The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-02 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. 1.

WHO ARE THE SANTALS ?—" Who are the Santals?"
is a question which, until recently, few even in India
could answer. The name is familiar enough to those
who have paid much attention to the condition of the
aborigines of India, and much light has been thrown
on the habits of the people by recent missionary re-
searches. Thus a very elaborate description of u
branch of the tribe—a branch which is not yet, we
hope, implicated in the insurrection—will be found in
a work lately published in London, entitled, " India as
a Field of Foreign Missions," by Mr. Macleod Wylie.
It is sufficient for our present purpose to say that the
Santals, though possessing many of the characteristics
of the real hill tribes, whose similarity, if not identity,
as they exist throughout the country from the hills of
Assam to those of the Conchn, is so remarkable, are
still in many respects distinct from their Highland
neighbours. As we have already said, they occupy
rather the lower slopes of the hills than the hills them-
selves, and, extending as they do from Bhaugulpore to
Orissa, they form a sort of connecting link between the
various hill tribes which occupy the higher regions of
that section of country. Thus, although any direct
communication between the present insurgents and
the hillmen of Orissa would be out of the question, yet
by means of the Santals, who are common to both
districts, such a communication becomes easy. And to
this circumstance it is that the rapid spread of the
disaffection seems to be attributable. For the rest,
the Santals are little better than savages ; they are for
the most part destitute of firearms, but they in a
measure make up for disadvantage by their skill in the
use of the bow, which they do not hesitate to render
more deadly by the cruel device of poisoned arrows.
Their religion is a simple and barbarous idolatry, the
worship of stocks and stones, without any of those
mystical refinements by which the idolatry of the
Hindoos is overlaid. Their mythology, compared with
that of the Hindoos, is almost a blank, and they have
no notions of caste. Their food consists of almost any-
thing that can be eaten, from toads and caterpillars up
to tigers and horned cattle, for the flesh of kine is not
forbidden. As to their vices, it is certain from their
recent proceedings that they combine cowardice with
cruelty to a remarkable degree, for they war with
women and children as well as men, and unlike the
North American Indian, who prizes most a warrior's
scalp, the head of a woman is to the Santal the most
acceptable trophy that he can take away from the
village of his enemy. But with all this it is remark-
able that the Santals are distinguished for a love of
truth, which exists nowhere else among the natives of
India. Their numbers are said to amount to 100,000
fighting men, and if they are joined by the other tribes,
the number of Vindhyan-hill men capable of bearing
arms against us would become formidable indeed. It
is not supposed that any attempt will be made durinc,
the present season to do more than drive the enemy ttO
the hills and keep them there. Next cold season will
be the time for active offensive operations ; and most
signal retribution for the damage done must be in-
flicted, if the shock which this affair has given to our
prestige is to be recovered from.---Delhi Gazette.

