Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal

Abstract

THE Sántáls are one of several aboriginal tribes of India whose home is in the hills of Bihar and Chota Nagpur. Before 1855, when, infuriated by the subtle extortions of the Hindu moneylender, they rose in rebellion (and are said to have shown their valour by standing up fairly with axe and bow to a charge of suppressive cavalry), they were little seen or heard of outside their own jungles. Brave and self-reliant as they are, they live in terror of devils. Though their homesteads in their characteristic villages are well spaced in a long row on either side of a single street, without any cross-streets or unhealthy alleys,. they are not exempt from the diseases generally endemic in India or from the common epidemics of the country; and their untutored minds think of disease as caused by devils, which they call bongas, and auxiliary witches.

Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Vol. 10, No. 2: Studies in Santal Medicine and connected Folklore. By Rev. P. O. Bodding. Part 2: Santal Medicine. Pp. 131-426. (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927.) 10.11 rupees.