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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

a letter suggesting that enquiries be made as to the description and extent of the remains mentioned in the list, and that “ lists be collected of all remains, rock temples, ancient shrines, monasteries, wells, forts, &c. &c., with such accounts of each, how ever fragmentary, as informants may be able to supply.” A copy of Mr. Burgess' letter with the Memorandum and lists referred to, and extracts from despatches from the Secretary of State bearing on the subject have been forwarded to the Resident at Haidarabad, with a request that he will move the Nizam's Darbār to collect and communicate such

information as it may be able to obtain regarding the archaeological remains in His Highness the Nizam's territory. Intimation has been received that this information has been called for from the

local authorities by the Nizam's minister.” A grant of Rs. 3,000 from one per cent Income tax balances was made during the year under re port for the conservation and restoration of the Muhammadan buildings at Ahmadabad, and the

[AUGUST 2, 1872.

money was expended on the palace at Sarkhej: the total expenditure from first to last at Sarkhej has been Rs. 10,231. The Harim, which was half ruined and fast becoming wholly so, has been re stored as far as is apparently necessary to retain the original architectural effect. Much attention has been paid to make the new portions an exact copy of the old work.

All the fallen stones that could

be found have been replaced in their proper posi tion, and the new carving has been accurately copied from the old. The municipality of Bijapur have expended in the past year a sum of Rs. 480 in repairs to the following old architectural buildings of the place,—Ibrāhīm Rozah, Gáli Gumbaz, Bhagi Mahal, and Taj Bavadi. General Tremenheere, Political Resident, Aden, having reported that an Arab had brought to him from the interior a very interesting inscribed stone, orders were given to purchase the stone for the sum of Rs. 150 ; and the stone has been forwarded to the British Museum from Aden.

ASIATIC SOCIETIES.

Bengal Asiatic Society.

At the meeting of the Society on 5th June, Capt. W. L. Samuells, Assistant Commissioner, Mânbhūm, read a paper on the legend of Bāghesar, current among certain clans of Gonds, descended from a family of five brothers named Kūsrú, Sárſ, Markām, Netia, and Sársfin, that once upon a time a tiger cub was born to Küsrú. As it grew up, the young

tiger made itself very useful in keeping predatory animals from its father's crops, and in consequence the greatest affection existed between them. To

Kúsrú's intense grief the cub died, but shortly afterwards his wife gave birth to a daughter who in due time became marriageable. The marriage ceremonies had been completed, and the party were about to enjoy themselves with feasting and dancing, when suddenly a frightful sound is heard proceeding from one of the company who had be come possessed with a demon. On interrogation by an exorcist the demon is recognised by Kūsrú to be the spirit of his lost tiger-son. The demoniac is appeased with the sacrifice of a live kid which he tears in pieces after the manner of a tiger, and after being presented with three cupfuls of liquor and some mouthfuls of fine ghí, disappears. The appear ance is considered a most happy omen, and Küsrú's tiger-son is thenceforth deified, and worshipped un der the name of Bághesar by the five clans. To this day among the descendants of the five brothers, during their marriage ceremonies it is usual for one or two of those present, generally the officiating priest and a looker on, to feign being pos of 108 buildings in Indur, Bir, Yalgandal and Shorapur' has been received; but it contains no “remains' but what are
 * Since the Report was published a “Translation of a List

sessed with the soul of a tiger, and in that state to kill and tear to pieces a live kid. The demons are afterwards appeased by the bride's father with an offering of three cupfuls of liquor and a mouthful of ghi. No marriage ceremony in these five clans is considered complete without the appear ance of Bāghesar and the attendant rites. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Nos. 174, 175, 176, for 1872. Nos. 174 and 175 contain the papers on Physical Science. These are :—Part IV of a ‘Monograph of Indian Cyprinidae, by Surgeou F. Day; ‘Zoo logy of Sikkim, by W. T. Blanford, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S.; ‘Notes on the Ornithology of Kas'mir, by W. E. Brooks, C.E. : ‘Note on various new or little known

Indian Lizards, by Dr. F. Stoliczka ; ‘On the Osteo logy of Triaenops Persicus,' by G. E. Dobson, B.A., M.B.; ‘Third list of Birds from the Khasi and Garo Hills, by Major H. H. Godwin-Austin, F.R.G.S. ; ‘On Differential Galvanometirs, by Louis Schwen dler, Esq.; and “On Birds from Sikkim, by W. T. Blanford, Esq. The first paper in No. 176 is a ‘List of Words of the Nicobar language as spoken at Kamorta, Nan kauri, Trinkutt, and Katschal, by E. H. Man, Esq. The next is on ‘Buddhist remains in Orissa,' by J. Beames, B.C.S., Balasor. At Chhatiã 16 miles north of Katak, the writer says “I came to a flat surface of laterite closely resembling that at Kopa ri. At the foot of a small hill was a square plat form, about 40 feet square, of hewn laterite stones, from which rose twelve pillars, octagonal and with described to be “in gºod condition :”—genuine ruins have been carefully excluded, and it is a mere list, no descrip tions of even the briefest sort are attempted.—ED,