does 
 not give rise to the inference that land was there 
 contemplated as a subject of purchase. 
 
 Somewhat later in time, no doubt, according to 
 the ]\Iitakshara, separated kinsmen had acquired 
 uncontrolled power of disposing of their respective 
 shares of the family allotment. This, however, did 
 not amount to a dealing with a specific portion 
 of land as a thing of property, but was a mere 
 truiisfer of a personal cultivating right, incidental 
 to personal status in the village community, and 
 subject to an obligation to render to the lord his 
 share of the produce. And for this cause it was 
 necessary that the transaction should be accom- 
 panied by specified public formalities : and an 
 out-and-out sale was discountenanced except for 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 261 
 
 necessity. Moreover, when the transfer was not " 
 absolute, biit conditional by way of security 
 for t'he repayment of a debt, it always took 
 the form of what is now called a usufructuary 
 mortgage. 
 
 It seems to me pretty clear that the usufruct of 
 land by actual tillage on the footing of a right of 
 partnership in the village cultivating community, 
 and not the land itself, constituted the object to 
 which the words of ownership occurring in the 
 Hindu law-writers relate. 
 
 The same storj" is brought down to modern 
 times by copper-plates of title, old sanads, and 
 other evidence of the like kind. These disclose 
 the pretty frequent giunt or assignment of the 
 right to make collections and other zamindari 
 rights proceeding from a superior lord, or the gift 
 of a plot from the waste, or out of the zamindar's 
 ziraat, to a Brahman or other deserving person.. 
 But I know of no instance of private transfer by 
 purchase and sale of actual land, or even of the 
 
262 Feoji the Joint Family to the Village. 
 lease of land for a term of years in consideration 
 of a rent.^ 
 
 The land system at which we have thus arrived is 
 one of power or authority on the one side, and sub- 
 jection on the other, rather than of property ; and I 
 may venture to say generally that it is the zamindar 
 and raiyat system of Aryan India at the present day. 
 
 I have not now the time to illustrate this pro- 
 position adequately by examples. The state of 
 things in Bengal has been so affected by direct 
 legislation, and the spread of English real property 
 notions, that I cannot appeal to it for this purpose 
 without more explanation than I have here space 
 for. But I will venture to say that Mr. La Touche's 
 very interesting Settlement Eeport of Ajmere and 
 
 1 I am indebted to the learned Sanscrit scholar, Dr. Eojindralala 
 Mitra for notice of the Sanchi tablet, of which a translation is 
 given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vi. \i. 456. 
 But I do not imagine that the transaction therein spoken of was a 
 purchase and sale of land as between private owners. It reads to 
 me more like an enfranchisement of some sort (such as redemption 
 of liability to pay revenue to the lord) with the view to the land 
 becoming debattar. 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 263 
 
 ^Ihairwarra, recently published, supplies facts 
 which serve to establish it for that district, not- 
 withstanding that Mr. La Toache very often uses 
 language which broadly declares the State's right of 
 owne7'ship in all lands constituting the territory 
 of the State. Mr. La Touche, I. admit, appears to 
 employ these words " right of ownership " in their 
 widest English meaning ; but I do not think that his 
 facts require anything nearly so large. In his first 
 passage on the " Tenures " of Ajmere, he says : "The 
 soil is broadly divided into two classes — khalsa, or 
 the private domain of the Crown, and land held in 
 estates, or baronies, by feudal Chiefs originally under 
 an obligation of military service," and I cannot help 
 thinking that he has been misled by an analogy 
 which his phraseology borrowed from feudal Europe 
 suggests, and which, to say the best of it, is only 
 imperfect. 
 
 As I understand the report, the general result may 
 be stated thus : Certain members of the village com- 
 munity enjoy the permanently cultivated or improved 
 
2fi4 From the Joint Family to the Village. 
 lands of the village by some recognised hereditary or 
 customary right of cultivation, which is sometimes 
 termed ownership and sometimes proprietorship ; 
 that if they pay the customary share of the pro- 
 duce to the person entitled to receive it, they con- 
 sider themselves entitled to continue undisturbed in 
 the occupation and cultivation of their land, or even 
 ■to transfer it to another ; that there is no such 
 thing as the letting of land on terms of profit ; that 
 private sales of land are practically unknown, and 
 that the sale of land by the Civil Court (an English 
 innovation) has been prohibited because it is so 
 opposed to ancient custom as to be incapable of 
 being carried into effect ; that mortgages are almost 
 all of an usufructuary kind, and in Mhairwarra 
 there is a kind of metayer system established between 
 the mortgagor and mortgagee; that the State, as 
 representative of the former superior Chief, collects 
 the revenue (\\-hich is the modern equivalent to the 
 old cvstuiiiary share of Ihc proili'ce) from the cultivators 
 by certain agency machinery, and exercises other 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 265 
 
 recognised Chiefs rights, except over lands in respect 
 to which the Chiefs rights to collect dues, and of other 
 kind, were assigned by him to minor Chiefs, de- 
 signated as istamrardars or jaghirdars, on conditions 
 of military service, or for other consideration ; that 
 amongst the rights so exercised by the State and its 
 assignees, was the right to dispose of waste land ; 
 and finally, that although within the State area of 
 collection the revenue is settled in the form of a 
 money payment, in all jaghir estates the revenue is 
 collected by an estimate of the produce, and money 
 assessments are unknown. 
 
 If this concise statement of facts, drawn from 
 Mr. La Touche's report, be approximately correct, 
 as I think it is, provided the report be read cleared 
 of expressions which seem due merely to Mr. La 
 Touche's implied theory of original State ownership, 
 it accords singularly well with, and justifies almost 
 to the word, the proposition which I have just 
 ventured to make. 
 
 And this example is the more forcible, because 
 
200 Fkom the Joint Family to the Village. 
 
 Mr. La Touche says that " the land tenures are, as 
 might be expected, entirely analogous to those pre- 
 vailing in the adjacent Native States," an assertion 
 which the result of my own personal inquiries 
 enables me to confirm. 
 
 But the true relation between the Indo-Aryan 
 land system and the modern form of absolute right 
 of ownership of land which obtains in England, will 
 be best explained by drawing attention to the point 
 at -which the latter diverged from the former. 
 
 In Europe the course of change from the initial 
 joint family village onwards was at first much the 
 game in character as that which occurred in India, 
 but it early exhibited a very remarkable difference. 
 In the conflict of villages the strongest party did not 
 limit itself, I imagine, as appears to have been the 
 case in the East, to making appropriations frorn. the 
 waste, and to imposing a produce tribute on the 
 cultivators of the defeated village, leaving them 
 otherwise undisturbed in their possessions and in 
 the management of their village affair.s ; but it turned 
 
Fkom the Joint Family to the Village, 267 
 
 the cultivators out of their land, taking the culti- 
 vation into its own hands, and reducing the formei' 
 cultivators to the condition of labourers or serfs. 
 The root of the village government and adminis- 
 tration was thus destroyed; and in place of the 
 produce tribute was substituted a dominion over 
 the soil — a difference which was all-important, 
 and pregnant with the most weighty political 
 consequences. 
 
 There was still, I conceive, at this stage no idea 
 of ownership of, or property in, land, other than the 
 idea of right to cultivate, no idea of right to land 
 independent of the purposes of cultivation or other 
 actual use of it. Thus the dominant party, by its 
 leader and chief, took over the cultivation, distri- 
 buting it probably in parcels amongst themselves, 
 the Chief no doubt ultimately getting by far the 
 largest share, and being especially the authority to 
 distribute, while the subjected people became bound 
 to labour for their masters, and on this condition 
 were allowed to retain or occupy a homestead — and, 
 
268 From the Joint FAj.riLY to the Village. 
 
 so to speak, subsistence — plot of land. From this 
 beginning grew up the manor, corresponding in some 
 degree, though remotely, to the oriental maiizali, or 
 village. The lord's demesne, or cultivation, com- 
 prised the liulk of the land, or at any rate the best 
 of it; some portions of land became the cultivation 
 of free men of the lord's race or belonging allied to 
 him by military ties and by blood, and the rest was 
 the sulisistence land of the serfs, bound to labour on 
 the lord's land.' From the serf holdings again, at a 
 later period, the copyhold tenures developed. 
 
 But meanwhile and for a long time the lord was 
 only owner of his land in the sense of cultivator and 
 user of it. He cultivated his land in his various 
 manors through the intervention of a. bailiff in each 
 manor. In the course of social and economic change, 
 the expense of this vicarious management became 
 so great as to leave little or no profit for the lord, 
 and a new expedient suggested itself. The bailiff 
 
 ' For the freemen's obligations to the lord, see Sir H. Maint-'s 
 paper in a recent number of the Fortnightly Ecvkio. 
 
Fkom the Joint Family to the Village. 269 
 
 was dispensed with, and the cultivation of the land 
 was given out in jDortions to the more substantial 
 serfs and others, on the terms of the lord providing 
 the cattle, implements, and other cultivating capital 
 (including seed grain), and the cultivator (now 
 become farmer) remunerating the lord partly by 
 money payments and partly by a share of the 
 produce. 
 
 In some parts of Europe this led to a permanent 
 metayer system, but in England it did not last long. 
 The farming class speedily acquired capital enough 
 to find themselves in cattle, &c., and to take in 
 hire the cultivation or use of the land for a simple 
 annual payment of money, i.e. rent. And thus 
 the ownership of land became permanently di?- 
 tinsuished from the use and cultivation of it under 
 
 o 
 
 contract with the owner; and the landlord and 
 farmer became two grades of persons detiliug with 
 the same commodity, namely, the owner of it un- 
 sTcilled in using it, and the hirer of it for use. 
 On the other hand, those serfs who did not 
 
liTO Frovt the Joint Family to the Villahe. 
 
 succeed in rising to the position of the farmer in the 
 end sunlf to be mere labourers, subsisting solely on 
 \\'ages earned by doing for the farmer, and under his 
 directions and control, the manual work of tilling 
 the soil. 
 
 As long as right to land was inseparably asso- 
 ciated with personal use of it, there was no thought 
 of alienating it at the will of the person to whom 
 the use belonged, Imt when it became a mere 
 commodity, which was only valuable for as much 
 as it would bring on being let out, then of course 
 it also became fn-ely alienable like any other 
 commodii'y. 
 
 This stage seems never to have been reached in 
 the course of the purely orientnl development. It 
 is, however, hardly too much to say that in India the 
 tendency of the natural economic and social forces 
 of the country, if allowed free play and given time, 
 ^^•ould have been to malce the land a commodity in 
 the hands of the village cultivator, or perhaps even 
 of the mahajan, rather than in those of the zamindar. 
 
From the Joint Family to the Village. 271 
 
 But in Bengal the Permanent Settlement which 
 gave an artificial right to the zamindars and the 
 English civil courts which recognise the power of 
 alienating every personal right capable of definition, 
 have introduced disturbing forces of immense effect ; 
 and it would be rash indeed to attempt to foretell 
 the ultimate result which may be expected in the 
 course of progress if the Legislature should not again 
 interfere. All that can be safely said is that the pre- 
 sent is eminently a period of transition. The political 
 consequences to which I just now referred would 
 alone afford a very large subject for discussion. 
 
 In the East, under the village system, the people 
 practically governed themselves, and the contest for 
 power among the Chiefs of the noble class was 
 mainly a struggle for command of the Ivchaliri 
 talils, the contents of which were &pent in personal 
 indulgence, royal magnificence, and splendid monu- 
 ments to the glory of the successful competitor. 
 
 In the West, such government of the people and 
 administration of public affairs as there was, fell to 
 
272 Feovi the Joixt Family to the Village. 
 
 the lord and his couits. Tliere were no collections, 
 and a great portion of the means of naaintainini;' 
 and working the machinery of authority had to be 
 obtained by some system of levy and taxation. 
 
 These two differing sets of conditions led neces- 
 sarily to intrinsically different political developments ; 
 and the presence of Turkey in Europe has caused the 
 comparative analysis of them to be deserving of 
 more attention than it has yet received. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 Aftee tlie text was written, the following memo- 
 randum was received by tlie author from Baboo Ram 
 Sundar Basack, of Dacca. It very clearly describes 
 the means of agricultural families in Eastern Bengal, 
 and deserves to be printed in full : — 
 
 Ordinary ryots may be divided into three classes in 
 consideration of their household assets. 
 
 1st. — Those who cultivate fifteen bigas and upwards 
 and have a family, say of one or two brothers and 
 four or five grown-up sons. 
 
 2wd. — Those who cultivate about eight or ten bigas 
 and have about three or four male adults in the 
 family. 
 
 3rd. — Those who have one son or brother or nobody 
 to assist them and cannot therefore cultivate more 
 than four or five bigas. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 APPENDIX. 
 
 Often a ryot having no other adult male in the 
 family to assist him has capital enough to employ 
 labourers, in which case he belongs to the first or 
 second class. 
 
 The numl)er of first class ryots is very small, of 
 second class there is a larger number. The majority 
 belong to the third class. 
 
 Below the thiixl class there is a large number who 
 may be regarded as labourers more properly than as 
 regular cultivators, who have one or two bigas of land, 
 but sustain themselves and family principally by 
 working for others on hire. 
 
 The first class have geneiallv four thatched houses 
 in good condition to inclose the quadrangle together, 
 with three oi- four out-houses to seive as the dhen- 
 kighur, cowshed, and gola. The principal one among 
 the four houses inclosing the C[uadrangle generally 
 cost Rs. 30 or 40, the labour being supplied by them- 
 selves. The other houses cost generally about Rs. 20 
 nr 25. On the whole, therefore, the am.ount spent on 
 the erection of the houses belonging to such a family 
 may be valued at Rs. 1.50 or 175. 
 
 In a second class family the number of out-houses 
 besides the four forming the cjuadiangle is not more 
 than one or two. On the whole, their value may be 
 estimated at Rs. 100 or 125. 
 
 A third class ryot has one or two houses with a 
 cowshed, or one or two single thatched houses to serve 
 
APPENDIX. 277 
 
 as kitchen, dhenkigliiii-, &c. The value of these houses 
 may be put down at Rs. 30 or 40. 
 
 These values are estimated at the cost of erection ; 
 if sold in good condition they generally fetch less 
 than those amounts, but their sale price vaiies ex- 
 ceedingly in consideration of their condition, situation, 
 and demand, &c. 
 
 A first class ryot has generally a brass kalsi, three or 
 four lotahs, four or five thalas, one or two batis, one 
 boughna, one or two iron pans.' 
 
 The quantity of brass forming these utensils would 
 be about twelve or fifteen seers. When bought the 
 cost per seer varies from Re. 1 8a. to Rs. 2. When sold 
 the price varies from annas 12 to Re. 1 4a. per seer. 
 On the whole the value of these utensils may be put 
 down at Rs. 20. 
 
 The ii'on basins and one or two china plates in 
 the case of Muhammadans, and country earthenware 
 pots and dishes, may be valued at a couple of rupees. 
 
 Baskets and other utensils made of bamboos or 
 cane-work, such as jhakee, dalli, kula, dalla, and katta 
 (^^) S'Qcl dhama, or measure of capacity, may be 
 valued at one rupee. 
 
