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SHORT NOTICES.

Bhotan, and the Story of the Dooar War, including Sketches of a three months' residence in the Himalayas, and narrative of a visit to Bhotan in May 1865. By Surgeon Rennie, M. D. 20th Hussars. London, John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1866.

IT

T is somewhat curious that in these days of scribbling no popular narrative of the late mission to Bhotan has been given to the public by any of its members. Mr. Eden's official report was so thoroughly exhaustive, and in India at least available to the bulk of such readers as were interested in the subject, that, perhaps, the want of a popular work was scarcely perceived, and possibly too, the circumstances and result of the mission were not such as the participators therein cared to dwell upon longer than was necessary. Meanwhile Dr. Rennie has stolen a march upon them, and written a book which, however disappointing to Indian readers, will we doubt not be eagerly devoured at home.

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Dr. Rennie's book may be divided into two parts. The former treats of the history of the mission, and the subsequent Dooar War, and this portion we need scarcely say has been shamelessly borrowed from the Reports of Mr. Eden and others. Indeed, Dr. Rennie takes credit to himself for having drawn so freely from the official records having latest reference to the subject,' and so far as he has endeavoured to popularize the substance of 'Government Reports not available to the reading public generally,' there is, perhaps, some merit in this part of his book. But although we had no right to expect to hear any thing new from the writer in question, we could at least have wished that the undisputed facts of history had been left unchallenged, and that the course of the narrative had not been so frequently interrupted and disfigured by the expression of crude and undigested opinions.

The second portion of the book is more personal in its nature, and treats of the author's experiences while attached as surgeon to the 80th regiment, when ordered up to the frontier as a reserve. A ten days' pedestrian excursion from Darjeeling to Dalimcote, and thence back by way of the plains, enabled Dr. Rennie 'to see something of Bhotan and the recently annexed Dooars,' and on occasion to speak with authority as having 'some little personal knowledge' of the latter. A little knowledge,' however, is often a dangerous

thing, and most men, we think, will agree with us, that Dr. Rennie's case forms no exception to the rule. We do not doubt that he made ample use of his note-book while at Darjeeling, but there are some subjects treated by him which can scarcely be mastered in a brief sojourn of three months, and in such subjects we object to take Dr. Rennie as our guide. The reader may at times tire of marching through the uninteresting plains of Purneah, but even this is preferable to following our author through his hazy lucubrations on the origin of the mountain tribes.

It is unfortunate that the want of interest in this book is not even compensated by its artificial graces. The style, we regret to say, is radically bad, often ungrammatical, rarely elegant. We will support our assertion with some few examples, and begin with the first sentence in the volume. There is 'probably no country in the world that, until within the 'present war, has been iess a subject of interest than Bhotan, 'and, as a natural consequence, probably no one that there is 'less generally known about. This slovenly trick of ignoring the use of the preposition, and leaving it to take care of itself at the end of the sentence, is not of unfrequent occurrence. We quote a few instances: Certain points that he might have 'been supposed to give a reliable opinion upon', 'whose presence amongst them these rude votive altars became indicative of, that they have effected possession of. In two passages tribes are spoken of as being gregarious in the sense of nomadic. And here is a sentence unequalled, perhaps, in its bald inelegance. In its neighbourhood, that is to say Dingra'Ghaut, the point that it is crossed by a ferry, there are a few 'villages, and the country on both sides is well under cultiva'tion, the ground having been recently ploughed.' Dr. Rennie may well seek indulgence at the hands of the public, but not even a cuddy table in a sailing troop ship' can excuse such slovenly, slip-shod writing.

Another fault, which characterizes our author's style, is the pertinacity with which he will obtrude his own opinions on every conceivable subject. Whether he is criticising the 'headstrong and not over-consistent conduct' of Mr Eden, or from his 'personal acquaintance' with the localities deciding boundary disputes of the last century, or whether again he informs us that leeches are placed on the hill by a wise provision of 'nature, to exercise their particular functions for the relief of the weary traveller'-it is the same tiresome opinionativeness, the more tiresome as being generally the fruit of ignorance. Bhotan, we are informed, is a corruption of Bhot-istan, and Dr.

Rennie proposes a new derivation of the Semitic Tibet from the Chinese Ta, and the local Bot, of which no more need be said here. The sole instance which we shall adduce relates to the author's views on the origin of the Sikimese, and is a fair specimen of the obscurity and inconsistence, no less than the dogmatic presumption of Dr. Rennie's style when he attempts to be didactic. 'The conclusions I have arrived at regarding them,' writes Dr. Rennie, 'are based partly on personal observation, partly on infor'mation locally acquired, and their result inclines me to question "the accuracy of the few opinions which have been given expression 'to in print, concerning the source from which the present inhabi'tants of Sikim have sprung.' 'The only published information' Dr. Rennie was able to find with reference to this subject consists of certain extracts from a Hand-Book and a Journal, written by men who, whatever the celebrity of one of them in other branches of science, never, to our knowledge, advanced a claim to be considered ethnologists. Our author seems never to have so much as heard of Brian Hodgson and others who have laboured in this field, but ignoring everything really scientific, he endeavours to show that the subject is not one of much ethnological obscurity.' After which expression of self-assumed complacency, we are somewhat surprised to find on the very next page that our preceptor has been as yet unable to ascertain whether the Mongolian or Thibetian element predominates.' But on the principle of cutting the Gordian knot, Dr. Rennie thus sums up: The Sikimese consist of two classes of people, the one being, ' of Mongolian, the other of Thibetian, descent; neither of them consequently aboriginal to the country any more than the 'Bhotanese are to the hill tract and portion of the plains of Bengal that they have effected possession of.' 'At a future

