APPENDIX. No. I.-Comprises copies of treaties with Grasya chiefs of Meywar made in the beginning of 1828, by mediation of Major Speirs. These are generally engagements to cease from disturbance and plunder, and from entertaining rebels; and to attend the government in its service when called upon; to hold themselves responsible for losses sustained by travellers and traders within their territories; and to collect their revenues according to a regulated system. No. II. Miscellaneous Remarks on the Characier and Customs of the Bhils; by Colonel Robertson, formerly Collector in Candeish. The Bhíl banditti are a timid race; screening themselves in fastnesses, and only, like beasts of prey, venturing abroad under cover of the night, or in the absence of forces. The men as well as the women, are very hard-featured. The clothing of the men is often not more than the calls of decency require. They can live on the products of the wilds, for a considerable time; but generally they show every sign of being badly fed. This is not because they cannot find employment, for they can all cultivate if they choose, but because they are inveterately idle, and would rather eat half a meal of indifferent food, provided they are not obliged to work, than a good and substantial meal procurable by labour. In their plundering expeditions they often live in the fields, at their appointed stations, with their families; and all their stock and effects consist generally of not more than a wretched cow or buffalo, a few fowls, a small fishing-net, and now and then a sword or matchlock, with a bow and plentiful supply of arrows. They are very cruel and regardless of life; will, any day, become assassins for a trifling recompense, and are very revengeful; they themselves comparing their enmity to the bite of a snake. They are immoderately fond of liquor; and it is to the quantity expended that the marriage of a Bhil owes all its éclat. Rather than be deprived of this luxury for any time, they will resort to every excess. They kill and eat the cow, and have little or no religion. They share equally in plunder, except when under an hereditary chief, whose share is then a chowth. The term Tarvi, applied to the Mohammedan Bhíls, supposed to 192 REPORT ON THE HILL POPULATION OF MEYWAR. have been converted to that religion in the reign of Aurungzeb, Sir J. Malcolm erroneously supposed to be a title. The Mohammedan Bhíls are cleaner in their persons than the Hindu Bhíls; have better features; and are more civilised, speaking Hindustani. The Patels often encourage the Bhíls in plunder, in order to share in their spoils. The different classes of Bhils are the Turvo, Nahallo, Bhílalas, Kokanis, Dorepass, Munchas. The latter race are very superstitious, changing their place of residence at the slightest ill-omen, such as the death of a dog or a fowl. Their honesty is surprising: on quitting a temporary residence, if they have been unable to pay the government dues, they have been known to send the sum the next year. The Bhils are kind and affectionate fathers, and great faith may be attached to their word. Their simplicity is extraordinary; if any offender is seized, he not only confesses his fault, but any others he may have committed; and details his adventure with the most apparent sang froid and innocence, stating the names of his associates, be they friends or near relatives. The seizure of their women is one of the best means of bringing the husbands to terms. There is little religion among them. They keep all feasts, Hindu and Mussulman, with equal zeal; and the most solemn form of oath is that of mixing salt, cowdung, and jowarree, and lifting up the mixture : this is called the meat gowree. If a Bhíl perjures himself on this oath he is deemed execrable, and abandoned by his caste. No. III. Consists of Extracts from Sir John Malcolm's Memoir on Central India, Vol. I., pp. 516, 517, 524, 526, 550, 576; Vol. II., pp. 155, 179, 450, 469. No. IV. Is a treaty between the East India Company and the Maharana Bheem Sing, of Oodeypore, concluded at Delhi on the 13th January, 1818, whereby the Maharana entrusted his dominion to the protection of the British Government. See Treaties, printed by Parliament, February, 1819, p. 38. No. V.-Contains a statement of the dues levied by the Bhíl Pals between Oodeypore and Khairwarra, and a list of the Grasya Hill chiefs of Babul and Khairwarra. ART. X.-On the Hyssop of Scripture; by J. FORBES ROYLE, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., and G.S., &c., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, King's College, London. [Read June 15, 1844.] WHEN I lately had the honour of reading a paper before the Society, on the Mustard Tree of Scripture, I ventured to make some observations on what I considered to be the requisites for, and the best mode of pursuing, as well as upon what we should admit as proofs in, such enquiries. I proceed now to treat of another Biblical plant, which is not less interesting than the Mustard Tree to determine. This is the Hyssop, frequently mentioned in the Old, and twice independently in the New Testament, and which, if we are to judge by the numerous attempts which have been made to ascertain the particular plant that is meant, is not less difficult to determine, than any one of the several unascertained plants of the Bible. That I may not seem to exaggerate what appeared to others the difficulties of ascertaining this plant, I will quote the commencement of the article on Hyssop of the learned and judicious Celsius: "De plantis plerisque in Hebræo Veteris Testamenti codice commemoratis, imprimisque de 8, recte pronuntiare, res est longe difficillima. Veritatem hic, si uspiam, Scruposis sequimur vadis. Nec tractabile pondus est, ut loqui