 1 Kalsi — a large watei-pot. 
 Lotah or pali — a tumbler, 
 Thalas — plates. 
 Bati— a cup. 
 Boughnas — brass vessels. 
 
278 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the case of second class ryots the total quantity 
 of brass would Le about eight or ten seers, and may 
 be valued at Rs. 8 12 or 15. The other clas.s of 
 utensils may be valued at Es. 2. 
 
 A third cla.ss ryot has generally one or two brass 
 lotahs, one or two thalas, sometimes a boughna. The 
 tetal quantity may be put down at five seers and be 
 valued at Es. 8. 
 
 The earthen and bamboo-work utensils may be 
 estimated at Es. 2, i.e. the sume as the second class ; 
 for the want of brass utensils has to be supplied by 
 a larger number of these. 
 
 Among ryots of the first class a few only have any- 
 thing like the sinduk, which is an invariable accom- 
 paniment of the house of a tiading class in the village. 
 The price of one varies from Es. 15 to 20. Instead of 
 the regular family sinduks, ' most of the ryots of this 
 class have one small chest of mangoe or other inferior 
 wood, and one or two petaras (constructed of matted 
 cane). The price of these varies from Es. 2 to 4, and 
 the petaras also cost the same amoiuit. In addition 
 to these, most ryots or their females have one or 
 two small wooden or tin Ijoses to keep cash, orna- 
 ments, or other valualjles. The price of the.se would 
 be about a rupee and a half. On the whole, therefore, 
 the total value of these chests, Ijnxes, Arc, may be set 
 down at Es. 6 or 8. 
 
 ' Sinduks — wooden chests. 
 
APPENDIX. 279 
 
 Second class families have generallj' a petara and a 
 small box or two valued at about Rs. 3 or 4. 
 
 Third class ryots may be said not to have any of 
 these, except jhaels or small petaras in some cases, 
 valued at about a rupee and a half. 
 
 The general custom is to keep the valuables hidden 
 in earthenware pots kept either under the ground or 
 outside. 
 
 With the exception of a very few, the ryots have no 
 chowkees or charpoys, the general custom being with 
 the ryots in churs to have fixed manchau.s or fixed 
 bamboo platforms, &c., in the case of lyots living in 
 Ashali land to spread moulas, hoglas, chatais, patees 
 or sowp on the floor at night for the bedding. A. 
 moula cost about three annas, and a patee or sowp 
 six or eight annas. The number depends on the 
 number of persons in a family. One rupee for each 
 family may be taken as the average value of spreading* 
 for all classes of ryots. All ryots use chhala,« or gunny 
 bags to sit upon, which are, when occasion requires, 
 used also to hold grains. 
 
 There are seats of various kinds made of liamboo 
 
 slips, canes, and splinters of betel-nut tree, and of small 
 
 planks called peera (F'TOl) or low stools. These are so 
 
 small in size that they can hold only one man on each. 
 
 Each ryot, male or female, has two dhutees ' of 
 
 iff?s (Dhutee) a piece of Manchester cloth, known in the 
 bazaar as longcloth or American drill. 
 
280 APPENDIX. 
 
 coarse Manclieister cloth for ordinary use while out of 
 work uliout twelve feet long and three feet broad. Besides 
 these well-to-do families, especially the females among 
 them, have country sharees and zenana coats, and men 
 chaddars, sometimes pccraus. For the winter season 
 the elderly men and women have chaddars of thick 
 cloth, while at work they use very narrow and short 
 gamchas or worn-out clothes turned into smaller size. 
 There is no difference among the different classes with 
 res^ject to the clothes i)ossessed by a family except so 
 far as dejiends ujjon the number of individuals in 
 each. The average value of clothes belonging to each 
 individual, male or female, may be set down at Es. 2. 
 In a th'st class family consisting of about twelve per- 
 sons, four of whom may be left out of consideration, in 
 consideration of the different persons wearing the same 
 clothes, the value may l)e put down at lis. 15 or 16. 
 
 In second class families consisting of about seven per- 
 sons, of whom three may be left out of consideration, the 
 average value of clothes may lie put down at Es. 8 or 0. 
 
 Jftns (Shari) a pii'ui' nl' cloth put on by woiul'ii having bol■ll^l■^ 
 
 of (lift'erent colours. 
 FlTf^ (Chadars) or shrrt — a iiit-cc of Aiurrican drill or loug- 
 
 eloth measuring about nhio ft'et in length. 
 f'T^'tf) (IVi'ian) or shirt — a coat nrwiy introduced into fasliicm 
 
 of Aincvican drill or longcloth. 
 'Tt^'^ (Gamcha) or napkin, or a piece of cloth shnrt in hread'di 
 
 and length. 
 ^■I^Jfl (Kantha) ^uilt stuffed with rags. 
 
APPENDIX. 281 
 
 In third class families consisting of two or three 
 individuals, the value of clothes may be put down at 
 Rs. 4 or 5. 
 
 In addition to these Rk. 3, 2, and 1 may be taken 
 as the average value of leps (quilt), kanthas, and 
 pillows belong to a family of first, second, and third 
 class ryot respectively. 
 
 Adult males u.se no ornaments. Boys have sometimes 
 brass or silver bangles for the hands and mandulees 
 or patta to hang from the neck. "Women use orna- 
 ments ' of various kinds made of gold or silver and 
 sometimes of brass. On the whole, the value of orna- 
 ments belonging to a first class family may be set 
 down at Es. 40 or 50. Women whose husbands are 
 living, when Muhammadans use churi of silver or of 
 lac, and when Hindu, a pair of shell bracelets. 
 
 Second class family about Rs. 30, and third class 
 family about Ks. 10 or 15. 
 
 •^ST (Nath) a ring for the nose. 
 
 i^7{il (Besar) an ornament hung from the nose. 
 
 Ift»l1 (Dana) beads for the neck used by Hindus, but very 
 
 seldom. 
 ^■jHlJf (Kalse) for arms. 
 
 5lt7l (Balla) bangles. 
 
 ^m (Mul) or kharu-anklets. 
 
 pf^ (Churi) bracelet used by Muhammadans. 
 
 ■^"t^rf^ (Hash) a large ring round the neck. 
 
282 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the cookhouse ' there is scarcely any article ex- 
 cept pata and puta for grinding condiments in addition 
 to l)r;iss and earthen pot,s. These, along with dhenki, 
 ukti, and mosal (a large wooden mortar and pe.stle), 
 may be valued at aljout Rs. 3 in each family. 
 
 Ryots generally keep, according to their circum- 
 stance.s, quantity of rice, mustard, ifcc, for consumjjtion 
 during the year, and seeds for next year's cultivation. 
 The value may be set down for a first-class family, 
 Rs. 90 or 100, for second class, Rs. 40 or 50, for a 
 third class, Rs. 2.5. 
 
 A first class family possesses about eight or ten cows 
 and bullocks, sometim.es a. couple of goats or sheep. 
 In the case of JMuhammadans li number of fowls. A 
 second class family possesses four or five cows, and a 
 third (.lass, two or three. 
 
 The value of cattle in a first class family may be 
 
 Tt^l (Pata)— a flat stoue. 
 
 ■5^]^ (Puta) — a stone muUar. 
 
 TJp'^ (Ghotee) — a brass or earthen watur-pot. 
 
 3^^ (Eaing)— an earthuu pot usf.l in cooking rice. 
 
 ttf^ (Patil)— an (jarthen la^in used in cooking curry. 
 
 *t^ (Shara) — an rartlien cover for a pot. 
 
 ^l-SIISl (Jhajree)— an earthen vtssel for straining «atiT when 
 
 washing rice, &c. 
 ■^vsl (Hatta) — an ii-on or wooden ladle or spoon used in cooking. 
 ^*M (Bowh^e) an iron tongs used in catching pots when warm. 
 vsl'^f^ (Tagaree) a wooden boni tor holding things cooked. 
 
APPENDIX. 283 
 
 put down at Es. 70, in a second class family, Es. 40, 
 and in a third class family, Es. 20. 
 
 A first class family possesses about eight or ten 
 ploughs and three or four harrows, valued at Es. 8. 
 
 The value for a second and third class family may 
 be put down at Es. 5 and 3 respectively. 
 
 A first class family possesses generally three daos, 
 four or five kachees, two kodalees or spades, one 
 khuntee (a digging hoe) and an axe. The value may 
 be put down at Es. 5. 
 
 Second and third class families possess these articles 
 in less numbers, and the value may be put down at 
 Es. 3 and 2 respectively. 
 
 The ryots living in low lands and fields, &c., watered 
 by annual inundation, and on river side, have gener- 
 ally a dingee (a small boat), the value of which may 
 be set down at Es. 10 to 30. 
 
 The fii'st and second class ryots only possess such 
 dingee, but third class ryots very seldom. 
 
 With respect to the large class below the third, it 
 may be said generally that they have a single house, 
 a brass lota or thalla, or a stone or wooden plate and 
 cane or bamboo basket, &c., and nothing in the way 
 of a sinduk or charpoys ; one or two mats and kanthas 
 and pillows and a couple of dhutees, a plough, a har- 
 row, a dao, a kodalee, a kachee and sometimes a cow 
 or two. The value of all these in average may be 
 estimated at Es. 25. 
 

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NOTE B. 
 
 A FULL representation of a jama handi in its com- 
 pletest form could only be giv-en on a folded page of 
 inconvenient size, but perhaps some idea of it may be 
 conveyed by the following explanation. 
 
 Suppose a given ryot to be one Moti Lall Gopi, and 
 the different items of his rent for the current year 
 to be exhibited thus : — 
 
 Description of land. 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 Rate. 
 
 Amount 
 of Rent. 
 
 
 Big. Cot 
 
 Bs. As. P. 
 
 Bs. As. P. 
 
 Sali, rice land, first quality... 
 
 2 10 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 Ditto, second quality 
 
 1 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 2 2 
 
 Ditto, third quality 
 
 71 
 
 2 4 
 
 13 10 
 
 Bamboo 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 4 8 
 
 Waste 
 
 2 15 
 
 10 
 
 2 4 
 
 Homestead 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 Compound 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 Excavation 
 
 54 
 
 10 
 
 4 8 
 
 4 14 15 
 
 
 20 11 
 
 In the jama handi all these will be given in parallel 
 columns ; thus the first column will give the name, 
 next come four columns containing respectively, 
 description of land, quantity, rate, and rent in respect 
 of the Sali, first quality ; then four more for the Sali^ 
 
-lob APPENDIX 
 
 second quality, and so on ; in all, this "vvill make thirty- 
 three columns ; then will come a column for the total 
 quantity of land, namely, four bigas, fourteen cottas, 
 fifteen gandas ; after this the column for the total rent ; 
 next again two columns for the total land and total rent 
 for the previous year ; then a column for the amount 
 of rent paid in respect of that j-ear ; then a column 
 for arrears, and finally a column for the total rent 
 due, say forty columns altogether. And there may 
 be even more than this number, if, as is the ease in 
 some zamindaries, the alteration in each particular item 
 of land, as compared with the corresponding item of 
 the preceding year, and alteration in the rates of rent, 
 if any, and also the different suljjeets of arreai's are all 
 enteied separately. And if the jama batuli is that 
 made on behalf of an undivided shareholder of a tenure, 
 all the separate shares, the amount jiayable by each 
 ryot towards each of them, and so on, will also be 
 given in proper columns. The names of the ryots are 
 written in succession, one under the other, and all the 
 columns are appropriately filled up against each name. 
 Against a subtenure-holder only the name of his 
 tenure, the amount of the rent, and the portions pavable 
 to each shai-eholder, are entered. 
 
 The jama handi thus furnishes at a glance all the 
 facts in classified detail, relevant and incidental to 
 the collection of the rent of the estate for the current 
 year. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 Ail. — An earthen balk or ridge, dividing one plot of cul- 
 tivated ground from another — generally very narrow, 
 but sometimes broad enough for a trackwaj'. 
 
 Amla. — The servants or officers, either individually or col- 
 lectively, of a zamindar's kachahri or estate-office. 
 
 Arliar. — A kind of pulse {cytisus cajan) grown for food. 
 
 Asan, or Ashan. — A square piece of carpet. 
 
 Badmdash. — One who is disreputable. 
 
 Baliangi. — A bamboo furnished with cords at each end, by 
 means of which luggage is carried slung across the 
 shoulder. 
 
 Ba'dliahhanah. — The sitting-room, or public portion of a 
 native dwelling-house. 
 
 Bi,ri. — A dwelling-house — homestead. 
 
 Bau. — Young married girl. 
 
 Bhadra log. — Bespectable well-to-do people. 
 
 Bh&t. — Boiled rice. 
 
 Bigha. — A measure of land : in Bengal it is equivalent to 
 about one-third of an acre. 
 
 Bonti. — A broad sickle-shaped knifeblade, fixed vertically 
 
 U 
 
290 GLOSSARy. 
 
 into a heavy wooden stand. In use, the stand is held 
 firm by the feet, and the fish, vegetable, straw or other 
 article to be cleaned, sliced, or cut up, is with the hand 
 duly worked against the concave cutting edge thus 
 made fast. 
 Broto. — A self-imposed exercise of a devotional character — 
 obligation, vow. 
 
 Chadr, or Chcular. — A sheet, or cloth. 
 
 Charpoy. — A frame of wood, having a web of tape or cord 
 stretched across it, and resting upon four short legs. 
 
 Chriulirlar. — The village watchman, or constable. 
 
 Cliela. — A disciple of a Mohant. 
 
 Chiftha. — Memorandum — name of a business book used in 
 the management of a zamindar's property, in which 
 measurements and other like information are entered. 
 
 CJii'tJIia. — A fireplace built up of clay. 
 
 Cowrie. — See Kauri. 
 
 DaftarJJiana. — An ofEce or room in which books of account 
 and registers are kept. 
 
 Dahi. — Thickened milk. 
 
 D(h)a. — Grain. 
 
 Ddlaif. — One of a gang of robbers. 
 
 Dahiit'i. — Gang robbery. 
 
 Dal. — Split peas, or any other split pulse. 
 
 Ihilhi.—R&\\. 
 
 Dao. — Billhook, or cleaver. 
 
 DcfirJii. — Anteroom at the entrance door or gateway of a 
 house, where the daftarkhana usually is. 
 
 DMn. — The rice plant, or the rice grain unhusked. 
 
 Dheiil'l. — An instrument, which in its essential parts is a 
 pestle and mortar ; it is chiefly used to husk and clean rice. 
 
GLOSSARY. 291 
 
 Dhoti. — ^Tlie cloth worn round the loins. 
 
 Gaddi. — A seat. 
 
 Gamla. — An open earthen vessel. 
 
 Ghara. — A necked, narrow-mouthed, earthen vessel. 
 