ignored." If conciseness is desirable in expression,
" ignored" is better than " left out of the question ;"
besides, the word means more than that phrase, and
than the term " excluded." To ignore is wilfully and
cunningly, and deceitfully, to leave out of the ques-
tion ; fraudulently to overlook ; mendaciously to affect
not to know ; to blink ; to pretend ignorance of a fact
that the fact may pass unnoticed, and not be taken
into account. It is a word which describes, with beau-
tiful precision, a thing very common both in the
writings and conversation of zealots and bigots, and
especially of solemn ecclesiastical humbugs ; it com-
pendiously expresses one of their artifices ; it neatly
bottles off a puff of their smoke ; therefore they don't
like it : but therefore it is a lovely word, and well de-
serving of incorporation with the Queen's English.
THE PIOUS PUFFERS.---It must be very painful to
a sincere professor of those doctrines by which self-
glorification is especially condemned, to find himself
continually made the subject of puffing paragraphs.
We have already called attention to the lamentable
case of poor dear Doctor Cumming, who has been so
bespattered, besmeared, and bedaubed with booksellers'
puffery, that we naturally begin to look for a list of
his works in that portion of a newspaper which is
devoted to medical and miscellaneous quackery. Some
of our friends have become so thoroughly possessed
with the idea of a connection between the name of
Cumming and newspaper notoriety, that we have been
seriously asked, whether the lion-slayer at the top of
the Haymarket is the same Cumming whose appella-
tion has been made the subject of that familiarity
which is said to lead to contempt, through the medium
of advertisements. We should scarcely be surprised
if the pious puffers of Dr. Cumming's books were to
take advantage of the popularity of the present con-
nection between the name of Cumming and the King
of Beasts, and were to send forth a list of his works
with the words, " Dr. Cumming, the Great Religious
Lion of the Day," by way of an attractive '.heading.
While we are on the subject of pious puffs, we may
as well remonstrate against a paragraph we lately met
with, in which one Doctor Close, the idol of the old
maids of Cheltenham, has been introduced with the
interesting accessory of a bad leg, or something of the
sort, for which he has been taking a trip somewhere
on the Continent. The newspaper puff informs us
that his leg is getting better, and that his " people"
at Cheltenham will soon have him back, and that he
thinks of his "lambs," or:some twaddle or other, which
will, of course, go the round of all the Cheltenham
tea-tables. If Doctor Close's anile admirers like to
be called his " people," we see no objection to the
title ; but when we recollect that the Doctor was one
of those who wrote a book to prove the Satanic agency
of table-turning and spirit-rapping, we think that a
better term than that of " lambs" might be found for
those who accept the Reverend gent as their guide ;
and we should be disposed, in selecting a word from
the animal creation, to describe them as Dr. Close's
donkeys. The over-sanctimonious, and not over-
charitable portion of the public, will believe, or rather
will assert without believing it, that we intend to
sneer at religion or its ministers, because we denounce
the quackery and puffery which make the latter con-
temptible. It is, however, obvious to common sense,
that the clerical profession is only degraded by the
unwholesome pandering to personal vanity, to which
it is in these days so much exposed, and which has
placed a " popular preacher" and a " popular per-
former" in much the same position. We simply wish
to put down that morbid and usually feminine feel-
ing with reference to parsons which developes
itself in working slippers and antimacassars, or
in giving silver tea-pots to unmarried clergymen.
We recollect an instance in which a bachelor divine
had been presented with so many embroidered shoes
and tea services by the spinsters of his flock, that he
might ;have started with a capital stock, as either a
slipper dealer or a silversmith ; but happening to
marry a lady out of the parish, he was nearly torn to
pieces by his fair adorers, who called on him to return
all the plate that had been presented to him for his
bachelor piety---his single blessedness.

A PROBLEM FOR SOYER.
handsome does," how then can
one?

NATURE has perfections:
is the image of God ; and in
that she is only His image.
HUMILITY must be a yt
pride itself puts it on. Prid,
deformed, since it dares not
forced to appear in a mask.
RicHEs.—There is a burl,
fear in keeping them, tempt,
in abusing them, sorrow in
of account at last to be give
AN ATHENIAN, who was
the army, was laughed at
of his lameness. "I am hen
run."
DRUNKENNESS,—III Swed,
four times drunk is deprived
and the next Sunday after th,
in the churchyard publicly..
EASY ABOUT IT.—At Gi
scarcity of water. An Iris
.about the matter. If he on'
mg, and his punch at night;
DROLL BLUNDER.—An I
end of London, on entering
vase of golden fish, exclaim,
I ever saw red herrings al'
my life."
AMERICAN TITLES.---Th
Gazette announces the publi
titled " New York Naked,"
York Above Ground and V
York by Gas Light."

COMPLIMENTIRY TOAST.
adopted the fashion of wea
brown chip hats, have pro,
who toast the fair sex at the
to the brim."

READY WIT.—A person t,
on the stage of the Belville'
to the front, said—" Gently
have lost his head, do not, bi
it at the conclusion of the pk
A NATURAL CURIOSITY
can immigrant, sat enjoyi:
banks of a southern creek, h
from the stream. "By thf
" that iver I should come to
walk."
THE NEWSPAPER.—The
quent miseries of multituf
paper, are so many admo]
many beacons, continually bi
the rocks on which they
Bishop Horne.
DRUNKEN BIRNABY.—On,
bany, U.S., a professional dr
fined, in close succession, ter.
dulging his passion, proposed
for a year, and offered to pa:
cent. discount. " Drunken
accepted.
" OWER TRUE A TALE."'
cise was vain enough to ha
horseback, erected in his ga,
looking at it, one of them
Commissioner had no gloves
other, "he never wears th,
got his hands in our pockets,

INVOLUNTARY TESTIMON
communes in France, lately
upon his register :—" I may
in the forest —, a man by
mitting an act against the la
surrender ; whereupon he se'
insult and contumely, callini
a precious dolt, and a scare
tjfy to be true."
POST-OFFICE LINGO.—W
notices adopt the word p
adulterous compound, half
sheer plusage. When the
a letter, what more is to be
a letter would be more to t
but paid is enough for plain
money down for an article y-
and that is enough. Is not Ii?
enough without any addition t° it