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JULY, 1874.]
of námakarma with little hopes that they will survive her. But in case where one outlives the age of its predecessors, she summons a Korati, to whom a quantity of oil and rice and a few copper pieces are given. The mother brings the child, and transfers it to the care and the protection of the Kora ti for a while. The latter receives it into her hands, becomes its foster-mother, and adorns it with some iron bracelets which she brings with her. She names the child as Kora pulu if female, or Koraga if male-these names being changeable at the marriage of the girl or at the upanayanam of the boy. She returns it to the parents, prophesying that the child will live long. This is the last and most ignoble ceremony resorted to by the credulous mother, who believes that the child has received a fresh lease of life, and that she has little to fear-although in many cases it turns out that the cold hand of death never hesitates to carry it away. There are, however, some cases, but they are very few, where the wishes of a mother have been fully realized, as they imagine, by this process.
ON, THE REGISTRATION OF DEEDS IN BENGAL.
Another ceremony of equal importance has been in vogue in this part of the country-a ceremony usually observed when a man is dangerously ill, or his fortunes are at a low ebb. He gets a large quantity of jinjili oil in an earthen vessel, which receives a similar kind of worship as that of his family idol. He sees his likeness reflected in the oil, and puts in it a hair of his tuft and a nail from his toe. The oil is then charitably doled out to the Koragars, when the Hindu thinks that the offended deities have been propitiated, or the evil constellations averted. Thus the Koragar feasts through the superstition of his brother of the upper class.
Though it would be bold presumption in one with little philological attainments to speak on a dialect, the subject is too important to be passed
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over altogether. It is a common belief that the Koragars have a peculiar dialect generally spoken by them at their koppus. But the omnipotent Mammon himself, as the Brahmans would have it, cannot tempt a Koragar to tell anything on this important subject. He may be induced to give an account of his feasts, his god, and his family, but a word about his dialect will frighten him out of his wits. At that moment alone he will become impolite and unmannerly. He thinks his dialect is a shield in his hand, and cannot be parted with, and therefore keeps it as a sacred secret. But good words and kind treatment can do something. A few of the words, that have been gathered with great difficulty, resemble those of the Keika di and Naikunde Gondi tribes in Nagpur.
With a black face, forehead of moderate size, and strong body, all bespeaking contentment, the Koragar is separated from the rest of mankind -alien in dress, in manners, customs, and dialect. Uneducated and illiterate as he is, in his circle virtue thrives as in her proper soil. Lying, stealing, adultery, and other social evils he knows not. He has never appeared in a court of justice as a defendant in a suit. He drinks toddy, it is true, and the practice, I believe, he must have acquired from his intercourse with the higher class of Sadras. He eats flesh; on what else shall he live while we have denied him every means of subsistence? While every nation, every society, nay,every individual, is striving for honours and improvement, the Koragar, born as a slave, is richly content with his ignorance, with his koppu, and with his squalid poverty. Ambition finds in him no place; he eats but the rotten flesh of the dead cattle; ho clothes himself but with rags, which are to him what the most costly raiment is to us. Persuade him to change his clothing; lecture him on his nakedness; and he will run away or say "I am well off with my poverty."
ON THE REGISTRATION OF DEEDS IN BENGAL BY KAZIS.
(From Report on the Administration of the Registration Department in Bengal for 1872-73.) In Bengal, as elsewhere under Muhammadan rule, the Kâzis exercised very considerable powers. The place which they held in the administration is pretty clearly shown in the following extract from a letter addressed to the Council at Fort William by the Committee of Circuit, dated Kasimbazâr, August 15th, 1772:
"The general principle of all despotic governments, that every degree of power shall be simple and undivided, seems necessarily to have introCurry . Riced. Boy fed. eve. Did you take your rice ? = - ಇಜ್ಜಾ ಔರಪಕಿ,
duced itself into the courts of justice; this will appear from a review of the different officers of justice instituted in these provinces; which, however unwilling we are to engross your time with such details, we deem necessary on this occasion, in proof of the above assertions, and in justification of the regulations which we have recommended:
"1st. The Nazim, as Supreme Magistrate, presides personally in the trials of capital offenders, and holds a court every Sunday, called the Roz Adalat. Bring ಉಪಕಲಾ ಬಾ, Buy = ಕಲಿಕಾಲ, Come here =