 Gh&t. — The landing slope, or steps, on the bank of a river, 
 
 or of a tank, the pass up a mountain or ridge of hills, 
 
 sometimes the line of hill itself. 
 Godla.— One who keeps cows and sells milk. 
 Gola. — A hut, or place in which grain is stored ; generally 
 
 circular in form. 
 Gomashta. — Generally agent, one who carries on business for 
 
 another — a zamindar's servant employed in collecting 
 
 village rents is often so called. 
 Gour. — See Gurh. 
 Gm-h. — Coarse sugar of date tree, &o., hardened into a cake — 
 
 molasses. 
 Hdt. — A market. 
 Hookha. — See Hukha. 
 Hulcha, or Koohka. — A form of pipe for [smoking 
 
 tobacco. 
 Jdgir, Jdghir. — A service tenure of land or revenue. 
 Jalkar-wAla. — One who has rights of fishing. 
 Jamma, or Jama. — The aggregate of payments made for land 
 
 in the year — the total rent. 
 Jama-handi. — The assessment or detailed representation of 
 
 the rents settled in an estate, village, or district. 
 Javia-w&sil-bdki. — An account paper showing simultane- 
 ously the full rent, the amount collected and the 
 
 amount of arrears, in respect of an estate, village, 
 
 or district. 
 Jangal, or Jungle.— Forest, a wood, any tract, small or great. 
 
292 GLOSSARY. 
 
 in which the natural growth of trees, bushes, and 
 
 vegetation is undisturbed. 
 Jote, or Jot.— Bot\\ the land, which the cultivator tills, and his 
 
 tenure of it are often termed his jote. 
 Kabirdj. — A Hindu physician . 
 Kabuly at. —The counterpart of a pottah, or lease, given by 
 
 the tenant to his landlord. 
 KacJiahri, Cutcherry. — A court or office where public busi- 
 ness, or the business of a zauiindar's estate, is 
 
 done. 
 Kachclia. — Untranslatable. Eaw, crude, immature, incom- 
 plete. 
 Kaiia. — The member of the joint-family who manages the 
 
 family property. 
 Kathah. — A professional story-teller; one who recites 
 
 traditional poems, &c. 
 Kauri {Cuwiii). — A small sliell (njpnea) used as money. 
 Khdl. — A water channel. 
 
 Khatiijdn. — An account book of the nature of a ledger. 
 Kliet. — A plot of cultivated arable land. 
 Kid. — An instalment, portion of a whole ; annual rent and 
 
 revenue is almost universally paid in fixed kists in the 
 
 course of the year. 
 Koddl, or Kinldli. — A hoe, by means of which the work of 
 
 the spade, the shovel, and the hoe alike is done. 
 Ldtlu, or Ldttee. — A stick or bludgeon, usual]}' of bamboo, 
 
 heavily ringed and feruled with uietal. 
 Mafiissal, or J\{ufiissil. — Quite untranslatable. The country 
 
 as opposed to the town. The subordinate as opposed to 
 
 the principal. 
 MaMjrtri. — Merchant, money-dealer — one who makes it a 
 
GLOSSAEY. 293 
 
 business in the villages to advance money and grain to 
 
 the cultivator on the pledge of crops. 
 Mahalla. — A division of a town, a quarter. 
 Maidan. — An open grass-covered space. 
 Majlis. — An assembly. 
 Mandal. — The village headman. 
 
 Mandap. — An open-sided roofed structure, or building. 
 Mandir. — A temple. 
 
 Mantra. — A passage from the Veda ; a prayer. 
 Masala. —Spice, seasoning. 
 Masjid. — A mosque. 
 Math. — An endowed temple or shrine. 
 Math. — The open arable plain, which forms the cultivated 
 
 land of the village. 
 Mauza. — A village and its lands. 
 3Iodi. — Village shopkeeper. 
 Mohant. — The superior of a math. 
 
 Moharari. — That which is fixed or established — permanent. 
 Morha. — A stool. 
 Miilla, or Muldna. — One who has charge of the village 
 
 mosque, Muhammadan schoolmaster. 
 Naib. — Deputy or representative — the head oflScer or steward 
 
 representing the zamindar in the management of large 
 
 zamindaries. 
 Nirkh. — A standard or customary rate, as of rent, &o. 
 Oothdn. — See Uthiln. 
 PaMa.— The opposite to hachcha, and equally untranslatable. 
 
 Ripe, mature, complete. 
 Folia. — A turn, as of worship, or enjoyment of property. 
 Pamc/i/tJ/af.— Untranslatable. Literally a set of five persons, 
 
 it has come to designate a body of caste men, of villagere 
 
294< GLOSSARY. 
 
 or others, who deal with and settle disputes relating to 
 
 caste, occupation, and so on. 
 Patta, or Pottah. — A lease. 
 PatwAri. — One who keeps the collection papers of a mouzah 
 
 or village ; and commonly also makes the collections of 
 
 the village. 
 Peon—fm- Piada, footman. — It is the usual designation of 
 
 inferior servants of a zamindar or landholder. 
 Pitarn. — A wickerwork, or otherwise slightly-constructed box 
 
 of peculiar shape. 
 Puja {Poojah). — Worship. 
 Purohit. — The family priest. 
 Sahi, or Rubhee. — The March and April period of the year ; 
 
 the harvest season of the crops which were sown or 
 
 planted after the cessation of the monsoon rains in 
 
 September or October of the preceding year. 
 Raiyat. — Originally a subject, but now the universal term 
 
 for cultivator of the soil — peasant. 
 Rubhee. — See Eabi. 
 Ryot. — See Raiyat. 
 
 SaiifJul,; or Sinduh.^A. wooden chest. 
 Shddl— Nuptial ceremony. 
 Shdmaina. — Tent canvas stretched horizontally across, 
 
 as a covering, from side to side of a quadrangle, or 
 
 from top to top of poles, firmlj^ fixed in the ground — 
 
 awning. 
 Shr&ddha. — An obsequial ceremony in which food and water 
 
 are offered to deceased ancestors. 
 Tahhtaposh. — A low platform or sitting-place. 
 Tdliiq. — A dependenc}'. 
 Tdri, nr Tddi, vulgarly toddy.— The juice of the palm tree, 
 
GLOSSARY. 295 
 
 both fermented and unfermented. Spirit made from 
 
 other sources is also called Tari. 
 Tehsildar, or Tahsildar. — One who collects rents or revenue. 
 ThdJmr. — A representation of the deity, an idol, also title of 
 
 honour, lord, chief. 
 ThdkurhAri. — Chamber or house occupied by an idol. 
 Thai. — A metal plate or dish. 
 Top, or Tope, or Topu. — A grove or group of fruit-bearing 
 
 trees. 
 TJtbandi-jama. — Rent according to the land actually tilled, 
 
 when land tilled one year is allowed to lie fallow the 
 
 next. 
 UAAn. — ^The open house-space inclosed by the huts of u 
 
 homestead. 
 Zamindar. — Landholder 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDUS : 
 
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 JEENS. 8vo. \%s. 
 
 Blanford (W. T.)— GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY OF 
 ABYSSINIA. By W. T. Blanford. 8vo. i\s. 
 
 Bronte. — charlotte BRONTE. a Monograph. By T. 
 Wemyss Reid. With Illustrations. Third Edition. Crown 
 8vo. ds. 
 
 Brooke. — THE RAJA OF SARAWAK : an Account of Sir 
 James Brooke, K.C.B., LL.D. Given chiefly through Letters 
 or Journals. By Gertrude L. Jacob. With Portrait and 
 Maps. Two Vols. 8vo. 25^-. 
 
 Bryce. — Works by James Bryce, D.C.L., Regius Professor of 
 Civil Law, Oxford : — 
 THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Sixth Edition, Revised and 
 
 Enlarged. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d. , , ■ , 
 
 "It exactly supplies a want: it affords a key to much which men 
 f-ead of in -their books as isolated facts, hut of which they have hitherto 
 had no connected exposition set before ^/!««. "— S ATU rday Review. 
 
4 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 B ry C e . — continued. 
 
 TRANSCAUCASIA AND ARARAT: being Notes of a Vacation 
 Tour in the Autumn of 1876. With an Illustration and Map. 
 Third Edition. Crown 8vo. gj. 
 
 "Mr. Bryce has written a lively and at the same time an instructive 
 description of the tour he made last year in and about the Caucasus. When 
 so well-informed a jurist travels into regions seldom visited, and even 
 walks up a 7nountain so rarely scaled as Ararat, he is justified in think- 
 ing that the impressions he brings ho?ne are worthy of being communicated 
 to the world at large, especially when a terrible war is casting a lurid glow 
 ever the countries !ie has lately surveyed.^' — Athen^um. 
 
 Burgoyne. — POLITICAL AND MILITARY EPISODES 
 DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE REIGN OF 
 GEORGE HI. Derived from the Life and CoiTespondence of 
 the Right Hon. J. Burgoyne, Lieut. -General in his Majesty's 
 Army, and M.P. for Preston, By E. B. de Fonelanque. With 
 Portrait, Heliotype Plate, and Maps. 8vo. i6j. 
 
 Burke. — EDMUND burke, a Historical Study. By JOHN 
 MoRLEY, B.A., Oxon. Crown 8vo. 7^. (>d. 
 
 Burrows. — WORTHIES OF ALL SOULS : Four Centuries of 
 English History. Illustrated from the College Archives. By 
 Montagu Burrows, Chichele Professor of Modern History at 
 Oxford, Fellow of All Souls. Svo. i+r. 
 "A most amusing as well as a most instructive book. — Guardian. 
 
 Cameron.— OUR future highway. By v. Lovett 
 
 Cameron, C.B., Commander R.N. With Illustrations. 2 vols. 
 Crown Svo. \Shortly. 
 
 Campbell. — LOG-LETTERS FROM THE " CHALLENGER." 
 By Lord George Campbell. With Map. Fifth and cheaper 
 Edition. Crown Svo. ds. 
 "A delightful book, which we heartily commend to the general reader.^' 
 — Saturday Review. 
 
 " We do not hesitate to say that anything so fresh, so picturesque, so 
 generally delightful, as these log-letters has not appeared among books 
 travel for a long time.'''' — Examiner. 
 
 Campbell.— MY CIRCULAR NOTES : Extracts from Journals ; 
 Letters sent Home ; G-iological and other Notes, written while 
 Travelling Westwards round the World, from July 6th, 1 874, to 
 July 6th, 1875. 5^7 J- F. Campbell, Author of "Frost and 
 Fire." Cheaper Issue. Crown Svo. ds. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. s 
 
 Campbell. — TURKS AND GREEKS. Notes of a recent Ex- 
 cursion. By the Hon. Dudley Campbell, M.A. With Coloured 
 Map. Crown 8vo. ■^s. dd. 
 
 Carpenter. — LIFE AND WORK OF MARY CARPENTER 
 By the Rev. J. E. Carpenter. With Portrait engraved by 
 Jeens. Crowai 8vo. {Shortly. 
 
 Carstares. — WILLIAM CARSTARES : a character and Career 
 of the Revolutionary Epoch (1649— 1715). By Robert Story, 
 Minister of Rosneath. 8vo. I2j-. 
 
 Chatterton : a biographical study. By danikl 
 
 Wilson, LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in 
 University College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. ds. 6d. 
 
 Chatterton: a STORY OF ^THE YEAR 1770. By Professor 
 Masson, LL.D. Crown 8vo. t,s. 
 
 Clark.— MEMORIALS FROM JOURNALS AND LETTERS 
 OF SAMUEL CLARK, M.A., formerly Principal of the 
 National Society's Training College, Battersea. Edited with 
 Introduction by his Wife. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. ^s. dd. 
 
 Clifford (W. K.)— LECTURES AND ESSAYS. Edited by 
 Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock, with Introduction 
 by F. Pollock. Two Portraits. 2 vols. 8vo. 25^. 
 The Times of October 22, 1879, says .— " Many a friend of the 
 author on first taking up these volumes and remembering his versatile 
 penius and his keen enjoyment of all realms of intellectual activity must 
 have trembled lest they should be found to consist of fragmentary pieces of 
 work too disconnected to do justice to his powers of consecutive reasoning 
 and too varied to have any effect as a whole. Fortuna'ely those fears are 
 groundless .... It is not only in subject that the various papers are 
 closely related. There is also a singular consistency of view and of method 
 throughout .... It is in the social and metaphysical subjects that the 
 richness of his intellect shows itself most forcibly in the variety and 
 originality of the ideas tuhich he presents to us. To apprecmte this variety, 
 it is necessary to read the book itself, for it treats, in some form or other, of 
 nearly all the subjects of deepest Merest in this age of questioning. 
 
 Combe. — THE LIFE OF GEORGE COMBE, Author of "The 
 Constitution of Man." By Charles Gibbon. With Three 
 Portraits engraved by Jeens. Two Vols. 8vo. 32J. 
 "A graphic and interesting account of the long life and indefatigable 
 
 labours of a very remarkable man." — Scotsman. 
 
6 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Cooper. — ATHENE CANTABRIGIENSES. By Charles 
 Henry Cooper, F.S.A., and Thompson Cooper, F.S.A. 
 Vol. I. 8vo., 1500—85, iSj. ; Vol. II., 1586— 1609, i8j-. 
 
 Correggio. — ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA CORREGGIO. From 
 the Gemian of Dr. Julius Meyer, Director of the Royal Gallery, 
 Berlin. Edited, with an Introduction, by Mrs. Heaton. Con- 
 taining Twenty Woodbury-type Illustrations. Royal 8vo. Cloth 
 elegant. 3IJ. 6d. 
 
 Cox (G. V.) — RECOLLECTIONS OF OXFORD. By G. 
 V. Cox, M.A., New College, late Esquire Bedel and Coroner 
 in the University of Oxford. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 Cunynghame (Sir A. T.) — MY COMMAND IN SOUTH 
 
 AFRICA, 1874 — 78. Comprising Experiences of Travel in the 
 Colonies of South Africa and the Independent States. By Sir 
 Arthur Thurlow Cunynghame, G.C.B., then Lieutenant- 
 Governor and Commander of the Forces in South Africa. Third 
 Edition. 8vo. \2s. dd. 
 The Times says : — "It is a volume of great interest, .... full of 
 inoidents which vividly illustrate the condition of the Colonies and the 
 character and habits of the natives It contains valuable illus- 
 trations of Cape warfare, and at the present moment it cannot fail to 
 command wide-spread attention." 
 
 " Daily News." — THE DAILY NEWS' CORRESPOND- 
 ENCE of the War between Germany and France, 1870 — I. Edited 
 ■\vith Notes and Comments. New Edition. Complete in One 
 Volume. With Maps and Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE DAILY NEWS' CORRESPONDENCE of the War between 
 Russia and Turkey, to the fall of Kars. Including the letters of 
 Mr. Archibald Forbes, Mr. J. E. McGahan, and other Special 
 Correspondents in Europe and Asia, Second Edition, enlarged. 
 Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 FROM THE FALL OF KARS TO THE CONCLUSION OF 
 PEACE. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Davidson. — the life OF a SCOTTISH PROBATIONER; 
 being a Memoir of Thomas Davidson, with his Poems and 
 Letters. By James Brown, Minister of St. James's Street 
 Church, Paisley. Second Edition, revised and enlarged, with 
 Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7^. 6d, 
 
 Deas. — THE RIVER CLYDE. An Historical Description of the 
 Rise and Progress of the Harbour of Glasgow, and of the Im- 
 provement of the River from Glasgow to Port Glasgow, By J. 
 Deas, M, Inst. C.E. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVE LS, ETC. 7 
 
 Denison.— A HISTORY OF CAVALRY FROM THE EAR- 
 LIEST TIMES. With Lessons for the Future. By Lieut -Col. 
 George Denison, Commanding tlie Governor-General's Body 
 Guard, Canada, Author of " Modern Cavalry." With Maps and 
 rlans. 8vo. iSj. 
 
