| caption: |
Austin leaves for Longmaiching; disparaging remarks about the accuracy of Dalton's work on the Nagas in the 'Ethnology of Bengal' |
| note: |
inaccurate spelling in the original text |
| text: |
8th March. Austin left us again this morning enroute for Longmaiching. |
| text: |
9th March. Amused myself by reading some of Daltons work on the Ethnology of Bengal and was much surprised to find that the letter press at all events as far as the Naga Tribes are concerned is not in my humble opinion worth very much and yet this is the very portion of the book for the accuracy of which he states in his preface that he himself is alone responsible. It seems strange that he should not apparently ever have considered it worth his while to refer to any of the Frontier Officers in Assam, for I notice that although he concludes his preface with a long list of officers to whom he is indebted for their contributions there is not a single Assam Officer among the list. I should very much like to have Williamson's opinion on the Garo portion of this work and Bivars on the Khasiah with Shadwell's on the Jaintias. Whilst talking of this I must not however forget to mention here that Thomson told me this morning that on further enquiry regarding the percentage of the Manipuri figuring on plate XIX |
