A Statistical Account of Bengal, Volume 17

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Trübner & Company, 1877 - Bengal (India)
 

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Page 115 - Commissioner, or other chief officer charged with the executive administration of the district in criminal matters, with power to try as a Magistrate all offences not punishable with death, and to pass sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, including such solitary confinement as is authorized by law, or of fine, or of whipping, or any combination of these punishments authorized by law ; but any sentence of upwards of three years...
Page 48 - when the granaries are full of grain, and the people, to use their own expression, full of devilry. They have a strange notion that at this period, men and women are so over-charged with vicious propensities, that it is absolutely necessary for the safety of the person to let off steam by allowing for a time full vent to the passions.
Page 165 - ... respective draughts being 3 and 4 cwt., or 24 and 32 stone. The question then which remains is, whether two horses abreast can, on this land, be made to do the work not of four but of three horses in line. As it is a question of interest, I will beg to lay before the Society, as shortly as possible, such information as I have been able to obtain on the subject, after taking all the means in my power. The Scotch ploughman stated, as a general opinion in his own original district, that two horses...
Page 42 - much variety, and I think in a great many families there is a considerable admixture of Aryan blood. Many have high noses and oval faces, and young girls are at times met with who have delicate and regular features, finely-chiselled straight noses, and perfectly formed mouths and chins.
Page 171 - Whenever the young men of the village go to the darbdr and beat the drums, the young girls join them there, and they spend their evenings dancing and enjoying themselves without any interference on the part of the elders. The Bhuiya dances have their peculiar features, but, compared with the lively and graceful movements of the Kols, they are very tame performances.
Page 48 - He prays that, during the year they are about to enter on, they and their children may be preserved from all misfortune and sickness, and that they may have seasonable rain and good crops. Prayer is also made in some places for the souls of the departed.
Page 172 - ... and after the meal they dance and sing and flirt all night together, and the morning dawns on more than one pair of pledged lovers. Then the girls, if the young men have conducted themselves to their satisfaction, make ready the morning meal for themselves and their guests; after which the latter rise to depart, and still dancing and playing on the drums, move out of the village followed by the girls, who escort them to the boundary. This is generally a rock-broken stream with wooded banks ;...
Page 55 - Mundari village and they may now be found so marking sites in parts of the country where there have been no Kols for ages; but in addition to the slab on the tomb, a megalithic monument is set up to the memory of the deceased in some conspicuous spot outside the village.
Page 171 - The dances, when confined to the people of the village, are regarded as mere rehearsals. The more exciting and exhilarating occasions are when the young men of one village proceed to visit the maidens of another village, or when the maidens return the call. The young men provide themselves with presents for the girls, generally consisting of combs for the hair and...
Page 49 - ... though devoid of all prudery, and of the obscene abuse, so frequently heard from the lips of common women in Bengal, they appear to have no knowledge. They are delicately sensitive under harsh language of any kind, and never use it to others; and since their adoption of clothing they are...

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