 Dilke.— GREATER BRITAIN. A Record of Travel in English- 
 speaking Countries during 1866-7. (America, Australia, India. 
 By Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, M.P. Sixth Edition- 
 Crown 8vo. 6f. 
 " Many of the subjects discussed in these pages," savs the Daily News, 
 " are of the widest interest, and such as no man who cares for the future 
 of his race and of the world can afford to treat with indifference." 
 
 Doyle. — HISTORY OF AMERICA. By J. A. Doyle. With 
 Maps. iSmo. 4?. dd. 
 "Mr. Doyle's style is clear and simple, his facts are accurately stated, 
 and his book is meritoriously free from prejudice on questions whci-e 
 partisanship runs high amongst us." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Drummond of Hawthornden : THE STORY OF HIS 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS. By Professor Masson. With Por- 
 trait and Vignette engraved by C. H. Jeens. Crown 8vo. lOs. 6d. 
 
 Duff. — Works by M. E. Grant-Duff, M.P., late Under Secretary 
 of State for India : — 
 
 NOTES OF AN INDIAN JOURNEY. With Map. 8vo. loj-. 6d. 
 
 MISCELLANIES POLITICAL AND LITERARY. Svo. iqs. 6d, 
 
 Eadie.— LIFE OF JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D. By James 
 Brown, D.D., Author ot "The Life of a Scottish Probationer." 
 With Portrait. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. js, dd. 
 "An ablywiilten and characteristic biography." — Times. 
 
 Elliott. — LIFE OF HENRY VENN ELLIOTT, of Brighton. 
 By JosiAH Bateman, M.A. With Portrait, engraved by Jeens. 
 Extra fcap. Svo. Third and Cheaper Edition, bs. 
 
 Elze. — ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE. Ey Dr. Karl Elze. 
 Translated with the Author's sanction by L. Dora Schmitz. 
 Svo. I2s. 
 
 English Men of Letters. Edited by Junx Moeley. a 
 
 Series of Short Books to tell people what is best worth knowing 
 as to the Life, Character, and Works of some of the great 
 English Writers. In crown Svo. Price 2s. 6d. each. 
 
MACMILLAlsrs CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 English Men of Letters. — continued. 
 
 I. DR. JOHNSON. By Leslie Stephen. 
 
 " The new sei-ks opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen! s sketch of Dr. 
 Johnson. It could hardly have been done better ; and it will convey to 
 the readers for whom it is intended a jnster estimate of fohnson than 
 either of the two essays of Lord Macaulay " — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 II. SIR WALTER SCOTT. By R. H. Hutton. 
 
 " The tone of the volume is excellent throughout." — AtheN/EUM. 
 
 ** We could not wish for a more sjigi^estive introduction to Scotland 
 his poems and novels." — Examiner. 
 
 IIL GIBBON. By J. C. MoRisoN. 
 
 "As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life and works of 
 the greatest among the worWs historians, it deserves the highest praise." — 
 Examiner. 
 
 IV. SHELLEY. By J. A. Symonds. 
 
 ' ' The lovers of this great poet are to be congratulated on having at 
 their command so fresh, clear, and intelligent a presentment of the subject, 
 written by a man of adequate and wide culture." — AxHENvEUM. 
 
 V. HUME. By Professor HaxLEY. 
 
 ' ' It may fairly be said that no one now living could have expounded 
 Hume with more sympathy or with equal perspicuity ." — AxHENTEUM. 
 
 VI. GOLDSMITH. By William Black. 
 
 "Mr. Black brings a fine sympathy and taste to bear in his criticism 
 of Goldsmith's writings as well as hi his sketch of Ike incidents of his life." 
 Athen/eum. 
 
 VII. DEFOE. By W. Minto. 
 
 " Mr. Jilinto's book is careful and accurate in all that is stated, and 
 faithful in all that it suggests. It will repay reading more than once." 
 Athenteum. -•- 
 
 Vni. BURNS. By Principal Shairp, Professor of Poetry in tlie 
 University of Oxford. 
 
 "It is impossible to desire fairer criticism than Principal Shairp'' s 
 on Burns'' s poetry .... None of the series has given a truer estimate 
 e'Uher of character or of genius than this little volume . . . . and all who 
 read it will be thoroughly grateful to the author for this monument to the 
 genius of Scotland's greatest poet." — Spectator. 
 
 IX. SPENSER. By the Very Rev. the Dean of St. Paul's. 
 "Dr. Church is master of his subject, and writes always with ^ood 
 
 taste." — Academy. 
 
 X. THACKERAY. By Anthony Trollope. 
 
 "Air. Trollope' s sketch is excellently adapted to fufil the purpose of 
 the series in which it appears." — Athen.-EUM. 
 
 XI. BURKE. By John Morley. 
 
 " Perhaps the best critiusm yd published on the life and character of 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 9 
 English Men of Letters. — continued. 
 
 Burke is contained in Mr. Morle^s compendious biography. His style is 
 vigorous and polished, and both his political and personal judgment, and 
 his literary criticisms are just, generous, subtle, and in a high degree 
 interesting." — Saturday Review. 
 
 MILTON. By Mark Pattison. • \yust ready.'] 
 
 HAWTHORNE. By Henry James. 
 SOUTHEY. By Professor Dowden. 
 
 CHAUCER. By Professor Ward. \ v r ^.,:f.„.ni-;m, ^ 
 
 COWPER. By GOLDWIN Smith. ^Unp^t^ratton.] 
 
 BUNYAN. By J. A. Froude. 
 WORDSWORTH. By F. W. H. Myers. J 
 Others in pr,paratioH, 
 
 Eton College, History of. By H. C. Maxwell Lyte, 
 
 M.A. With numerous Illustrations by Professor Delamotte, 
 
 Coloured Plates, and a Steel Portrait of the Founder, engraved 
 
 by C. H. Jeens. New and cheaper Issue, with Corrections. 
 
 Medium 8vo. Cloth elegant. 2\s. 
 
 " We areat length presented with a work on England's greatest public 
 
 school, worthy of the subject 0/ which it treats. . . . A really valuable and 
 
 authentic history of Eton College."— GvAKDiAlf. 
 
 European History, Narrated in a Series of Historical 
 
 Selections from the best Authorities. Edited and arranged by 
 
 E. M. Sewkll and C. M. Yonge. First Series, crown 8vo. 6s. ; 
 
 Second Series, 1088-1228, crown 8vo. 6s. Third Edition. 
 
 " We know of scarcely anything," says the Guardian, of this ■""'»"''> 
 
 "which is so likely to raise to a higher level the average standard of 
 
 English education." 
 
 Faraday,— MICHAEL FARADAY. By J. H. Gladstone, 
 Ph. D. , F. R. S . Second Edition, with Portrait engraved by Jeens 
 from a photograph by J. Watkins. Crown Svo. 4r. 6d. 
 PORTRAIT. Artist's Proof. S^. 
 Forbes.— LIFE and LETTERS OF JAMES DAVID 
 FORBES, F.R.S., late Principal of the United College in the 
 University of St. Andrews. By J. C. Shairp, LL.D., Principal 
 of the United College in the University of St. Andrews ;_ V. l^. 
 Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Umversity 
 of Edinburgh; and A. Adams-Reilly, F.R.G.b. bvo. vntn 
 Portraits, Map, and Illustrations, \6s. 
 Freeman.— Works by Edward a. Freeman, D.C.L.,LL.D. :— 
 WTQTnPTrAT ESSAYS. Third Edition. Svo. ioj. oa. 
 ?oItents -/ ^ The Mythical and Romantic Elements ^n Early 
 EneHsTH^'ory" II. '^ The Continuity of English Huory; III. 
 ?'7rKetZs 'between the Crowns of England and Scotland ; IV. 
 
MACMILLAlSrS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Freeman — continued. 
 
 " Si Thomas of Canterbury and his Siograihers ;" V. " The Reign cj 
 Edward the Third:" VI. "The Holy Roman Empire;" VII. " The 
 Franks and the Gauls;" VIII. ''The Early Sieges of Paris;' IX 
 "FredeHck the Hrst, King of Italy ;" X. "The Emperor Iredery:k the 
 Second:" XI. "Charles the Bold ;" XII. " Presidential Government. 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. SECOND SERIES. 8vo. \os. U. ^ 
 The principal Essays are: — "Ancient Greece and Medianial Italy:" 
 "Mr. Gladstones Homer and the Ho}?ieric Ages:" "The Historians 
 of Athens:" "The Athenian Democracy:" "Alexander the Great:" 
 "Greece dming the Macedonian Period:" "Monimseiis History of Rome :" 
 "Lucius Cornelius Sulla :" " The Flavian Casars." 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Third Series. 8vo. \2s. 
 Contents : — " First Impressions of Rome" " The Illyriaiz 
 Emperors and their Land." "Augusta Trevcroruin ." "The Goths 
 at Ravenna." "Race and Language." "The Byzantine Empire." 
 "First Impressions of Athens." " Mediccval and Mcdern Greece." 
 "The Southern Slaves." "Sicilian Cycles." "The Normans at 
 Palermo. " 
 
 COMPARATIVE POLITICS. — Lectures at the Royallnstitution. 
 To which is added the " Unity of History," the Rede Lecture at 
 Cambridge, 1872. 8vo. 14J. 
 THE HISTORY AND CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 
 Six Lectures. Third Edition, with New Preface. Crown 8vo. 
 3.. (>d. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SKETCHES : 
 chiefly Italian. With Illustrations by the Author. Crown 8vo_ 
 IOJ-. (3d. 
 
 HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, from the Foun- 
 dation of the Achaian League to the Disruption of the United 
 States. Vol. I. General Introduction, Histoiy of tlie Greek 
 Federations. 8vo. 2 Ij-. 
 
 OLD ENGLISH HISTORY. With Five Coloured Maps. Fourth 
 Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo., half-bound, bs. 
 
 " The book indeed is full of instruction and interest to students oj all 
 ageSf and he must be a ivell-infoj-med man ijideed who luill not rise 
 from its perusal with clearer and more accurate ideas of a too much 
 neglected portion of English history." — SPECTATOR. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WELLS, 
 
 as illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old 
 
 Foundation. Crown 8vo. 3J-. (>d. 
 
 " The history assumes in Mr. Freeman's hands a significance, and, we 
 
 may add, a practical value as suggestive oj what a cathedral ought to be, 
 
 which make it well worthy of mention." — Spectator. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. ii 
 
 Freeman — continued. 
 THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. Crown 8vo. 5^. Third- 
 Edition, revised. 
 
 GENERAL SKETCH OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. Being 
 Vol. I. of a Historical Course for Schools edited by E. A. 
 Freeman. New Edition, enlarged with Maps, Chronological 
 Table, Index, &c. iSmo. 3^. 6d. 
 "It supplies the great want of a good foundation for historical teach- 
 ing. The scheme is an excellent one, and this instalment has been 
 accepted in a way that promises much for the volumes that are yet 
 to appear." — EDUCATIONAL TIMES. 
 
 THE OTTOMAN POWER IN EUROPE : its Nature, its Growth, 
 and its Decline. With Three Coloured Maps. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 
 Galileo. — the private life of GALILEO. Compiled 
 principally from his Correspondence and that of his eldest 
 daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of 
 S. Matthew in Arcetri. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7^. 6d. 
 
 Geddes. — the problem of the homeric poems. 
 
 By W. D. Geddes, LL.D., Professor of Greek in the University 
 of Aberdeen. 8vo. 14^. 
 
 Gladstone — Works by the Right Hon.W. E. Gladstone, M.P. :— 
 JUVENTUS MUNDl. The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age. 
 
 CrovTO 8vo. cloth. With Map. 10s. 6d. Second Edition. 
 "Seldom," says the ATHEN.BUM, " out of the great poems themselves, 
 
 have these Divi?dties looked so majestic and respectable. To read these 
 
 brilliant details is like standing on the Olympian threshold and gazing at 
 
 the ineffable brightness within." 
 
 HOMERIC synchronism. An inquiry into the Time and 
 
 Place of Homer. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 *'/^ is impossible not to admire the immense range of thought and 
 inquiry which the author has displayed." — British Quarterly 
 Review. 
 
 Goethe and Mendelssohn (1821— 1831). Translated from the 
 German of Dr. Karl Mendelssohn, Son of the Composer, by 
 M. E. Von Glehn. From the Private Diaries and Home 
 Letters of Mendelssohn, with Poems and Letters of Goethe never 
 before printed. Also with two New and Original Portraits, Fac- 
 similes, and Appendix of Twenty Letters hitherto unpublished. 
 Crown 8vo. 5^. Second Edition, enlarged. 
 
12 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 "... £:very page is full of interest, not merely to the musi- 
 cian, but to the general reader. The hook is a very charming one, on 
 a topic of deep and lasting interest." — Standard. 
 
 Goldsmid. — telegraph and travel, a Narrative of 
 the Formation and Development of Telegraphic Communication 
 between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's 
 Government, with incidental Notices of the Countries traversed by 
 the Lines. By Colonel Sir Frederic Goldsmid, C.B., K.C.S.L, 
 late Director of the Government Indo-European Telegraph. With 
 numerous Illustrations and Maps. 8vo. 2is. 
 ** The vierit of the work is a total absence of exaggeration, which does 
 not, however, preclude a vividness and vigour of style not always character- 
 istic of similar narratives." — Standard. 
 
 Gordon. — LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, to which are added 
 
 Letters from the Cape. By Lady Duff Gordon. With a 
 
 Memoir by her Daughter, Mrs. Ross, and Portrait engraved by 
 
 Jeens. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. <js. 
 
 ** The intending tourist who wishes to acquaint himself with the country 
 
 he is about to visit, stands embarrassed amidst the riches presented for his 
 
 choice, and in the end probably rests contented with the sober usefulness oj 
 
 Murray. He will not, however, if he is well advised, grudge a place in 
 
 his portmanteau to this book." — Times. 
 
 Gray. — CHINA. A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs 
 of the People. By the Venerable John Henry Gray. LL.D., 
 Archdeacon of Hong Kong, formerly H.I!. M. Consular Chaplain 
 at Canton. Edited by W. Gow Gregor. With 1 50 Full-page Illustra- 
 tions, being Facsimiles of Drawings by a Chinese Artist. 2 Vols. 
 Demy 8vo. 32/. 
 " Its pages contain the most truthful and vivid picture of Chinese life 
 
 ■which has ever been published." — Athen^UM. 
 
 " The only elaborate and valuable book we hai'e had for many years 
 
 treating generally of the people of the Celestial Empire." — Academy. 
 
 Green, — Works by John Richard Green: — 
 
 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. Vol. I.— Early 
 
 England— Foreign Kings— The Charter— The Parliament. With 
 
 8 Coloured Maps. 8vo. i6.f. Vol. II.— The Monarchy, 
 
 1461— 1540 ; the Restoration, I S40 — 1603. 8vo. i6j. Vol. III. 
 
 —Puritan England, 1603—1660; the] Revolution, 1660— 1688. 
 
 ^ With 4 Maps. 8vo. \(,s. [Vol. IF. in the press. 
 
