Page:An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India.djvu/14

 and many of its principles and legends have undoubtedly been derived from that stratum of the people which it is convenient to call non-Aryan or Drávidian. The necessity, then, of investigating these beliefs before they become absorbed in Bráhmanism, one of the most active missionary religions of the world, is obvious.

I may say that the materials of this book were practically complete before I was able to use Mr. J. S. Campbell's valuable collection of "Notes on the spirit basis of belief and custom:" but in revising the manuscript I have availed myself to some extent of this useful collection, and when I have done so I have been careful to acknowledge my obligations to it. Even at the risk of over-loading the notes with references, I have quoted the authorities which I have used, and I have added a Bibliography which may be of use to students to whom the subject is unfamiliar.

The only excuse I can plead for the obvious imperfections of this hasty survey of a very wide subject is that it has been written in the intervals of the scanty leisure of a District Officer's life in India, and often at a distance from works of reference and libraries.

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