amat Terentianus." It was not to Celsius alone that this appeared to be a difficulty; for he says farther on, "Aben Ezra, inter Ebræos commentatores facile princeps, suam ignorantiam, circa hanc stirpem, palam, et ingenue fatetur ad Exod. xii. 22;" and he thus translates the passage from the Hebrew of Aben Ezra: "Quænam hæc sit plantarum, ignoro," "cætera, quanta est, Rabbinorum turba modo hanc, modo aliam conjectando, satis declarant, hujus plantæ notitiam sibi, Ebrææque genti periisse." Celsius Hierobotanicon, i. pp. 407 et 409. Trusting that according to the acknowledged difficulties of the undertaking, so will be the indulgence accorded to any attempt to VOL. VIII. 0 unravel its intricacies, I proceed, in the first instance, to adduce the passages in Scripture referring to Hyssop. The first mention of Hyssop in the Old Testament, is immediately previous to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, and at the first institution of the Passover, when Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, (Exodus xii. 22,)“ And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason.” From this passage it is evident that the plant must have been indigenous in Lower Egypt, and that it must have been sufficiently large and leafy, to be fit for sprinkling the door posts as directed. 2. The next notices of the hyssop are in Leviticus and in Numbers, which books having been written by Moses, indicate that the substances which he directs to be employed for sacrificial purposes, must have been procurable in the situations where the Israelites wandered, that is, in the countries between Lower Egypt and Palestine. Thus in the ceremony practised in declaring lepers to be clean, the priest is directed (Levit. xiv. 4) "to take for him that is to be cleansed, two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop." These are again all mentioned both in verse 6 and in verse 52. So in Numbers xix. 6, in the ceremony of burning the heifer and preparing the water of separation, the directions are: "And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer;" and in verse 18, "That a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there," &c. Here we again see that the hyssop must have been large enough to be suitable for the purposes of sprinkling; that it must have been procurable on the outskirts of Palestine, probably in the plain of Moab. It is to this passage that the Apostle alludes in Hebrews ix. 19: "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves, and of goats, with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people." In this passage we obtain no additional information, but as in the Septuagint the application of the Greek term vσowños as the equivalent of the Hebrew name esof. 3. The next passage where hyssop is mentioned in chronological order is in the beautiful psalm of David, where the royal penitent says (li. 2), "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin;" and in verse 7, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." This expression is considered by Bishop Horne (and also by others), in his Commentary on the Psalms, to refer to the rite described in the above passages, as the ceremony of sprinkling the unclean person with a bunch of "hyssop," dipped in the "water of separation." expres But though the passage no doubt has a figurative signification, yet, with all due deference to such high authorities, the mode of sion is so direct, as to appear to me, as if the hyssop itself did possess, or was supposed to have some cleansing properties. If so, such might have led originally to its selection for the different ceremonies of purification, or such properties may have been ascribed to it in later ages, in consequence of its having been employed in such ceremonies. At all events, if the plant which we suppose to be the hyssop of Scripture can bear this signification, it will not be less appropriate. 4. The next notice of hyssop is in 1 Kings iv. 33, where in the account of the wisdom of Solomon it is said: "And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." In this passage we find that the plant which is alluded to by the name of esob, must also have grown upon a wall, though not necessarily to the exclusion of all other situations. Some commentators have inferred that the plant alluded to must have been one of the smallest, to contrast well with the cedar of Lebanon, and thus show the extent of the knowledge and wisdom of Solomon. But nothing of this kind appears in the text. The last passage which we have to adduce occurs in the New Testament, where in the crucifixion of our Saviour the Apostle John relates (xix. 29): "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth." This passage has elicited the remarks of various critics, and inferences have been drawn respecting the nature of the plant, from the use to which it was applied. Others have observed, that the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, in relating the same circumstance, make no mention of the hyssop, but state that the sponge was put upon a reed, and given him to drink. The deductions which we may legitimately draw from the above passage are, that the hyssop was a plant of Judea, found indeed in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and that it seems to have been used as a stick to which the sponge was fixed. If the plant which I suppose to be hyssop is calculated to answer this purpose, it will likewise answer for the elucidation of the parallel passages in the other Evangelists. Salmasius, as quoted by Celsius says: "Quodcunque feceris, et licet in omnia tete vertas, probabilem aliam verbis Evangelista explicationem adplicare non possis, præter eam, quæ voσwnov pro calamo, vel virga hyssopi, cui alligata erat spongia Christo |