 "Mr. Green has done a work which probably no one but himself could 
 
 have done. He has read and assimilated the results of all the labours of 
 
 students during the last half century in the field of English history, and 
 
 has given them a fresh meaning by his caon independent study. He has 
 
 fused together by the force of sympathetic imagination all that he has so 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRA VELS, ETC. 13 
 
 Green . — continued. 
 
 collected, and has ^iven us a vivid and forcible sketch of the march of 
 English histo7y. His book, both in its aims and its accomplishments, 
 rises far beyond any of a similar kind, and it will give the colouring to the 
 popular view to English history for some time to come."- — Examiner. 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. With 
 
 Coloured Maps, Genealogical Tables, and Chronological Annals. 
 
 Crown 8vo. %s. dd. Sixty-third Thousand. 
 
 " To say that Mr. Green's book is better than those which have pre- 
 
 ceded it, would be to convey a very inadequate ivipression of its merits. 2i 
 
 stands alone as the one general history of the country, for the sake of 
 
 •which all others, if young and old are wise, will be speedily and surely set 
 
 aside." 
 
 STRAY STUDIES FROM ENGLAND AND ITALY. Crown 
 8vo. 8^. 6d. Containing : Lambeth and the Archbishops — The 
 Florence of Dante — Venice and Rome — Early History of Oxford 
 • — The District Visitor — Capri — Hotels in the Clouds — Sketches 
 in Sunshine, &c. 
 
 " One and all of the papers are eminently readable.'' ' — Athen.«um. 
 
 Guest.— LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 By M. _T- Guest. With Maps. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 " The book is pleasant reading, it is fill of information, much of it is 
 valuable, most of it is correct, told in a gossipy and intelligible way" — 
 ATHENjEUM. 
 
 Hamerton. — Works by p. G. Hamerton:— 
 THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE. With a Portrait of Leonardo da 
 Vinci, etched by Leopold, Flameng. Second Edition. Crown 
 lOi. td. 8vo. 
 " We have read the whole book with great pleasure, and ive can re- 
 commend it strongly to all who can appreciate grave reflections on a very 
 important subject, excellently illustrated from the resources of a mind 
 stored with much reading and much keen observation of real life." — 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 THOUGHTS ABOUT ART. New Edition, revised, with an 
 
 Introduction. Crown 8vo. %s. 6d. 
 "^ manual of sound and thorough criticism on art."— Stanoaro. 
 
 Hill.— THE RECORDER OF BIRMINGHAM. A Memoir of 
 Matthew Davenport Hill, with Selections from his Correspondence. 
 By his Daughters Rosamond and Florence Davenport-Hill. 
 With Portrait engraved by C. H. Jeens. 8vo. 16s. 
 
U MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Hill. — WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. By Rosamond 
 and Florence Hill. Crown 8vo. loj-. bd. 
 "May be recommended as an iiiiei-estitig and truthful picture cf the 
 condition of those lands which ai-e so distant and vet so much like home." 
 — Saturday Review. 
 
 Hodgson.— MEMOIR OF REV. FRANCIS HODGSON, 
 B.D., Scholar, Poet, and Divine. By his Son, the Rev. James 
 T. Hodgson, M.A. Containing numerous Letters from Lord 
 Byron and others. With Portrait engraved by Jeens. Two 
 Vols. Crown 8vo. i8.f. 
 ** A book that has added so much of a healthy natttre to our hnoavledge 
 
 of Byron, and that contains so rich a store of delightful correspondence." 
 
 — ATHENiBUM. 
 
 Hole. — A GENEALOGICAL STEMJIA OF THE KINGS 
 OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. By the Rev. C. Hole, 
 M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. On Sheet, is, 
 
 A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Compiled and 
 Arranged by the Rev. Charles Hole, M.A. Second Edition. 
 iSrao. 4r. dd. 
 
 Hooker and Ball. — marocco and the great 
 ATLAS: Journal of a Tour in. By Sir Joseph D. Hooker, 
 K.C.S.L, C.B., F.R.S., &c., and John Ball, F.R.S. With an 
 Appendix, including a Sketch of the Geology of Marocco, by 
 G. Maw, F.L.S., F.G.S. With Illustrations and Map. Svo. 2is. 
 ' ' It is long since any more interesting book of travels has issued from 
 
 our press." — SATURDAY Review. " This is, without doubt, one of the 
 
 most interesting and valuable books of travel published for many yean." 
 
 — Spectator. 
 
 Hozier (H. M.) — Works by Captain Henry M. Hozier, 
 late Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Napier of Magdala : — 
 
 the seven WEEKS' WAR ; Its Antecedents and Incidents. 
 JVew and Cheaper Edition. With New Preface, INIaps, and Plans. 
 Crown Svo. 6^-. 
 
 THE INVASIONS OF ENGLAND : a History of the Past, with 
 Lessons for the Future. Two Vols. Svo. 28j. 
 
 Hiibner.— A RAMBLE ROUND THE AVORLD IN iSyi. By 
 
 M. Le Baron IIubner, formerly Ambassador and Minister. 
 
 Translated by Lady Herbert. New and Cheaper Edition. 
 
 With numerous Illustrations. Crown Svo. ts. 
 
 " It is difficult to do ample justice i> this pleasant narrative of travel 
 
 . ... it does not contain a single dull paragraplt" — MoRNING Post. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 15 
 
 Hughes. — Works by Thomas Hughes, Q.C, Author of "Tom 
 Brown's School Days." 
 ALFRED THE GREAT. New Edition. Crown 8vo. (>s. 
 MEMOIR OF A BROTHER. With Portrait of George Hughes, 
 after Watts. Engraved by Jeens. Crown 8vo. Jj. Sixth 
 Edition. 
 " IVie boy who can read this book without deriving from it some addi- 
 iional impulse towards honotirablf, manly, and independent conduct, has 
 ^0 good stuff in him" — Daily News. 
 
 Hunt.— HISTORY OF ITALY. By the Rev. W. Hunt, M.A. 
 
 Being the Fourth Volume of the Historical Course for Schools. 
 
 Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. i8mo. 3^. 
 " Mr. Hunt gives us a m-ost compact but very readable little book, con- 
 taining in small compass a very complete outline of a complicated and 
 perplexing subject. It is a book which may be safely recommended to 
 others besides schoolboys."- — ^JoilN Bull. 
 
 Irving. — THE ANNALS OF OUR TIME. A Diurnal of Events, 
 Social and Political, Home and Foreign, from the Accession of 
 Queen Victoria to the Peace of Versailles. By Joseph Irving. 
 Fourth Edition. 8vo. half-bound. 16^. 
 
 ANNALS OF OUR TIME. Supplement. From Feb. 28, 1871, 
 
 to March 19, 1874. 8vo. 4J. td. 
 ANNALS OF OUR TIME. Second Supplement. From March, 
 
 1874, t° tl"^ Occupation of Cyprus. 8vo. 4?. (>d. 
 ' ■ We have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the 
 fast thirty years , available equally for the statesman, the politician, the 
 public writer, and the general reader." — Times. 
 
 James. — Works by Henry James, Jun, FRENCH POETS AND 
 NOVELISTS. Crown 8vo. %s. dd. 
 Co^HTWXXi:— Alfred de Musset ; Thiophile Gautier ; Baudelaire; 
 Honorl de Balzac ; George Sand ; The Two Ampires ; Turgenieff, &'c. 
 
 Johnson's Lives of the Poets. — The Six Chief 
 
 Lives— Milton, Dryden, Swift, Addison, Pope, Gray. Witli 
 Macaulay's " Life of Jolmson." Edited, with Preface, by 
 Matthew Arnold. Crown 8vo. 6/. 
 
 Killen.— ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND, from 
 the Earliest Date to the Present Time. By W. D. Killen, D.D., 
 President of Assembly's College, Belfast, and Professor of Eccle- 
 siastical History. Two Vols. . 8vo. 2Ss. 
 "Those who have the leisure itiill do well to read these two volumes. 
 
 Thev are full of interest, and are the result of greaj: research. • . . . We 
 
i6 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 have no hesitation in recommending the work to all who wish to iinpiove 
 their acquaintance with Irish history." — SPECTATOR. 
 
 Kingsley (Charles). — Works by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, 
 M.A., Rector of Eversley and Canon of Westminster. (For 
 other Works by the same Author, see Theological and Belles 
 Lettres Catalogues.) 
 
 ON THE ANCIEN REGIME as it existed on the Continent before 
 the French Revolution. Three Lectm-es delivered at the 
 Royal Institution. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 
 AT LAST : A CHRISTMAS in the WEST INDIES. With nearly 
 Fifty Illustrations. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. iis. 
 
 Mr. Kingsley' s dream of forty years was at last fulfilled, when he 
 started on a Christmas exf edition to the West Indies, for the purpose of 
 becoming personally acquainted with the scenes which he has so vividly 
 described in " Westward Ho !" These two volumes are the journal of his 
 voyage. Records of natural history, sketches of tropical landscape, chapters 
 on education, views of society, all find their place. " We can only say 
 that Mr. K^gsley's account of a * Christmas in the West Indies ' is in 
 every way worthy to be classed among his happiest productions." — ■ 
 Standard. 
 
 THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON. A Series of Lectures 
 delivered before the University of Cambridge. New and Cheaper 
 Edition, with Preface by Professor Max Muller. Ci-own 8vo. 6s. 
 
 PLAYS AND PURITANS, and other Historical Essays. With 
 Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 In addition to the Essay mentiotied in the title, this volume contains 
 other two — one on "Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time," and one on 
 Iroude's ^^ History of England." 
 
 Kingsley (Henry). — TALES OF old travel. Re- 
 narrated by Henry Kingsley, F.R.G.S. With Eight Illus- 
 trations by HuARD. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 ** We know no better book for those who want knowledge or seek to 
 refresh it. As for the ^sensational,' most novels are tame compared with 
 these narratives" — Athen^UM. 
 
 Lang. — CYPRUS : Its History, its Present Resources and Future 
 
 Prospects. By R. Hamilton Lang, late H.M. Consul for the 
 
 Island of Cyprus. With Two Illustrations and Four Maps. 8vo. I4r. 
 
 " The fair and impartial account of her past and present to be found in 
 
 these pages has an undoubted claim on tite attention of all intelligent 
 
 reaiUrs." — Morning Post. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 17 
 
 LaoCOOn. — Translated from the Text of Lessing, with Preface and 
 Notes by the Right Hon. Sir Robert J. Phillimore, D.C.L. 
 With Photographs. 8vo. \2s. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci and his Works.— Consisting of 
 Life of Leonardo Da Vinci, by Mrs. Charles W. Heaton, 
 Autlior of "Albrecht Diirer of Niiraberg," &c., an Essay on his 
 Scientific and Literary Works by Charles Christopher 
 Black, M. a. , and an account of his more important Paintings 
 and Drawings. Illustrated with Permanent Photographs, Royal 
 8vo, cloth, extra gilt. 31^-. iid. 
 
 Liechtenstein,— HOLLAND HOUSE. By Princess Marie 
 Liechtenstein. With Five Steel Engravings by C. H. Jeens, 
 after Paintings by Watts and other celebrated Artists, and 
 numerous Illustrations drawn by Professor P. H. Delamotte, and 
 engraved on Wood by J. D. Cooper, W. Palmer, and Jewitt & 
 Co. Third and Cheaper Edition. Medium 8vo. cloth elegant 
 
 Also, an Edition containing, in addition to the above, about 40 
 Illustrations by the Woodbury-type process, and India Proofs of 
 the Steel Engravings. Two vols, medium 4to. half morocco 
 elegant. 4/. 4/. 
 
 Lloyd.— THE AGE OF PERICLES. A History of the Arts and 
 Politics of Greece firom the Persian to the Peloponnesian War. 
 By W. Wat KISS Lloyd. Two Vols. 8vo. 2\s. 
 ** No such account of Greek art oj the best period has yet been brought 
 
 together in an English work Mr. Lloyd has produced a book oJ 
 
 unusual excellence and interest. " — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Loch Etive and the Sons of Uisnach. — with Illus- 
 trations. 8vo. 14s. 
 " Not only have we Loch Etive of the present time brottght before us in 
 colours as true as they are vivid, btU stirring scenes which happened on 
 the borders of the beautiful lake in setni-mythical times are conjured up 
 with singular skill. Nowhere else do we remember to have met with such 
 a well-written account of the invasion of Scotland by the Irish." — Globe. 
 
 Loftie.— A RIDE IN EGYPT FROM SIOOT TO LUXOR, IN 
 1879 ; with Notes on the Present State and Ancient History of the 
 Nile Valley, and some account of the various ways of making the 
 voyage out and home. By the Rev. W. J. Loftie. With 
 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. \os. dd. 
 " We prophesy that Mr. Loftie" s little book will accompany many 
 t'-avellers on the Nile in the coming winters." — TIMES. 
 
 B 
 
i8 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Lubbock. — ADDRESSES, POLITICAL AND EDUCA- 
 TIONAL. Ly Sir JOHN I.uiiiiocK, Kart., M.P., D.C.L., 
 F.R.S. 8vo. %s. dd. 
 
 Macdonell. — FRANCE SINCE THE FIRST EMPIRE. By 
 James Macdonell. Edited with Preface by his Wife. Crown 
 8vo. {Shortly. 
 
 Macarthur.— HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, By Margaret 
 
 Macarthur. Being the Third Volume of the Historical Course 
 
 for Schools, Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. Second 
 
 Edition. i8mo. 2s. 
 
 "■It is an excellent summary, unimpeachable as to facts, and putting 
 
 them in the clearest and most impartial light nttaitiable. " — GUARDIAN. 
 
 *' Alb previous History oj Scotland of the same bulk is anything like so 
 
 trustworthy, or deserves to be so extensively used as a text-book.'" — Globe. 
 
 Macmillan (Rev. Hugh). — For other Works by same Author, 
 see Theological and Scientific Catalogues. 
 HOLIDAYS ON HIGH LANDS ; or, Rambles and Incidents in 
 search of Alpine Plants. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
 Globe 8vo. cloth, ds. 
 ' ' Botanical knowledge is blended with a love of nature, a pious en- 
 thusiasm, and a rich felicity of diction not to be met with in any works 
 of kindred character, if we except those of Hugh Miller." — TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Macready. — MACREADY'S REMINISCENXES and SE- 
 LECTIONS FROM HIS DIARIES AND LETTERS. Edited 
 by Sir F. Pollock, Bart., one of his Executors. With Four 
 Portraits engraved by Jeens. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 
 8vo. is. 6d. 
 " As a careful and for the most part just estimate of the stage during 
 a very brilliant petiod, the attraction of these volumes can scarcely be 
 surpassed. .... Readers who have no special interest in theatrical 
 matters, but enjoy miscellaneous gossip, will be allured from page to page, 
 attracted by familiar names and by observations upon popular actors and 
 authors. " — SPECTATOR. 
 
 Mahaffy.— Works by the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, M.A., FeUow of 
 Trinity College, Dublin : — 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE IN GREECE FROM HOMER TO MENAN- 
 
 DER. Third Edition, revised and enlarged, with a new chapter 
 
 on Greek Art. Crown 8vo. gs. 
 
