THE following pages consist of scraps often jotted down at the end of a long journey through the jungles, or when, solitary and tired, I passed away an evening after a hard day's work in Cutcherry.
I have attempted to convey to the reader the impressions that I have derived from my acquaintance with an interesting tribe.
Their traditions are noted as received from themselves or from the Reverend F. Lehman, and their customs as they came under my own observation.
The speculations in Chapters VIII and X are mentioned in the spirit of enquiry rather than in that of argument, and are condensed as much as possible.
In the Chapter on the origin of the Sonthal rebellion, I have given the opinion of the Sonthals on it. This opinion I have inferred from their chance expressions and desultory conversations, sometimes uttered while they were slightly under the influence of liquor, and there- fore without caution in their speech. Whether their opinion is a correct one, or the contrary, I leave an open question; but I have no doubt as to the genuineness of the expression of their feelings, and that "out of the fullness of their hearts their mouths have spoken."
I am indebted to the Reverend Messrs. F. Lehman and J. Phillips for their kind assistance in the Sonthali language and songs, for which I render my best thanks; as well as to the Hon'ble G. Campbell for his Ethnological List, and to Colonel T. Dalton, Commissioner of Nagpur, for his paper on the Coles.
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