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BOOK-NOTICES.
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Some say that there was a pig, not a lamb, and that it was carried by a sweeper.
Saturday and Sunday seem in some way to be sacred to horned cattle, as on those days neither cattle, nor leather, nor ghi must be bought or sold; and all cattle that die on those days must be buried, instead of being eaten by the kamins (village menials).
DENZIL IBBETOON in P. N. and Q. 1883.
MUSALMAN TOMBS. It is my impreseion that the symbols on Muslaman tombs vary considerably according to their locality. I think I can give an explanation of the question, regarding the oblong bollows on the top of certain Muhammadan tombs which I believe to be the tombs of women, but I do not think these hollows are filled with earth as is there supposed, but with the accumulated sedi. ment of pounded sandal wood. In the year 1878 we spent some days at Fatehpur Sikri, about 22 miles from Agra. In the large court-yard of the mosque at this place is the tomb of Salim Chishti, the great saint of the time of Akbar. It was no doubt esteemed a very high privilege to be buried near Lim. Several tombs close by were pointed out to me by the guardian of this tomb as the
last resting places of some of the ladies of, and female attendants at, the court of the Mugha Emperors. On Thursday evening, just about sunset, I was sitting near the saint's tomb, when a well dressed native (Musalmin of course) came by me, carrying a basin in his hand, which held perhaps a pint of a thick-looking liquid, the colour of cocoa. He proceeded to pour a small quantity of this on sereral tombs, into hollows similar to those described. After he had finished his pious duty, I accosted him, and learnt that these were all women's tombs on which he poured the libation, and that he was in the habit of pour ing this mixture of pounded sandal wood and water on them every Thursday at that hour. The late Mrs. MURRAY-AINSLIE in P. N.
and Q. 1883. RUSTIC DIVISIONS OF THE DAY. WITH the Panjabi nidda roti compare the Mathura expression kemara chhóla, which means easy noon - i. e., not quite time for the midday collation, komara or ko mala being equivalent to narm, soft or easy; while chhaka probably represents the Sanskrit chashaka, a drinking vessel, and corresponds with what a Suffolk harvester calls his "beaver" (the French boire), a snack between breakfast and lunch. The late F. S. GROWSE in P. N. and Q. 1883.
BOOK-NOTICES. NOTES ON THE LANGUAGES OF THE SOUTH ANDA- 1 minute knowledge and painstaking accuracy of MAN GROUP OF TRIBES. By M. V. PORTMAX. the author. In addition, the information given (Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government
is mostly original, and all of it is at first band. Printing, India, 1898). 1
The whole, therefore, forms a volume of great This is a heavy quarto, 390 + 191 pica pages, intrinsic merit and value to philologists. Its pages printed in a type easy to read, but in a confused contain, perhaps, the most thorough examination manner for a work of this kind, which requires to which any 'savage' language has yet been the judicious use of varied founts to bring out subjected. Mr. Portman bas, in truth, by this the points clearly for the reader. The blame for book added considerably to the debt of gratitude this fault no doubt does not lie with the author, that science already owes him for his long. from what one knows of the vagaries of a Gov. continued, patient, and intelligent studies of the ernment Press.
Andamanese. It is a work of exceeding interest to myself for His peculiarities are, of course, now well known, many reasons, and perhaps I ought not to bave including his defiant adherence to expressed views, undertaken to notice it for this Journal, as it fre: and accordingly we bave again his old trick of quently alludes to my own work on the subject, assuming that the public understands, without and is based on my own suggestions as to the assistance, references to obscure and sentree form it has taken. But the thought that the books. Indeed, in one place he refers to "My Andamanese languages are of necessity known to History of our relations with the Andamanese," a few only, has overruled personal considerations which is not yet out, so far as I know; at any and induced me to agree to do so. The labour rate, I have never been favoured officially or involved in the production of this elaborate otherwise with a printed copy thereof. And theu work, spread over nearly twenty years, must he enters into a long criticism of details of Mr. have been very great, and every page shows the Man's invaluable monograph on the Andamonese
1 First printed in the J. R. A. S. for April, 1899.