 "It should be in the hands of all who desire thoroughly to understand 
 
 and to enjoy Gi-eek literature, and to get an inUlligent idea of the old Greek 
 
 li fe, political, social, and religious." — GUARDIAN. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 19 
 
 Mahaffy. — continued. 
 
 RAMBLES AND STUDIES IN GREECE. With Illustrations. 
 
 Crown Svo. \os. bd. New and enlarged Edition, with Map and 
 
 Illustrations. 
 "A singularly instructive and agreeable volume." — AtheNvEUM. 
 
 " Maori." — SPORT and WORK ON THE NEPAUL FRON- 
 TIER ; or, Twelve Years' Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo 
 Planter. By "Maori." With Illustrations. Svo. 14J. 
 "Every day's adventures, 7inth all the Joys and perils of the chase, are 
 
 told as only a teen and cunning sportsman can tell them" — Standard. 
 
 Margary. — the journey of AUGUSTUS Raymond 
 margary from shanghae to bhamo and Sack 
 
 to MANWYNE. From his Journals and Letters, with a brief 
 
 Biographical Preface, a concluding chapter by Sir Rutherford 
 
 Alcock, K.C.B., and a Steel Portrait engraved by Jeens, and 
 
 Map. Svo. \os. 6d. 
 
 *' There is a manliness, a cheerful spirii, an inherent vigour which 
 
 was never overcome bv sickness or debility, a tact which conquered th-' 
 
 prejudices of a strange and suspicious popidation, u- quiet self-reliance, 
 
 always combined with deep religious feeling, unalloyed by either priggish- 
 
 ness, cant, or superstition, that ought to commend this volume to readers 
 
 sitting quietly at home who feel any pride in the high estimation accorded 
 
 to men of their race at Yarkand or at Khiva, in the heart of Africa, or 
 
 on the shores of Lake Seri-kul." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Markham. — NORTHWARD HO! By Captain Albert H. 
 Markham, R.N., Author of "The Great Frozen Sea," &c. 
 Including a Narrative of Captain Phipps's Expedition, by a Mid- 
 shipman. With Illustrations. Crown Svo. 10s. td. 
 " Captain -Markham' s interesting volume has the advantage of being 
 
 written by a man who li practically conversant with the subject.'^ — Pall 
 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 Martin.— THE history of LLOYD'S, AND OF MARINE 
 INSURANCE IN GREAT BRITAIN. With an Appendix 
 containing Statistics relating to Marine Insurance. By Frederick 
 Martin, Author of " The Statesman's Year Book." Svo. 14 J, 
 
 Martineau.— BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 1852—1875. 
 By Harriet Martineau. With Additional Sketches, and Auto- 
 biographical Sketch. Fifth Edition. Crown Svo. ds. 
 
 MaSSOn (David) For other Works by same Author, see PlULd- 
 
 sophical and Belles Let-i res Catalogues. 
 
20 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Masson {T>SiV\6.).—contimted. 
 CHATTERTON : A Story of the Year 1770. By David Masson, 
 LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh. Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 
 THE THREE DEVILS : Luther's, Goethe's, and Milton's ; and 
 other Essays. Crown 8vo. <,s. 
 
 WORDSWORTH, SHELLEY, AND KEATS; and other 
 Essays. Crown 8vo. 5J. 
 
 Mathews. — LIFE OF CHARLES J. MATHEWS, Chiefly 
 
 Autobiographical. With Selections from his Correspondence and 
 
 Speeches. Edited by Charles Dickens. 
 
 " One of the pleasantest and most readable books of the season. From 
 
 first to last these two volumes arc alive with the inimitable artist and 
 
 comedian. . . . The whole book is fill of life, vigour, and wit, and erven 
 
 through some of the gloomy episodes of volume two, will repay most careful 
 
 study. So complete, so varied a picture of a tnaii's life is rarely to be met 
 
 with." — Standard. 
 
 Maurice.— THE friendship OF BOOKS ; AND OTHER 
 LECTURES. By the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Edited with Pre- 
 face, by Thomas Hughes, Q.C. Crown 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 Mayor (J. E. B.)_WORKS edited by John E. B. Mayor, 
 M.A., Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge : — 
 
 CAMBRIDGE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Part 11 
 Autobiography of Matthew Robinson. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 6d. 
 
 LIFE OF BISHOP BEDELL. By his Son. Fcap. 8vo. 3j-. (,d. 
 
 Melbourne. — MEMOIRS OF THE RT. HON. WILLIAM, 
 SECOND VISCOUNT MELBOURNE. By W. M. Torrens, 
 M. P. With Portrait after Sir. T. Lawrence. Second Edition. 
 
 2 Vols. 8V0. TfZS. 
 
 "As 7night be expected, he has produced a book which will command 
 and reiuard attention. It contains a great deal of valuable matter and 
 a great deal of animated, elegant writing." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 Mendelssohn.— LETTERS and recollections. By 
 Ferdinand Hiller. Translated by M. E. Von Glehn. With 
 Portrait from a Drawing by Karl MiJller, never before pub- 
 lished. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 7^. dd. 
 " This is a very interesting addition to our knowledge of the great 
 German composer. It reveals him to us under a new light, as the warm- 
 hearted comrade, the musician whose soul was in his work, and the horn:- 
 Icrjing, domestic man." — Standard. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 21 
 
 Merewether.— BY SEA AND BY land. Being a Trip 
 through Egypt, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, and 
 America — all Round the World. By Henry Alworth Mere- 
 wether, one of Her Majesty's Counsel. Crown 8vo. %s. (sd. 
 
 Michael Angelo Buonarotti ; Sculptor, Painter, Architect. 
 
 The Story of his Life and Labours. By C. C. Black, M.A. 
 
 Illustrated by 20 Permanent Photographs. Royal 8vo. cloth 
 
 elegant, 3IJ-. iid. 
 " The story of Michael Angelo s life remains interesting whatever be the 
 manner of telling it, and supported as it is by this beautiful series of photo- 
 graphs, the volume must take rank among the most splendid of Cliristmas 
 iooks, fitted to serve and to outlive the season" — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Michelet— A SUMMARY OF MODERN HISTORY. Trans- 
 lated from the French of M. Michelet, and continued to the 
 present time by M. C. M. Simpson. Globe 8vo. 4J. (sd. 
 
 Milton. — LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. Narrated in connection 
 with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time. 
 By David Masson, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and 
 English Literature in the University of Edinburgh. With Portraits. 
 Vol. I. i8f. Vol. II., 1638— 1643. 8vo. i6j. Vol. III. 
 1643—1649. 8vo. iSj-. Vols. IV. and V. 1649— 1660. yis. 
 Vol. VI. concluding the work in the press. 
 This work is not only a Biography, but also a continuous Political, Eccle- 
 siastical, an4 Literary History of England through Milton's whole time. 
 
 Mitford (A. B.)— tales OF OLD japan. By A. B. 
 
 MiTFORD, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan. 
 
 With upwards of 30 Illustrations, drawn and cut on Wood by 
 
 Japanese Artists. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 " These very original volumes will always be interesting as memorials 
 
 j)f a most exceptional societv, while regarded simply as tales, they are 
 
 -Sparkling, sensational, and dramatic." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Monteiro. — angola and the river con go. By 
 
 Joachim Monteiro. With numerous Illustrations from Sketches 
 taken on the spot, and a Map. Two Vols, crown 8vo, 21s. 
 
 MoriSOn.— THE LIFE and TIMES OF SAINT BERNARD, 
 Abbot of Clairvaux. By James Cotter Morison, M.A. New 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 Moseley.— NOTES BY A NATURALIST ON THE CHAL- 
 LENGER ■ being an Account of various Observations matle 
 during the 'voyage of H.M.S. Challenge,; Round the World, 
 
22 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 in 1872-76. By II. N. Moseley, F.R.S., Member of the 
 
 Scientific Staff of the Challenger. 8vo. with Maps, Coloured Plates, 
 
 and Woodcuts. 2ij. 
 
 " This is certainly the most interesting and suggestive look, descriptive 
 
 of a naturalist s travels, zvhich has been published since Mr. Darwin^ s 
 
 'Journal of Researches' appeared, more than forty years ago." — Nature. 
 
 " JVe camwt point to any book of travels in onr day more vivid in its 
 
 powers of description, more varied in its subject matter, or more attractive 
 
 t,' tvery educated reader." — SATURDAY Review. 
 
 Murray ROUND ABOUT FRANCE. By E. C. Grenville 
 
 Murray. Crown 8vo. is. dd. 
 ** These short essays are a perfect jnine of information as to the present 
 condition and futitre prospects of political parties in France. . . , It is 
 at once extremely interesting arid exceptionally instructive on a subject on 
 which few English people are well informed." — Scotsman. 
 
 Napier.— MACVEY NAPIER'S SELECTED CORRE- 
 SPONDENCE. Edited by his Son, Macvey Napier. 8vo. i+r. 
 The Times says .■ — ''It is replete with useful material for the bio- 
 graphers of many distinguished writers of the generation which is passing 
 away. Since reading it we understand several noteworthy men, and 
 Brougham in particular, far better than we did before." " It would be 
 useless to attempt witliin our present liinits to give any adequateidea of the 
 abundafice of interesting passageswhichmeetus in the letters of Macaiilay, 
 Brougham, Carlyle, Jeffrey, Senior, and tnany other welt-knownwriters. 
 Especially piquant are Jeffrey's periodical criticisms on the contents of 
 I lie Review which he had formerly edited." — pALL Mall Gazette. 
 
 Napoleon.— THE history OF napoleon L By P. 
 
 Lanfrey. a Translation with the sanction of the Author. 
 
 4 vols. 8vo. Vols. I. II. and III. price I2J-. each. Vol. IV. 
 
 bs. 
 The Pall Mall Gazette says it is "one of t!ie most striking 
 pieces of historical composition of which France lias to boast," and the 
 Saturday Review calls it "an excellent translation of a work on every 
 ground deseiving to be translated. It is unquestionably and immeasurably 
 the best that has been produced. It is in fact the only work to which we 
 can turn for an accurate and trustworthy narrative of that extraordinary 
 career. . . . The book is the best and indeed tlie only trustworthy history 
 of Napoleon wfiich has been written." 
 
 Nichol TABLES OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND 
 
 HISTORY, A.D. 200—1876. By J. Nichol, LL.D., Professor 
 of English Language and Literature, Glasgow. 410. 6x. iid. 
 TABLES OF ANCIENT LITERATURE AND HISTORY 
 B.C. 1500— A. D. 200. By the same Author. 4to. ^. dd. ' 
 
///STORY, B/OGRAPHV, TRAVELS, ETC. 23 
 Nordenskidld's Arctic Voyages, 1858-79. — wuh 
 
 Maps and numerous Illustrations. 8vo. i6j. 
 " A volume of great interest and much scientific value" — Nature. 
 
 Oliphant (Mrs.). — the makers of Florence : Dante 
 
 Giotto, Savonarola, and their City. By Mrs. Oliphant. With 
 
 numerous Illustrations from drawings by Professor Delamotte, 
 
 and portrait of Savonarola, engraved by Jeens. Second Edition. 
 
 Medium 8 vo. Cloth, extra. 2\s. 
 
 " We are grateful to Mrs. Oliphant for her eloquent and beautiful 
 
 sketches of Dante, Fra Angelica, and Savonarola. They are picturesque, 
 
 full of life, and rich in detail, and they are charmingly illustrated by the 
 
 art of the engraver." — Spectator. 
 
 Oliphant. — THE DUKE AND THE SCHOLAR ; and other 
 Essays. By T. L. Kington Oliphant. 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 " This volume contains one of the most beautiful biographical essays we 
 have seen since Macaulay's days." — Standard. 
 
 Otte. — SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY. By E. C. Otte. With 
 Maps. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j. 
 
 Owens College Essays and Addresses. — By Pro- 
 fessors and Lecturers of Owens College, Manchester. 
 Published in Commemoration of the Opening of the New College 
 Buildings, October 7th, 1873. 8vo. 141. 
 
 Palgrave (R. F. D.)— THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ; 
 Illustrations of its History and Practice. By Reginald F. D. 
 Palgrave, Clerk Assistant of the House of Commons. New 
 and Revised Edition. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Palgrave (Sir F.)— HISTORY OF NORMANDY AND 
 OF ENGLAND. By Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy Keeper 
 of Her Majesty's PubUc Records. Completing the History to the 
 Death of William Rufus. 4 Vols. Svo. 4/. 4r. 
 
 Palgrave (W. G.)— A narrative of a YEAR'S 
 TOURNEY THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN 
 ARABIA 1862-3. By William Gifford Palgrave, late of 
 the Eighth Regiment Bombay N. I. Sixth Edition. With Maps, 
 Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on steel by Jeens. Crown 
 Svo. 6s. 
 "He has not only wntten one of the best books on the Arabs and one 
 
 of the best books on Arabia, bttt he has done so in a manner that must 
 
 command the respect no less than the admiration of his fellow-country 
 
 men. "— FORTNIGIITLY REVIEW. 
 
24 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Palgrave. — contimud. 
 
 ESSAYS ON EASTERN QUESTIONS. By W. Gifford 
 Palgrave. 8vo. \os. dd, 
 
 " These essays an full of anecdote and interest. The book is decidedly 
 a valuable addition to the stock of literature on which men must 
 base their opinion of the difficult social and political problems sug- 
 gested by the designs of Russia, the capacity of Mahometans Jor 
 sovereignty, and the good government and retention of India." — 
 Saturi K'l Review. 
 
 DUTCH GUIANA. With Maps and Hans. 8vo. gj. 
 
 *^ His pages are nearly exhaustive as far as facts and statistics go, 
 •while they are lightened by graphic social sketches as ■well as sparkling 
 descriptions of scenery." — SATURDAY REVIEW. 
 
 Patteson.— LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN COLERIDGE 
 
 PATTESON, D. D., Missionary Bishop of tlie Melanesian Islands. 
 
 By Charlotte M. Yonge, Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe." 
 
 With Portraits after Richmond and from Photograph, engraved by 
 
 Jeens. With Map. Fifth Edition. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. I2j. 
 
 ** Miss Yonge' s work is in one respect a model biography, ft is made 
 
 up almost entirely of Patteson' s own letters. Aware that he had left his 
 
 home once and for all, his correspondence took the form of a diary, and 
 
 as we read on we come to know the man, and to lot'C him almost as if we 
 
 had seen him." — ATHENAEUM. "Such a life, with its grand lessons oj 
 
 unselfishness, is a blessing and an honour to the age in which it is lived ; 
 
 the biography cannot be studied without pleasure and profit, and indeed 
 
 we should think Utile of the man who did not rise from the study of it 
 
 better and wiser. Neither the Church nor the nation which p roduces 
 
 such sons need ever despair of its future." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Pauli.— PICTURES OF OLD ENGLAND. By Dr. Reinhold 
 Pauli. Translated, with the approval of the Author, by E. C. 
 Otte. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Payne.— A history of European colonies. By 
 
 E. J. Payne, M.A. With Maps. iSmo. 4J-. dd. 
 The Times says : — " We have seldom met %mth a historian capable oj 
 fort/ling a more comprehensive, far-seeing, and unprejudiced estimate o] 
 events and peoples, and we can commend this little work as one certain to 
 prove of the highest inta-est to all thoughtful readers." 
 
