7.  ’This mode of suicide is called Bhrigu-pata, “throwing one’s self from a precipice”.  It was once equally common at the rock of Girnar [in Kathiawar], and has only recently been prohibited’ (ibid. p. 349).

8.  Nagpore (Nagpur) was governed by Maratha rulers, with the title of Bhonsla, also known as the Rajas of Berar.  The last Raja, Raghoji, died without heirs in 1853.  His dominions were then annexed as lapsed territory by Lord Dalhousie.  Sir Richard Jenkins was Resident at Nagpur from 1810 to 1827.  Nagpur is now the head-quarters of the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces.

9.  ’There is a legend that Siva appeared in the Kali age, for the good of the Brahmans, as “Sveta”, “the white one”, and that he had four disciples, to all of whom the epithet “Sveta” is applied’ (Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, p. 80, note 2).  Various explanations of the legend have been offered.  Professor A. Weber is inclined to think that the various references to white teachers in Indian legends allude to Christian missionaries.  The Mahabharata mentions the travels of Narada and others across the sea to ‘Sveta-dwipa’, the ‘Island of the White Men’, in order to learn the doctrine of the unity of God.  This tradition appears to be intelligible only if understood to commemorate the journeys of pious Indians to Alexandria, and their study of Christianity there (Die Griechen in Indien, 1890, p. 34).

10.  The Ramlila, a performance corresponding to the mediaeval European ‘miracle-play’, is celebrated in Northern India in the month of Kuar (or Asvin, September-October), at the same time as the Durga Puja is solemnized in Bengal.  Rama and his brother Lachhman are impersonated by boys, who are seated on thrones in state.  The performance concludes by the burning of a wicker image of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka (Ceylon), who had carried off Rama’s queen, Sita.  The story is the leading subject of the great epic called the Ramayana.

11.  The Lathyrus sativus is cultivated in the Punjab and in Tibet.  Its poisonous qualities are attributed to its excessive proportion of nitrogenous matter, which requires dilution.  Another species of the genus, L. cicer, grown in Spain, has similar properties.  The distressing effects described in the text have been witnessed by other observers (Balfour, Cyclopaedia, 3rd ed., 1885, s.v.  ’Lathyrus’).

12.  One of the tent-pitchers one morning, after pitching our tent, asked the loan of a small extra one for the use of his wife, who was about to be confined.  The basket-maker’s wife of the village near which we were encamped was called; and the poor woman, before we had finished our breakfast, gave birth to a daughter.  The charge is half a rupee, or one shilling for a boy, and a quarter, or sixpence, for a girl.  The tent-pitcher gave her ninepence, which the poor midwife thought very handsome, The mother had come fourteen miles upon a loaded cart over rough roads the night before; and went the same distance with her child the night after, upon the same cart.  The first midwife in Europe could not have done her duty better than this poor basket-maker’s wife did hers. [W.  H. S.]