Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/284

 262 Reviews.

Mr. E. D. Maclagan. Mr. Rose's book modestly announces itself as based on these authorities, but, as might have been expected, he has added much important information collected by himself.

The Punjab, as a field for ethnographical enquiry, is more interesting than might have been expected. In the plain country, it is true, Brahmanism and Islam, now the predominant religions, have obliterated much of the primitive beliefs ; but it must be remembered that the province lay outside the bounds of the Holy Land of the Hindus, and, as was shown in later days by the rise of Sikhism, the people never came so completely under priestly control as was the case in the Ganges Valley. In its hill tribes, also, partly of Tibetan origin, partly refugees from the plains, there is an interesting opportunity for exploration of primitive beliefs and usages.

Mr. Rose's book is purely ethnographical ; he does not attempt to deal with physical types, possibly because he has realized that craniometry is not a satisfactory test of race. The tribal history from the earliest times is a record of constant migrations, by which the elements out of which the present population has grown have become so inextricably mixed that it is almost hopeless to attempt to discriminate them. The chapters which fall within the present volume on the more important tribes, — Brahmans, Chuhras, Gujars, Jats, Khattris, — are full of interesting matter connected with religion, rites and ceremonies, folklore, and superstitions, to which it is impossible to refer in detail. The completion of the work will be awaited by all anthropologists with interest, and it must rank as one of the most valuable contributions to the knowledge of the Indian races.

If I may venture to add a word or two of criticism, I would suggest that, as the book will be widely used by students un- familiar with Indian dialects, the text should be, as far as possible, relieved of the numerous vernacular terms which serve only to embarrass the reader. It is only necessary to give these in parentheses, and thus many of the numerous footnotes would be no longer required. Secondly, it would be advisable to give cross-references to accounts of those Punjab tribes which have been described in other volumes of the series. The new series of Gazetteers of Rajputana and the United Provinces might have