 Persia EASTERN PERSIA. An Account of the Journeys of 
 
 the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-1-2. — Vol. I. The Geo- 
 graphy, with Narratives by Majors St. John, Lovett, and Euan 
 Smith, and an Introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic 
 GOLDSMID, C.B., K.C.S.I., British Commissioner and Arbitrator. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 25 
 
 With Maps and Illustrations. — Vol. II. The Zoology and Geology. 
 By W. T. Blanford, A.R.S.M., F.R.S. With Coloured Illus- 
 trations. Two Vols. Svo. ifls. 
 " The voluTnes largely increase our store of information about 
 
 countries with which Kn^lishvien ought to he familiar 
 
 Th^ throw into the shade all that hitherto has appeared in our tongue 
 respecting the local features of Persia, its scenery, its resources, even its 
 social condition. Thev contain also abundant evidence of English 
 endurance, daring, and spirit. " — Times. 
 
 Prichard. — the administration of INDIA. From 
 1859 to 1 868. The First Ten Years of Administration under the 
 Crown. By T. T. Prichard, Barrister-at-Law. Two Vols. 
 Demy Svo. With Map. 21s. 
 
 Raphael. — Raphael of urbino and his father 
 
 GIOVANNI SANTI. By J. D. Passavant, formerly Director 
 of the Museum at Frankfort. With Twenty Permanent Photo- 
 ^aplis. Royal Svn. Handsomely bound. 31^.6^. 
 The Saturday Review says of them, " We have seen not a few 
 
 elegant specimens of Mr. Woodbury's new process, biit we have seen 
 
 none that equal these. " 
 
 Reynolds.— SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AS A PORTRAIT 
 PAINTER. AN ESSAY. By J. Churton Collins, B.A. 
 Balliol College, Oxford. Illustrated by a Series of Portraits of 
 distinguished Beauties «f the Court of George III. ; reproduced 
 in Autotype from Proof Impressions of the celebrated Engravings, 
 by Valentine Green, Thomas Watson, F. R. Smith, E. 
 Fisher, and Others. Foho half-morocco. ;^5 5J-. 
 
 Rogers (James E. Thorold). — HISTORICAL glean- 
 ings : a Series of Sketches. Montague, Walpole, Adam Smith, 
 Cobbelt. By Prof. Rogers. Crbvra Svo. 4s. 6d. Second Series. 
 Wikli]; Laud, Wilkes, and Home Tooke. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 Routledge.— CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF POPULAR 
 
 PROGRESS IN ENGLAND, chiefly in Relation to the Freedom 
 
 of the Press and Trial by Jury, 1660—1820. With application to 
 
 later years. By J. Routledge. Svo. i6s. 
 
 " The volume abounds in facts and information, almost always useful 
 
 and often curious" — Times. 
 
 Rumford.— COUNT RUMFORD'S COMPLETE WORKS, 
 with Memoir, and Notices of his Daughter. By George Ellis. 
 Five Vols. Svo. 4/. i+f- (>d. 
 
26 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Seeley (Professor). — LECTURES AND ESSAYS. By 
 
 J. R. Seeley, M.A. Professor of Modem History in the 
 University of Cambridge. 8vo. los. 6d. 
 Contents: — Roman Imperialism: l. The Great Roman Revolu- 
 tion; 2. The Proximate Cause of the Fall of the Roman Empire ; 
 The Later Empire. — Milton's Political Opinions — Milton's Poetry 
 — Elementary Principles in Art — Liberal Education in Universities 
 — English in Schools — The Church as a Teacher of Morality — The 
 Teaching of Politics : an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Cambridge. 
 
 Shelburne.— LIFE OF WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE, 
 
 AFTERWARDS FIRST MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. 
 
 With Extracts from his Papers and Correspondence. By Lord 
 
 Edmond Fitzmaurice. In Three Vols. 8vo. Vol. I. 1737 — 
 
 1766, I2J-. ; Vol.ill. 1766— 1776, \2s. ; Vol. III. 1776 — 1805. i6s. 
 
 '* Lord Edmond Fitzmatirice has succeeded in placing before us a 
 
 wealth of new matter, which, while casting valuable and much-needed 
 
 light on several obscure passages in the political history of a hundred 
 
 years ago, has enabled us for the first time to form a clear and consistent 
 
 idea of his ancestor." — SPECTATOR. 
 
 Sime. — HISTORY OF GERMANY. By James Sime, M.A. 
 
 iSmo. y. Being Vol. V. of the Historical Course for Schoolsr 
 
 Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D. C.L. 
 " This is a remarkably clear and impressive History of Germany." — 
 Standard. 
 
 Squier.— PERU : INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL AND EX- 
 PLORATION IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS. By E. G. 
 Squier, M.A., F.S.A., late U.S. Commissioner to Peru. With 
 300 Illustrations. Second Edition. 8vo. 21s. 
 The Times says : — " No more solid and trustworthy contribution haa 
 been made to an accurate knowledge of what are among the most wonderful 
 ruins in the world. The work is really what its title implies. While op 
 the greatest importance as a contribution to Pet uvian archcsology, it is also a 
 thoroughly entertaining and instructive narrative of travel. Not the least 
 important featuremustbeconsideredthemwierouswellexecuiedillustratioizs" 
 
 Strangford.— EGYPTIAN SHRINES AND SYRIAN SEPUL- 
 CHRES, including a Visit to Palmyra. By Emily A. Beaufort 
 (Viscountess Strangford), Author of "The Eastern Shores of 
 the Adriatic." New Edition. Crown 8vo. "Js. dd. 
 
 Tait.— AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH HISTORY, based upon 
 Green's " Short History of the English People." By C. W. A. 
 Tait, M.A., Assistant Master, Chfton College. Crown 8vo. 
 3^-. 6d. 
 
''HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 27 
 
 Tait. — CATHARINE AND CRAUFURD TAIT, WIFE AND 
 SON OF ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, ARCHBISHOP OF 
 CANTERBURY : a Memoir, Edited, at the request of the Arch- 
 bishop, by the Rev. \V. Benham, B.D., Vicar of Margate, and 
 One of tlie Six Preachers of Canterbury Catliedral. With Two 
 Portraits engraved by Jeens. Crown 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 " The volume can scarcely fail to be read widely and with deep interest. 
 , . . It is difficult to put it doinn when once taken in hand, still more 
 difficult to get through it ivithout emotion. . . . We commend the volume 
 to those who knew Cathanne and Craufurd Tait as one which will bring 
 lack to their minds recollections of their characters as true as the recollec- 
 tions of the faces brought back by the two excellent portraits which adorn 
 the book ; while to those who knew them not, we commend it as containing 
 the record of two noble Christian lives, which it will be a pleasure 10 
 them to contemplate and an advantage to emulate. ^^ — Times. 
 
 Thomas. — the life of JOHN THOMAS, Surgeon of the 
 "Earl of Oxford" East Indiaman, and First Baptist Missionary to 
 Bengal. By C. B. Lewis, Baptist Missionary. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 Thompson. — HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Edith Thomp- 
 son. Being Vol. II. of the Historical Course for Schools, Edited 
 by Edward A. Freeman, D. C. L. New Edition, revised and 
 enlarged, with Maps. l8mo. 2j. (>d. 
 " Freedom from prejudice, simplicity of style, and accuracy of state- 
 ment, are the characteristics of this volume. It is a trustworthy text-book, 
 and likely to be generally serviceable in schools." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 " In its great accuracy and correctness of detail it stands far ahead of the 
 general run of school manuals. Its arrangement, too, is clear, and its 
 style simple a7td straightforward." — Saturday Review. 
 
 Todhunter. — the conflict of studies ; and 
 
 OTHER ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 EDUCATION. By Isaac Todhunter, M.A., F.R.S., late 
 Fellow and Principal Mathematical Lecturer 01 St. John's College, 
 Cambridge. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 Trench (Archbishop). — For other Works by the same Author, 
 
 see Theological and Belles Lettres Catalogues, and 
 
 page 30 of this Catalogue. 
 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, and other Lectures 
 
 on the Thirty Years' War. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. 4?.'^ 
 PLUTARCH, HIS LIFE, HIS LIVES, AND HIS MORALS. 
 
 Five Lectures. Second Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. y. bd. 
 LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY. Being 
 
 the substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College, London. 
 
 Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 12s. 
 
28 MACMTLLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN 
 
 Trench (Maria). — THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA. By Maria 
 Trench. With Portrait engraved by Jeens. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 extra. 8j. td. 
 ' ' A book of rare interest. " — ^JOHN Bull. 
 
 Trench (Mrs. R.) — REMAINS OF THE LATE MRS. 
 RICHARD TRENCH. Being Selections from her Journals, 
 Letters, and other Papers. Edited by Archbishop Trench. 
 New and Cheaper Issue, with Portrait. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Trollope. — a HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF 
 FLORENCE FROM THE EARLIEST INDEPENDENCE 
 OF THE COMMUNE TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC 
 IN 183 [. By T. Adolphus Trollope. 4 Vols. 8vo. Half 
 morocco. 21s. 
 
 Uppingham by the Sea. — a narrative of THE 
 YEAR AT BORTH. By J. H. S. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel II., First King of Italy HIS 
 
 LIFE. By G. S. Godkin. 2 vols., crown Svo. j6s. 
 ** An extremely elear and interesting history of one of the jnoit 
 important changes of later tinies.^^ — Examiner. 
 
 Wallace.— THE MALAY ARCHIPELAQO : the Land of the 
 
 Orang Utan and the Bird of Paradise. By Alfred Russel 
 
 Wallace. A Narrative of Travel with Studies of Man and 
 
 Nature. With Maps and numerous Illustrations. Sixth Edition. 
 
 Crown Svo. "Js. 6d. 
 
 * ' The result is a vivid pictnre of tropical life, which may be read with 
 
 unflagging interest, and a sufficient account of his scientific conclusions to 
 
 stimulate our appetite without wearying us by detail. In short, we may 
 
 safely say that we have never read a more agreeable book of its kind." — 
 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 Ward. — A HISTORY OF ENGLISH DRAMATIC LITERA- 
 
 TURE TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. By A. W. 
 
 Ward, M.A., Professor of History and English Literature in 
 
 Owens College, Manchester. Two Vols. Svo. 32J. 
 
 " As full of interest as of information. To students of dramatic 
 
 literature invaluable, and may be equally recommended to readers for 
 
 mere pastime." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Ward (J.)— EXPERIENCES OF A DIPLOMATIST. Being 
 recollections of Germany founded on Diaries kept during the years 
 1840— 1870. By John Ward, C.B., late H.M. Minister- 
 Resident to the Hanse Toivns. Svo. lOs. 6d. 
 
HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC, 29 
 Waterton (C.)— wanderings IN SOUTH America, 
 
 THE NORTH-WEST OF THE UNITED STATES, AND 
 THE ANTILLES IN 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. With 
 Original Instructions for the perfect Preservation of Birds, etc., 
 for Cabinets of Natural History. By Charles Waterton. 
 New Edition, edited with Biographical Introduction and Explana- 
 tory Index by the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A. With 100 Illustrations. 
 Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Wedgwood. — ^JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL 
 REACTION of the Eighteenth Century. By Julia Wedgwood. 
 Crown 8vo. &r. 6d. 
 
 Whewell.— WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D., late Master of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. An Account of his Writings, with 
 Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence. By 
 I. ToDHUNTER, M.A., F.R.S. Two Vols. 8vo. 25^. 
 
 White. — THE NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES 
 OF SELBORNE. By Gilbert White. Edited, with Memoir 
 and Notes, by Frank Buckland, A Chapter on Antiquities by 
 Lord Selborne, Map, &c., and numerous Illustrations by 
 P. H. Delamotte. Royal 8vo. Cloth, extra gilt. Cheaper 
 Issue. 2 1 J. 
 Also a Large Paper Edition, containing, in addition to the above, 
 upwards of Thirty Woodburytype Illustrations from Drawings 
 by Prof. Delamotte. Two Vols. 4to. Half morocco, elegant. 
 4/. 4j. . 
 
 "Mr. Delamoitis charming illustrations are a worthy decoration of se 
 
 dainty a book. They bring Selborne before us, and really help us^ to 
 
 understand why Whites Icrue for his native place never grew cold: — 
 
 Times. 
 
 Wilson.— A MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON, M. D., 
 F R S.E., Regius Professor of Technology in the University of 
 Ediiiburgh. By his Sister. New Edition. Crown 8vo. bs. 
 Wilson (Daniel, LL.D.) — Works by Daniel Wilson, 
 LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University 
 College, Toronto :— 
 PREHISTORIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND. New Edition, 
 
 with numerous Illustrations. Two Vols, demy 8vo. f>s. 
 " One of the most interesting, learned, and elegant works we have 
 iff«/«'a/i.«^//«^."— Westminster Review. 
 
 PREHISTORIC MAN : Researches into the Origin of Civilization 
 hi the Old and New World. New Edidon, revised and enlarged 
 Ihroughout, with numerous lUustrations and two Coloured Plates. 
 Two Vols. 8vo. 36^. 
 
30 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Wilson. — contimted. 
 
 ' ' A valuable work pleasantly written and well worthy of attention 
 both by students and general readers." — Academy. 
 
 CHATTERTON : A Biographical Study. By Daniel Wilson, 
 LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University 
 College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6^. dd, 
 
 Yonge (Charlotte M.)— works by Charlotte M. Vonge, 
 Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe," &c., &c. :— 
 
 A PARALLEL HISTORY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND : 
 consisting of Outlines and Dates. Oblong 4to. 3^. dd. 
 
 CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. From Rollo to Edward 
 II. Extra fcap. 8vo. Third Edition. 5J-. 
 
 Second Sekies, THE WARS IN FRANCE. Extra fcap. 
 8vo. Third Edition. 5^. 
 
 Third Series, THE WARS OF THE ROSES. Extra 
 fcap. 8vo. Sj'. 
 
 "Instead of dry details," joj'j- rt^ Nonconformist, "-wehave living 
 pictures, faithful, vivid, and striking." 
 
 Fourth Series. Reformation Times. Extr.i fcap. Svo. ^s. 
 
 HISTORY OF FRANCE. Maps. i8mo. y.6d. 
 
 \f-Iistoric il Course for Schools. 
 
WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 31 
 
 POLITICS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL 
 ECONOMY, LAW, AND KINDRED 
 SUBJECTS. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Law.— essays in. Contents : Law Courts 
 — Land and Family Laws and Legal Procedure generally. With 
 Select cases. Medium 8vo. \%s. 
 
 Arnold. — the ROMAN system of provincial ADMIN- 
 ISTRATION TO THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE 
 THE GREAT. Being the Arnold Prize Essay for 1879. By 
 W. T. Arnold, B.A. Crown 8vo. (>s. 
 
 Ball. — THE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE BAR. By 
 Walter W. Ball, M.A., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at- 
 Law. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 " The student will here find a clear statement of the several steps by 
 
 which the degree of barrister is obtained, and also usejul advice about 
 
 the advantages of a prolonged course of ' reading in Chambers. ' " — 
 
 Academy. 
 
 Bernard. — FOUR LECTURES ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED 
 WITH DIPLOMACY. By Montague Bernard, M.A., 
 Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Oxford. 
 8vo. 9J. 
 '^ Singularly interesting lectures, so able, clear, and attractive." — Spec- 
 tator. 
 
