From several centuries before the Christian era a double stream of traders and adventurers began to flow into Indo-China from, respectively, Northern and Southern India, reaching the upper parts of the peninsula by land through Burmā and its southern coasts by sea, and founding there settlements and commercial stations. Brahmanism and, later on, Buddhism (third century b.c.), with most other achievements of Indian culture, followed in the wake of these pioneers; and thus it is to ancient India that Indo-China owes her early civilization. By the dawn of the Christian era, as I have elsewhere demonstrated, Buddhism had already gained a firm foothold on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula near the head of the Gulf of Siām, whence it advanced and soon spread all over the country of the Më-Nam Delta. On the other hand, Brahmanism had established itself in Central and Northern Siām, where Swankhalôk and Sukhôthai formed its principal foci. It is not till about four centuries later that we begin to hear of Nagara Śrī Dharmarāja (Dharmanagara), or Ligor, as the chief centre of both Buddhism and Brahmanism on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula; and to find both faiths—but more especially Buddhism—firmly established in the territory of P‘hraḥ Prathom in the present Nakhōn C‘hai Śrī province, in the Më-Nam Delta.

My object in the following paper is to give a brief account of the wild tribes dwelling in the tract of country lying between the Brahmaputra and the Kaiendwen, Namtonai, or Ningthi, as it is indifferently called, the great western branch of the Irrawaddy.

I shall not attempt to give any description of the manners and customs of these tribes, but shall confine myself to indicating the localities which they inhabit, their probable numbers, their principal villages, and the names by which they are known among themselves and to the people of the plains; this last is very important, as many instances have occurred where inquirers working in different parts of the same country have described what is essentially one and the same tribe under different names, and the result has been that people residing at a distance have in more than one instance supposed them to be distinct tribes.

In examining the development of colonial capitalism in India historians have increasingly recognized the importance of specific cultural contexts in determining the character of the emergent industrial sector. In particular, the impact of pre-capitalist mores on the recruitment, organization and supervision of industrial workers has been an important concern. In the Calcutta jute industry, for instance, Dipesh Chakrabarty has concluded that the authority of factory sardars was derived largely from a pre-capitalist culture with “a strong emphasis on religion, community, kinship, language, and other similar loyalties”. Similarly, Ranajit Das Gupta's exploration of the industrial labour market in north eastern India has revealed that “indebtedness, primordial loyalties and relations of personal dependency were extensively used to keep labour under control”. Studies of trade union development have also acknowledged the enduring importance of the cultural milieu carried by workers to the mills, mines and plantations of colonial India.

I Propose to offer to the Society some illustrations of the sacrifice of human beings as an element of the ancient religion of India.

In the first book of the Ramayana a curious legend is narrated of the son of the Rishi Richíka, named S'unahśephas, who was sold by his father for a hundred thousand cows to Ambarísha, the king of Ayodhyá, to supply the place of a sacrificial animal or victim intended for a sacrifice, but stolen by Indra. S'unahśephas is accordingly conveyed to the place of sacrifice, and being dressed in red garments and decorated with garlands of red flowers, is bound to the stake. By the advice of Viśwámitra he prays to Indra and Agni with two sacred verses (gáthás, according to Schlegel's edition; richas, in Gorresio's) communicated to him by the Rishi, and Indra bestows upon him long life, whilst at the same time the king is not disappointed of his reward. This version of the legend leaves it doubtful whether an actual sacrifice of the victim, or one only typical, is intended.

The origin and duration of the empire of the Medes, which occupied 80 important a position in early Asiatic history, has been the subject of attention to many recent writers. The Lectures of Niebuhr on the Medes and Persians are probably familiar to us all. Dr. Leonard Schmitz, the translator of Niebuhr's works, has recently published his matured views on the same subject. Mr. Johannes Von Gumpach in 1852, Professor Brandis in 1853, and Jacob Kruger in 1856, have also expressed their views upon Median history and chronology; and within the last twelve months, the works of Marcus Von Niebuhr on Assyrian and Babylonian history, and the translation of Herodotus by the Rev. George Rawlinson, have appeared, embracing and commenting upon the early history of the Medes.

