Page:A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of the District, or Zila, of Dinajpur.djvu/103

Rh to be possessed of the science, and have frequent opportunities of putting their Mummery in practice, as devils are thought to be common, and Goya is at a considerable distance.

Other incantations are used on many other occasions, sometimes innocent enough; such as when a girl employs a wise man (Aushodhokari), to secure the affection of her lover: but they are also used with criminal intentions, such as to procure the destruction of an enemy, or to remove a disease from one person to another. The belief in these is not only universal among the vulgar, but seems pretty general even among the higher rank; and a landholder of old family, a Brahmin by caste, had lately before my visit attempted to remove a mortal disease from his mother to some person that was indifferent. All these incantations and the whole of the mummery are part of the Tontros, and of the Hindú science called Agom.

to the opinion of the principal native officer of revenue, three-fourths of the whole people of this district are Muhammedan; but my native assistant estimates the Muhammedans at !9 of the population. In each division, I consulted the most intelligent persons on this subject, and have placed the result of their opinions, concerning the proportion of Hindús and Muhammedans, in the general statistical table. If the extent of occupied land in each Thana be divided in these proportions, and the whole sums of each be added, to enable us to form an estimate of the population, the result will be, that the Moslems are to the Hindús in the proportion nearly of 70 to 30, somewhat more than the estimate of my assistant, and considerably less than that of the officer of revenue. Both are Brahmins. In the statistical table, No. 3, will be found an estimate of the numbers belonging to each class, into which I have divided the population.

The Muhammedans seem to be on the decrease; for most of the landlords and their agents being Hindús give these encouragement to settle, and wherever a landholder’s house has been for any length of time established, there is found a considerable number of the pure tribes, which is seldom the case in any other part. I think it indeed probable, that the persecution by Sultan Jalaluddin nearly exterminated the Hindús; for at least a half of those now in the district may be traced as having emigrated from other countries, especially from Kamrup, which was not subject to the Muhammedans until after the persecution. Although the two people have mutually adopted many of each other’s religious practises, yet there is a considerable ill-will between them, which is only prevented from going to excess by the fear of an indifferent power, that is superior to both. Many of the inferior offices of government, and almost all the lands being in possession of Hindús, the Muhammedans are rather sufferers; not however to any very outrageous degree. They chiefly indeed suffer from not being allowed to kill oxen, and from the depredations of sacred bulls or other consecrated cattle: and it is alleged, by encroachments on their religious endowments; these indeed cannot well expect to escape, even the Brahmins complain of the landholders’ rapacity.