 Bright (John, M.P.) — Works by the Right Hon. John Bright, 
 M.P. 
 
 SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC POLICY. 
 Edited by Professor Thorold Rogers. Author's Popular Edition. 
 Globe 8vo. 3^. dd, 
 "Mr. Bright' s speeches will always deserve to be studied, as an 
 apprenticeship to popular and parliamentarv oratory ; they will form 
 materials for the history of our time, and many brilliant passages, 
 perhaps some entire speeches, will really become a part of the living litera- 
 ture of England." — Daily News. 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION. Two Vols, 8vo. With Portrait. 25^. 
 PUBLIC ADDRESSES. Edited by J. Thorold Rogers. 8vo. 
 I4J-. 
 
32 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Bucknill.— HABITUAL DRUNKENNESS AND INSANE 
 DRUNKARDS. By J. C. Bucknill, M.D., F.R.S., late 
 Lord Chancellor's Visitor of Lunatics. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Cairnes. — Works by J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Emeritus Professor oi 
 Political Economy in University College, London. 
 ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, THEORETICAL 
 and APPLIED. By J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Professor of Political 
 Economy in University College, London. 8vo. los. 6d. 
 POLITICAL ESSAYS. 8vo. loj-. 6d. 
 SOME LEADING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 
 
 NEWLY EXPOUNDED. 8vo. i+v. 
 Contents : — Fart I. Value. Part II. Labour and Capital, Pari 
 III. International Trade. 
 
 "A work which is perhaps the most valuable contribution to the science 
 made since the publication, a quarter of a century since, of Mr. MitCs 
 'Principles of Political Economy.'' " — Daily News. 
 THE CHARACTER AND LOGICAL METHOD OF POLL 
 
 TICAL ECONOMY. New Edition, enlarged. 8vo. Js. 6d. 
 ' * These lectures are admirably fitted to correct the slipshod generaliza- 
 tions which pass current as the science of Political Economy."- — Times. 
 
 Cobden (Richard). — SPEECHES ON questions OF 
 PUBLIC POLICY. By Richard Cobden. Edited by the 
 Right Hon. John Bright, M.P., and J. E. Thorold Rogers. 
 Popular Edition. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Fawcett. — Works by Henry Fawcett, M.A., M.P., Fellow of 
 Trinity Hall, and Professor of Political Economy in the University 
 of Cambridge : — 
 THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF THE BRITISH 
 
 LABOURER. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. 
 MANUAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Fifth Edition, witli 
 New Chapters on the Depreciation of Silver, etc. Crown 8vo. 
 12s. 
 The Daily News says: "It forms one of the best introductions to the 
 principles of the science, and to its practical applications in the problems 
 of modern, and especially of English, government and society." 
 
 PAUPERISM : ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES. Crown 8vo. 
 
 Tlie Athen^um calls the work "a repertory of interesting and well 
 digested information." 
 
 SPEECHES ON SOME CURRENT POLITICAL QUES- 
 TIONS. 8vo. 10^. 6(/. 
 " They will help to educate, not perhaps, parties, but the educators of 
 parties. ' ' — Dai ly News. 
 
IVOUKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 33 
 
 Fawcett. — continued. 
 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION: an Inquiry into the 
 Causes which have retarded the general adoption of Free Trade 
 since its introduction into England. Third Edition. 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 " No greater service can be rendered to tJ^e cause of Free Trade than a 
 clear explanation of the principles on which Free Trade rests. Pro- 
 fessor Fawcett has done this in the volume before us with all his habitual 
 clearness of thought and expression."- — Economist. 
 
 ESSAYS ON POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SUBJECTS. By 
 Professor Fawcett, M.P., and Millicent Garrett 
 Fawcett. 8vo. los. 6d. 
 " They will all repay the perusal of the thinking reader." — Daily 
 News. 
 
 Fawcett (Mrs.) — Works by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR BEGINNERS. WITH QUES- 
 TIONS. New Edition. i8mo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 The Daily News calls it "clear, compact, and comprehensive ;" and 
 the Spectator says, "Mrs. Fawcetfs treatise is perfectly suited to its 
 purpose." 
 
 TALES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY. Crown 8vo. 3^-. 
 
 ** The idea is a good one, and it is quite wonderful what a mass of 
 economic teaching the author manages to compress into a smull space. . . The 
 true doctrines of International Trade, Currefuy, and tJie ratio between 
 Production and Population, are set before us and illustrated in a masterly 
 manner!' — Athen^um . 
 
 Freeman (E. A.), M.A., D.C.L.— comparative 
 
 POLITICS. Lectures at the Royal Institution, to which is 
 
 added " The Unity of History," being the Rede Lecture delivered 
 
 at Cambridge in 1872. 8vo. \/\s. 
 
 " f^e find in Mr. Freeman! s new volume the same sound, careful, 
 
 comprehensive qualities which have long ago raised him to so high a place 
 
 amongst historical writers. For historical discipline, then, as well as 
 
 historical information, Mr. Freeman's book is full of value." — Pall 
 
 Mall Gazette, 
 
 Goschen. — reports and speeches on local taxa- 
 
 TION. By George J. Goschen, M. p. Royal 8vo. 5^. 
 " Tkt volume contains a vast mass of information of the highest value." 
 — Athenaeum. 
 
 Guide to the Unprotected, in Every Day Matters Re- 
 lating to Property and Income. By a Banker's Daughter. 
 Fourth Edition, Revised. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3j. dd. 
 
34 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF 
 
 "Many an unprotected female will bless the head whkh planned and 
 the hand which compiled this adtnirable little manual. . . . This book 
 was very much wanted, and it could not have been better done." — 
 Morning Star. 
 
 Hamilton. — MONEY AND VALUE: an Inquiry into the 
 
 Means and Ends of Economic Production, with an Appendix 
 
 on the Depreciation of Silver and Indian Currency. By Rowland 
 
 Hamilton. 8vo. i2j. 
 
 " The subject is here dealt with in a luminous style, and by presenting 
 
 it from a new point of vtew in connection with the nature and functions 
 
 of money, a genuine service has been rendered to coTnmercial science.'* — 
 
 British Quarterly Review. 
 
 Harwood. — DISESTABLISHMENT : a Defence of the Principle 
 of a National Church. By George HARWOOD, M. A. 8vo. I2s, 
 
 Hill. — OUR COMMON LAND : and other Short Essays. By 
 OCTAVIA Hill. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 3 
 
 Contents : — Our Common Land. District Visiting, A More 
 Excellent Way of Charity, A Word on Good Citizenship. Open Spaces. 
 Effectual Charity. The Future of our Coinmons. 
 
 Historicus. — LETTERS ON SOME QUESTIONS OF 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW. Reprinted from the Times, with 
 considerable Additions. 8vo. "js. ' 6d. Also, ADDITIONAL 
 LETTERS. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Holland.^THE TREATY RELATIONS OF RUSSIA AND 
 TURKEY FROM 1774 TO 1853. A Lecture delivered at Oxford, 
 April 1877. By T. E. Holland, D.C.L., Professor of Inter- 
 national Law and Diplomacy, Oxford. Crown 8vo. 2s. 
 
 Hughes (Thos.) — the OLD church : WHAT SHALL 
 WE DO WITH IT? By Thomas Hughes, Q.C. Crown 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Jevons. — Works by W. Stanley Jevons, M.A., Professor of 
 Political Economy in University College, London. (For other 
 Works by the same Author, see Educational and Philo- 
 sophical Catalogues.) 
 
 THE THEORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Second Edition, 
 
 revised, with new Preface and Appendices. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 ' 'Lrofessor Jevons has done invaluable service by courageously claiming 
 
 political economy to be strictly u branch of Applied Mathematics. 
 
 — Westminster Review. 
 
 PRIMER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. i8mo. i^. 
 
WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 35 
 
 Laveleye. — primitive property. By Emile de 
 
 Laveleye. Translated by G. R. L. Marriott, LL. B., with an 
 
 Introduction by T. E. Cliffe Leslie, LL.B. 8vo. 12?. 
 
 " It is almost impossible to over-estimate the valtie of the well-digested 
 
 kncrwledge which It contains ; it is one of the most learned books that 
 
 'have been contributed to the historical department of the literature of 
 
 economic science." — AtheNjBUM. 
 
 Leading Cases done into English. By an Apprentice 
 OF Lincoln's Inn. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 2j. dd. 
 ** Here is a rare treat for the lovers of quaint conceits, who in reading 
 this charming little book will find enjoyment in th£ varied m-etre and 
 graphic language in which the several tales are told, no less than in the 
 accurate and pithy rendering of some of our most familiar ' Leading 
 Cases.'' " — Saturday Review. 
 
 Lubbock.— ADDRESSES, POLITICAL AND EDUCA- 
 TIONAL. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., &c., &c. 
 8vo, pp. 209. 8j. 6d, 
 The ten speeches given are (i) on the Imperial Policy of Great 
 Britain, (2) on the Bank Act of 1844, (3) on the Present System 
 of Public School Education, 1876, (4) on the Present System of 
 Elementary Education, (5) on the inconoeTax, (6) on the National 
 Debt, (7) on the Declaration of Paris, (8) on Marine Insurances, 
 (9) on the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, and (10) on Egypt. 
 
 Macdonell. — the land question, with special 
 
 REFERENCE TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. By 
 John Macdonell, Barrister-at-Law. 8vo. los. Cd. 
 
 Marshall. — the ECONOMICS OF industry. By A. 
 Marshall, M.A., Principal of University College, Bristol, and 
 Mary Paley Marshall, late Lecturer at Newnham Hall, 
 Cambridge. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. dd. 
 
 Martin. — the STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK: A Statistical 
 
 and Historical Annual of the States of the Civilized World, 
 
 for the year 1880. By Frederick Martin. Seventeenth Annual 
 
 Publication. Revised after Official Returns. Crovm 8vo. los. td. 
 
 The Statesman's Year-Book is the only work in the English language 
 
 which furnishes a clear and concise account of the actual condition of all 
 
 the States of Europe, the civilized cmntries of AmMca, Asia, and 
 
 Africa, and the British Colonies and Dependencies in all parts of the 
 
 world. The new issue of the work has been revised and corrected, on the 
 
 basis of official reports received direct from the heads of the leading Gcrvern- 
 
 ments of the world, in reply to letters sent to them by the Editor. Through 
 
 the valuable assistance thus given, it has been possible to collect an amount 
 
36 MACMILLAWS CATALOGUE OF 
 
 of information, political, statistical, and cofntnercial, of the latest date, and 
 of unimpeachable trustworthiness, such as no publication of tht same 
 kind has ever been able to furnish. "As indispensable as Bradshaw." — 
 Times. 
 
 Monahan. — the METHOD OF LAW; an Essay on the 
 Statement and Arrangement of the Legal Standard of Conduct 
 By J. H. Monahan, Q. C. Crown 8vo. 6.f. 
 ** Will be found valuable by careful law students who have felt the 
 
 importance of gaining clear ideas regarding the relations between the parts 
 
 of the complex organisM they have to study." — BRITISH QUARTERLY 
 
 Review. 
 
 Paterson the LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT AND THE 
 
 LAWS OF ENGLAND RELATING TO THE SECURITY 
 
 OF THE PERSON. Commentaries on. By James Paterson, 
 
 M. A. , Barrister at Law, sometime Commissioner for English and 
 
 Irish Fisheries, etc. Cheaper issue. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. 2\s. 
 
 ' ' Two or three hours' dipping into these volumes, no/ to say reading them 
 
 through, will ^ve legislators and stump orators a knowledge of the liberty 
 
 of a citizen of their country, in its principles. Us fulness, and its modi* 
 
 fication, such as they probably in nine cases out of ten never had before." 
 
 — Scotsman. 
 
 Phillimore.— PRIVATE LAW AMONG THE ROMANS, 
 from the Pandects. By JoHN GEORGE PHILLIMORE, Q.C. 8vo. 
 16^-. 
 
 Rogers.— COBDEN AND POLITICAL OPINION. By J. E. 
 TiioROLD Rogers. 8vo. \os. 6,/. 
 " Will be found most useful by politicians of every school, as it forms a 
 sort of handbook to Cobden's teaching." — Athen'.EUM. 
 
 Stephen (C. E.)— THE SERVICE OF THE POOR; 
 
 Being an Inquiry into the Reasons for and against the Establish- 
 ment of Religious Sisterhoods for Charitable Purposes. By 
 Caroline Emilia Stephen. Crowft 8vo. ds. td. 
 " The ablest advocate of a better line of work in this direction that we 
 have ever seen." — EXAMINER. 
 
 Stephen.— Works by Sir James F. StRPHEN, K.C.S.I., Q.C. 
 
 A DIGEST OF THE LAW OF EVIDENCE. Third Edition 
 witli New Preface. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 A DIGEST OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. (Crimes attd 
 
 Punishments.) 8vo. i6j. 
 " We feel sr.re that any person of ordinary inttlligence who had netrtr 
 looked into a law-book in his life might, by a few Sifi' etirefal stuMy dj 
 
V^dRKS IN PO LI tic's, ETC. 37 
 
 Stephen. — continued. 
 
 this volume, obtain a more aceuf-ate nnderstdnding of the criminal laTlo, 
 a vwrt perfect c'o-nceptio'n of its different bearings, a mor^ thorough 
 Und inielligent insight into its snares and pitfalls, than an ordinary 
 practitioner can boast of after years of study of the ordinary text' 
 %ooks d'kd practical experienc'e of the Courts unassisted by any coihpetiM 
 jKiaif. "^Saturday Review. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE CRIMINAL LAW OF ENG- 
 LAND. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. \New edition in the. press. 
 
 Stubbs. — VILLAGE POLITICS. Addresses and Sermons on 
 the "Labour Question. By C. W. Stubks, M.A., Vicar of 
 Granborough, Bucks. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. ()d. 
 
 Thornton. — Works by W. T. Thornton, C.B., Secretary for 
 
 Public Works in the India Office : — 
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WORKS ON LANGUAGE. 39 
 
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40 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF 
 
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WORKS ON LANGUAGE. 41 
 
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Now publishing, in crown 8vo, price zs. 6d. each. 
 
 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 
 
 Edited by JOHN MORLEY. 
 
 A Series of Short Books to tell people what is best worth knowing 
 to the Life, Character, and Works of some of the 
 great Englibh Writers. 
 
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 STEPHEN. 
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 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. —GOLDSMITH. By 
 
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ENGLISH MEN OF liUmB-Conimued. 
 
 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.— BURNS. By Principal 
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 the genius of Scotland's greatest poet." — Spectator, 
 
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 ANTHONY TROLLOPE. 
 
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 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. - BURKE. By John 
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 Just ready. 
 
 MILTON. By Mark Pattison. 
 
 In preparation. 
 
 HAWTHORNE, By Henry James. 
 SOUTHEY. By Professor Dowden. 
 CHAUCER. By Professor Ward. 
 COWPER. By GOLDWIN Smith. 
 BUNYAN. By J. A. Froude. 
 WORDSWORTH. By F. W. H. Myers, 
 Others in preparation. 
 
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lunuon: 
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 BREAD STliEET HTLL. 
 
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