Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/202

178 banks of the Damuda river. The girl may, or may not, afterwards marry the man she consorts with here, but the man is not by any means bound to ask her in marriage; the custom is said to have arisen in this way.

On a certain occasion during the annual mêla, a young girl permitted the improper attentions of a young man, and soon afterwards found herself in an interesting condition; vainly she entreated the young man to marry her, and hide her shame; he would not, and her parents came to find it out, and killed her (some say she was not killed). From that day, girls were allowed to do what they liked during the fair at Telkupi, and that which was originally only a permissive custom, has now petrified into a compulsory observance!

The aboriginal races of India are generally, I believe, admitted as Turanian, and there is good reason to believe that the Turanian races formed the substratum of the population of Babylon: the Sântals of India, and the lower classes of the people of Babylon would, therefore, be branches of the same race, and the prevalence among the former, even at this day, of a custom, however modified, which we know prevailed in Babylon, may be more than an accidental coincidence: the speculation is, however, too wide for me to venture on.  

About 10 miles to the south-west of Barâkar stands the high solitary hill of Pachet; at its south-eastern foot is the fort of Pachet, once the residence of the Rájás of Pachet, now deserted and in disrepair; the name of this fort is said to be a contraction of Panchakot, and the explanation of the name now given is, that the Rájás of Pachet reigned over five Rájás, but the word clearly means five forts, and I consider the name to have reference rather to the number of walls that defend the citadel—"kot." There are four sets of walls, each within the other, surrounding the kot on the west, south, and east, the north being defended by the hill itself, at the toe of the slope of which the citadel stands; but, beyond the last line of the walls of the fort, tradition says, ran another line of walls, and the positions ascribed to the parts of this wall show that the so-called outermost rampart was nothing else than the natural ridge-lines of the undulating country round the fort; taking this outer natural line of ramparts—if ramparts they can be called,—we have the five sets of walls necessary to explain the name. 