page,when I come to narrate a conversation I had on this subject with Cheeboo Lama, who is himself a Lepcha Proper (Mongolian), I shall be able to show how exceedingly difficult it is to obtain information regarding it, however favourably one may be locally situated, even he who, according to Mr. Eden, has studied the histories of Thibet more than any "living man," being singularly inaccurately informed with reference to the circumstances under which his race became 'settled in Sikim, and also with respect to its philology.' We can only add that it was a fortunate thing that Dr. Rennie was able to enlighten the poor ignorant semi-savage. As the term 'Lepcha is now so identified with the word Sikimese and two really distinct people (sic) included under it, the simplest 'mode of distinguishing them will be by adopting the terms 'Mongolian, Lepcha, and Thibetian Lepcha.' Thus, the result

of Dr. Rennie's enquiry is, that we are to use three names to distinguish two people! And then follows one of those fulsome self-sufficient paragraphs, which so greatly disfigure the book. 'From what has been said the reader will probably be better ' able to understand such casual observations as occur in the 'course of my jottings at Darjeeling, respecting the types of the great Mongolian race which are met with in this part of 'the Himalayas; and in thus differing from the authorities I 'have quoted, it is only fair to state that, but for the advantages 'I had, while residing at Peking, of becoming familiar with the 'characteristic of the Mongolian tribes, I should not have 'been in a position to do otherwise than they have done, 'namely, trust to local tradition, which, amongst the people in ' question, there is reason to believe, is by no means a reliable source of information.'

But it is time we noticed the few good points about Dr. Rennie's book. Chief among them is a lively and versatile power of anecdote. The discovery of a snake in a dak-bungalow leads to the recital of an incident illustrating the effects of chloroform on snakes, and hence by a natural transition to the discussion of native antidotes for hydrophobia and snakebites in general. And in the description of his personal experiences, Dr. Rennie's style is simple, and free from affectation. We shall close this critique with the account of an evening passed by our author in a Bhotea hut. Everything seemed very comfortable about this little farm. The cows came 'home at sundown, and were milked, and the pigs were fed out of wooden troughs-the same as they are in England. The male head of the establishment had much the appearance ' of a Roman of old. His dress was made like the garb of old Gaul, in the form of a loose robe or doublet, descending to the knee, tightened by a waistband, from which was suspended a long straight knife in a wooden scabbard, not unlike the 'Roman sword. His bare legs and a thick, short, curly head of hair added to the general resemblance. His family consisted ' of his mother, his wife, a sister-in-law, and three children.

After dinner we went into the farm-house, and sat there on 'the floor for some time observing domestic life in Bhotan. The sister-in-law was busy preparing a mixture of boiled rice and warm water, which the old woman gave us to understand by signs was for the children. After the latter had their supper, they were undressed, and in a state of nudity retired 'to rest behind a bamboo partition. The nature of their bedclothing we had not an opportunity of seeing. After the ' children retired, the ladies resumed culinary operations, and

'presented each of us with a choonga full of murwa, and a 'tube to imbibe it. We all took a little of it, and found it 'rather palatable than otherwise. The farmer was determined 'not to be behind the female members of his establishment in hospitality, and went to a receptacle from which he produced 'an English bottle filled with Bhotan whiskey, which he 'insisted on our tasting. It was by no means an ill-flavoured spirit, but not very strong. It is distilled from barley and ' rice mixed, and goes by the name of chong.'

2. A History of Persia from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the year 1858, with a review of the principal events that led to the establishment of the Kajar Dynasty. By Robert Grant Watson, formerly attached to H. M. Legation at the Court of Persia. London, Smith Elder & Co. 1866.

THIS is in one sense a continuation of Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, though more particularly an account of the Kajar Dynasty which at present occupies the musnud. So far as any history can be interesting which is little more than a catalogue of deeds of violence and blood, of treason, massacre and assassination, we think Mr. Watson has certainly made the most of his subject. It would have been a gratifying 'task,' as he remarks, 'to tell of a prospect of the coming 'triumph of civilization throughout Central Asia,' but that prospect unfortunately is still distant, and the pleasing task was not to be performed without a corresponding sacrifice of truth. But the subject, such as it is, has been well treated. The book is well written, and its style graceful and perspicuous.

The history of Persia is important to the philosopher, as showing what would seem to be the utter impossibility even in this nineteenth century, and under the most favourable circumstances, of organizing a strong Oriental Government. Weakness and instability have so long been characteristic of Eastern monarchies, that they may be said to constitute their normal attributes, and the brightest hopes and most flattering expectations to the contrary are generally doomed to disappointment. But this history is moreover interesting to the Anglo-Indian, in so far as it is a record of the insidious advances made by Russia in Central Asia, thereby exhibiting the necessity which lies upon European nations of preserving the balance of power in the East, by upholding the independent kingdom of Persia. Russia's motives of aggrandisement may be eminently worthy, but there is a point beyond which her encroachments become dangerous to the peace of the world, and the question is, has not that point been reached?