PREFACE.
Many books have been written on Bráhmanism, or the official religion of the Hindus; but, as far as I am aware, this is the first attempt to bring together some of the information available on the popular beliefs of the races of Northern India.
My object in writing this book has been threefold. In the first place, I desired to collect, for the use of all officers whose work lies among the rural classes, some information on the beliefs of the poeple which will enable them, in some degree, to understand the mysterious inner life of the races among whom their lot is cast; secondly, it may be hoped that this introductory sketch will stimulate enquiry, particularly among the educated natives of the country, who have as yet done little to enable Europeans to gain a fuller and more sympathetic knowledge of their rural brethern; and lastly, while I have endeavoured more to collect facts than to theorize upon them, I hope that European scholars may find in these pages some fresh examples of familiar principles. My difficulty has arisen not so much from deficiency of material as in the selection and arrangement of the mass of information which lies scattered through a considerable literature, much of which is fugitive.
I believe that the more we explore these popular superstitions and usages, the nearer are we likely to attain to the discovery of the basis on which Hinduism has been founded. The official creed has always been characterised by extreme Catholicism and receptivity,
