Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/321

 Correspondence. 303

direct inquiry, but often in a casual, unexpected way. For instance, some reference to a quaint custom or belief will often occur in the course of a trial in court, and any one interested in such things will do well to keep a notebook at hand in which a point may be noted for future inquiry. But most will be learnt in the course of the annual tour in camp which forms an important part of the life of the Indian civil officer. Walking through the fields attended by the village greybeards, you will often come across a rural shrine containing curious fetishes, images, or offerings, about which any one who knows the people and their language and displays a sympathetic interest in their customs and beliefs, can usually with- out much difficulty obtain information. It is quite different in the grander shrines, like those of Benares or Mathura, for instance, where the officiants have a much higher idea of their purity and importance, look on all Europeans with more or less suspicion, and are decidedly disinclined to say much about their gods or their worship.

I need hardly say that the best chance of learning anything is to chat quietly with the people in their own villages, without the company of native officials, and particularly under circumstances, shooting for instance, where the gulf that lies between the " Sahib " and the native is temporarily bridged over.

It is fatal to success to lean exclusively on the educated native gentleman or on the higher native official. The former is usually puffed up with a belief in his own importance, despises the rustic and his ways, and considers it a sign of refinement to feign ignorance of " superstitions " which his women-folk may believe, but from which he would fain dissociate himself. The class, again, of educated or semi-educated natives, such as those engaged in the lower grades of official work, are as a rule untrustworthy informants on matters of popular belief. They do not perhaps always desire to deceive ; but they are generally so obsequious and anxious to gain the favour of a superior that they try to follow his lead, to say " of course " or " without doubt " in answer to any assertion he makes. This pliability of temper is in Northern India most marked among the Bengalis, and is less common among manlier races such as the Rajput, Jat, or Sikh.

Inquiries of this kind can seldom be carried on side by side with official work. If the " Sahib " comes into a village to inquire into the assessment of the income tax, for instance, or to fix the