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 [FEp. 2, 1872.

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

64

who gave away his birthright to a younger, and, as yet unborn brother, to please an imbecile father. You can also see Chawand, another home of Pratāp. The paiace on the mount at Debar, and many an ancient place, seem to lie at one's feet when he stands on the peak of Prasād.

Dense

jungle clothes hill and dale, and affords shelter to many a wild beast and shade to thousands of cattle—the property of the valiant Bhill, whose hand is against every man, and

against whom all are prepared to fight; for this hardy

QUERIES.

Mode of Dating in Orissa. 2. IN Orissa, it is the custom in all Zemindary ac counts, receipts, leases, and other documents to denote the month by the sign of the Zodiac, instead of by the familiar names of asterisms used by the whole Aryan race in India. Thus— Baisakh is called..... àw... Mesha. Aries.

mountaineer levies rakwali, or black mall, upon all who

pass through his territory, and who are unable to protect

Jesht .................. #T ... Wrisha.

themselves—a difficult matter, seeing that the Bhill's war

Ashārh ...............


 * 44.

Taurus.

Mithuna

Gemini.

cry will bring an armed man from behind every bush Shraban ............... 3,353ſ. Kakada.

and rock :—

Bhādrab ...............

“Wild as the scream of the curlew, From crag to crag the signal fiew— Instant, thro' copse and heath, arose. Bonnets. and spears and bended bows;

fäg... Sinha.

Leo.

Virgo.

Asin..................... 3.74ſ... Kanya. Kártik..................

H+... Tula.

On right, on left, above, below,

Márgsir (Agrahan).. ſhe'ſ... Bichhá.

Sprung up at once the lurking foe.”

Paush (Pās.).........

Not sooner sprang the kilted clansman into view at the -

whistle of Roderick Dhu than

Cancer.

WH. ...

Libra.

Scorpio.

Sagittarius.

Dhanu.

Capricornus.

JTFU...Makara.

answers the Bhil to his

Phágun ............... 5*

brother's call.

At Jowara we lived in temples, the delicate tracery of whose ornamentation would afford a model for more than

one architect.—Times of India, Jan.

prevails in any other part of India. The singular

DISCOVERY OF FORGOTTEN RECORDS.

A cuRIOUs discovery of neglected and forgotten Records has lately been made by the Commissioner of the Bardwan Division, and, singularly enough, the treasure has been unearthed in a collectorate, the records of which had already been searched by Dr. Hunter. While inspecting the Collector's office, Mr. Buckland found a number of old English manu script books lying in an open rack in the clark's room, where they had been exposed for an un known period to the ravages of time and white-ants, and undisturbed by any previous explorer, having by some accident been left out of the treasury almirahs. Among these, the most neglected, have been found what are probably the oldest records of Birbhum ; for Mr. Keating is mentioned in the “Rural Annals” as the first Collector of that

district whose records survived, and here we have

the correspondence of Messrs. Foley and Sherburne, the former of whom was Collector in November

1786, two years before Mr. Keating, and the latter in April 1787. Indeed, the correspondence contains a complete account of the eighteen months' admi nistration of the latter officer, and furnishes a clue

to the cause of his removal and subsequent trial. The letters of Mr. Foley's time are chiefly between that officer and the Board of Revenue.

One of

them is remarkable as presenting an early existence of recourse to the sale of land for arrears of revenue, and showing that the step was most reluctantly taken.

In 1787 wild elephants were so numerous

in Birbhum that the whole district was in danger of being overrun by them ; and shikaris were sent

from Silhet and Chittagong to aid in their cap ture.—Englishman.

.. Kumbha. Aquarius. Chaitra ............... #TT ... Mina. Pisces. I should be glad to know if this curious custom thing is that the months are lunar, although thus indicated by solar names. Weber, in a valuable essay on the Vedic Nakshatras, reprinted from the

Journal of the Berlin Scientific Society, points out the existence of several systems of names for the months, which I have hitherto believed to be obso lete. It may be, however, that some of them are still preserved in remote corners of India. Chand, in one of his earlier chapters, speaks of the month

of Sahas (858), which I believe to be Kārtik. As I am writing from camp I cannot give the reference either to Chand or Weber.

JOHN BEAMES. Balasore, January 15th, 1872.

Clearing Inscriptions. 3. In deciphering inscriptions on stone tablets, my efforts have often been completely frustrated by a practice that the natives have of smearing the stones with oil. The oil forms a cake on the stones, often a quarter of an inch thick, thus obliterating all traces of the writing underneath. Can you or any of your readers inform me of any application by means of which the oil may be suc cessfully removed without any risk of injury to the inscribed tablet 2

25th January 1872. F. All oils and oxidized oils may be removed by Benzine, and were the crust nothing more, that solvent would answer ; but no doubt contact of lime, red-lead, &c. has converted it almost into a mineral incrustation, and the best plan would be to apply carefully either concentrated acetic or nitric acid—having first ascertained that the stone will not be acted on by these. Constant application of a mixture of turpentine and benzine is very good for searching out and removing traces of oil. But if the stone could be kept for some time in a hot solution of washing soda or pearl ashes, it would take out almost anything. D. S. K.