Amongst the many works of antiquity whose loss we have to deplore, are those of the historian of Charax. Some of them, if our good fortune had permitted their preservation, would have diffused a strong light upon the study of Oriental subjects, which owing to the progress of research and discovery at home and abroad, is prosecuted with increased ardour by the learned throughout Europe. His Parthic history, for example, was a work which to us would have been invaluable. Amongst the fragments of his composition remaining, is, however, an Itinerary of a route through the principal parts of Asia, an ancient relic of exceediug worth, and which, from its perfect accuracy, cannot be sufficiently commended.

In an appendix to the publication of the translatíon of the Travels of Fa Hian, the Foe Koue Ki, was added an itinerary professing to be that of another Chinese traveller, Hiouen Thsang, who visited India in the first half of the seventh century. As it was an extract from a geographical Encyclopædia of comparatively recent compilation, some doubt was suggested as to the degree of confidence to which it was entitled, although enough of interest was obviously attached to the account, and it was most desirable that we should have access to the original through the medium of a translation into some familiar idiom. The eyes of European scholars were naturally directed to the most eminent of sinologues, M. Stanislas Julien, who, in compliance with their wishes, undertook and has now completed the task. Some notice of the result of his labours will be, no doubt, acceptable to the Royal Asiatic Society, although the limited space that is compatible with the extent of the Journal compels me to a more summary review than a careful and minute analysis would require.

That the extensive island of New Guinea (by the Malays denominated Tanah Papūah or land of people with frizzled hair) should be less known to Europeans than almost any other part of the Eastern Archipelago, may be chiefly attributed to the savage manners of its inhabitants, whom the more civilized race of people in the neighbouring islands have always represented as cannibals; but of the justness of which imputation no direct proofs have hitherto been furnished by our navigators. How far the following detail of circumstances may warrant a belief that a practice well ascertained to exist in Sumatra and New Zealand, prevails also in a district of this country, the reader will form a judgment for himself, upon estimating the degree of credit to which it is entitled. The evidence of what is so abhorrent from our nature ought, doubtless, to be free from the suspicion either of credulity, or of a disposition to the marvellous; but on the other hand it may be questioned whether those who, from attachment to preconceived opinions, endeavour by captious arguments, or by ridicule, to discredit what is supported by unexceptionable testimony, are not equally enemies to the cause of truth, with those who by plausible relations give colour to what is false.

In all ages the ascendancy of the hierarchy is observable; it is a tribute paid to religion through her organs. Could the lavish endowments and extensive immunities of the various religious establishments in Rajast'han be assumed as criteria of the morality of the inhabitants, we should be authorized to assign them a high station in the scale of excellence. But they more frequently prove the reverse of this position; especially the territorial endowments, often the fruits of a death-bed repentance, which, prompted by superstition or fear, compounds for past crimes by posthumous profusion, although vanity not rarely lends her powerful aid. There is scarcely a state in Rajpootana in which at least one-fifth of the soil is not assigned for the support of temples, their ministers, the secular Brahmans, bards, and genealogists. But the evil was not always so extensive; the abuse is of modern growth.

1. I have numbered the lines in both texts for ease of reference. This inscription is undamaged except for the lower left-hand corner.

Though personally unknown to you, I am aware, from many of your articles in different publications, of the great interest which you take in the subject of Buddhistical antiquities. I believe, therefore, that what I am about to communicate will be my best apology for the liberty I now take in addressing you. I have read your last Essay on the Social, Moral, and Political State of Ancient India several times over with the greatest interest, and I have traced Fa Hian's route upon the map with unfortunately more zeal than success. Some points, however, I have been able to clear up, which have escaped the researches of all the critics, including Wilson and yourself. It is regarding these that I now venture to address you. I will begin with the kingdom of Seng-kia-chi, or in English spelling Seng-kia-shi.

The origin and earlier history of the Chinese coinage have been discussed in several European works, of which the most important are, in order of date, Dr. W. Vissering's “On Chinese Currency,” Leiden, 1877; Professor S. M. Georgievsky's “Drevneishia moneti Kitaichev” (The Ancient Chinese Coins), 1889; and M. Terrien de Lacouperie's “Catalogue of Chinese Coins,” printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1892.

There exists in some parts of Ceylon an occult ceremony called the Kohobā Yakkama, which according to tradition was introduced into the island by the three sons of Sita: Malaya, Kit-Śrī, and Sadalidu, among whom Malaya, the flower-born prince, took the leading part. This is the story connected with the first ceremony of its kind.