forestry is very far from being a definite or homogeneous system. Each German State has its own method of management, adapted to its local conditions; and these local conditions differ so widely that in no two States can any one system of management be found any more than one and the same method of forestry can be applied to the different provinces in our Indian Empire, differing as these do in woodland flora, climate, local conditions, and special desiderata. And besides that, European and Indian forestry necessarily differ vastly. In every practical detail Indian forestry, varying in all the provinces and embracing vast areas that can only be treated extensively, differs almost entirely from European forestry dealing with relatively small areas under intensive treatment. In France, for example, there are thirty-two Conservatorships, and 236 divisions; and the total area of State, Communal or Corporation forests under the charge of the Department of Woods and Waters amounts to 7,787,000 acres, giving an average of about 380 square miles for each Conservatorship, and fifty-one and a half square miles for each division. In India, however, over its superficies exceeding 1,000,000 square miles, there are about 250,000 square miles of State forests (reserves 100,000 square miles, and protected or unclassed forests 150,000 square miles), divided into nineteen Conservatorships, and about 130 divisions. The average area of actual forest in each Conservator's charge thus exceeds 12,500 square miles, and each divisional officer has charge of about 2000 square miles on the average. But the actual territorial area included within each Conservatorship averages above 57,000 square miles, which is over 3400 square miles larger than all England and Wales, while each divisional officer's charge averages 8000 square miles, and is just about thrice as large as Wales. It is therefore easy to understand that although the fundamental principles of forestry are the same both in Europe and in India, yet the differences must in many important respects be just as vast as they are with regard to the territorial and the actual forest areas committed to the care and management of forest officers.

The differences between Indian and European forestry thus arising from physical and financial causes have raised the suggestion that it would be of great advantage if at any rate the practical portion of the training of probationers could in future be given at the Imperial Forest College at Dehra Dun, near the foot of the Himalayas. This

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'The Forest School originally founded at Dehra Dun, N.W.P., in 1878, for training subordinates (rangers and foresters) for the various provincial services, was in June 1906 transformed into an Imperial Forest College and Research Institute where scientific research and technical instruction are combined. The lectures are now given in English, the lower vernacular classes for foresters being abolished, and each of the six research officers gives a course of lectures in his own special branch. This does not interfere with research work, as the lecture session is confined to the four rainy months (July to October), when all the officers are at headquarters. For the vernacular teaching of the lower subordinates (foresters and forest guards) the

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opinion is, indeed, shared by many of the present Conservators, men of common sense, who think that the recent Coopers Hill training was not, and the Oxford course is not, what is wanted-although naturally these are opinions which do not commend themselves to Dr. Schlich.

But it seems inadvisable that any prolonged training at Dehra of Europeans for the higher executive and administrative positions should be seriously considered. The course of instruction there is the best that the Department can offer; and, without stultifying itself, it could not pretend to arrange any better course for European probationers from home than is now given to the Eurasian and native students. Hence, to arrange separate classes and courses would be mere waste of energy, while to form mixed classes would be inadvisable for social reasons. And, even if separate courses could be arranged, it is extremely undesirable that the future officers of the higher (Imperial) and the lower (Provincial) services, who are afterwards to occupy entirely different positions as superiors and subordinates, should come into contact at all until their respective courses of instruction are completed and they meet as officers in active service with well-defined positions. But, on the other hand, it is most desirable that forest probationers should, if possible, be brought early into close touch with the Civil Service probationers along with whom they will afterwards serve in India; and this can only be arranged for at Oxford and Cambridge, at each of which Universities there is a special Board for Indian studies dealing with the majority of the competition-wallahs.

With Continental forestry now taught at several Universities and at most agricultural colleges, the Forest Department could, however, quite as satisfactorily and easily be recruited with fairly wellequipped students of estate and woodland management as is found to be the case in recruiting the Public Works, Educational and other scientific departments under a system of selection from among properly qualified candidates. But it seems desirable, from more than one point of view, that forest probationers should be selected by a competitive examination held by the Civil Service Commissioners in forestry and the cognate sciences, and should then be given one year's specialised training in Indian forestry, vernacular languages, and one branch of science at Oxford and Cambridge, combined with extensive tours in forests specially instructive from the Indian point of view. And such examination and training should supply not only the Indian forest requirements, but also all our growing Colonial various local governments are now making the necessary provision in the form of local Forest Training Schools. The researches that can now be undertaken at the Research Institute and College will differ considerably from those questions with which the various European experimental stations are concerned, for the special problems requiring solution are of entirely different nature in the temperate and in the tropical zones.

needs. It is scandalous that young Germans should recently have been appointed to our Colonial Forest Service under cover of the official statement that suitable young British subjects could not be obtained. The Malay States, Ceylon, Cape Colony, Natal, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the East African Protectorate, Egypt and Cyprus, now all need forest officers. And it can only be a question of time before Canada, Australia and New Zealand must also introduce some rational system of forest conservation. They will then require a large number of men; and all our Colonial forestry must be based on the Indian system, not on European models.

A competitive examination in the four main branches of forestry and in the cognate sciences (geology, chemistry, botany, zoology, and elementary engineering), with French and German conversation as optional subjects, and open only to young men of twenty to twentythree years who have obtained a degree or diploma of forestry in Britain, would most probably secure the best men who, after having gone through a University or other collegiate course with a view to adopting the profession of land agency or estate management, can be attracted to the Indian Forest Service by the pay and pension it offers.

And if, as is the case, Civil Service probationers can be properly trained in Indian history, Indian civil and criminal law and procedure, political economy, and vernacular languages in twelve months, then such forest probationers as the above system would furnish could equally well be trained in Indian forestry (including Indian forest law, and departmental procedure and accounts), vernacular languages, and one branch of science (botany, zoology, geology, or chemistry, according to individual option), during the same time and at the same places, Oxford and Cambridge. It is absurd to suppose that a longer and more expensive special training is necessary for the Indian forester than for the much better paid Indian civilian, whose duties are more manifold and far more responsible. Hence the training of probationers selected by means of a competitive examination in forestry and the cognate sciences need also not exceed twelve months. It should be specialised to meet Indian requirements as far as possible, and should be given both at Oxford and at Cambridge. This might easily be arranged through the Boards of Indian studies without further cost to the Government of India than the 1200l. at present spent in the training of forestry students at Oxford; for one professor of Indian Forestry (nominated also to act as chief adviser to the India Office) could be appointed at Oxford on 650l. a year, and another at Cambridge on 550l. a year. The probationers should be previously assigned to provinces, like the civilians, and the specialised course should include (1) Indian Forestry (history of forest department; sylviculture, management, protection, and utilisation, as practised in the various provinces of India; Indian Forest Code of procedure,

office work, and accounts; Indian Forest Acts, rules and regulations); (2) Vernacular Languages, Hindustani (elementary and colloquial for all probationers), and the chief vernacular language of the province to which the probationer is assigned (including a more advanced study where Hindustani alone is prescribed); and (3) one cognate science (either botany, zoology, chemistry of soil and plant, or physical geography and meteorology, according to individual choice).

Selected candidates passing this examination and being otherwise favourably reported on should be appointed to the Indian Forest Service, and should receive (like the Civil Service probationers) a grant of 1501. for the year of probation, with passage money of 371. 10s. to Bombay, Madras, or Calcutta, and 431. to Rangoon. And seniority in the service should be given according to the results of this final examination.

During the Easter vacation at the University the probationers should make a tour in the Alpes Maritimes, the Pyrenees, and Gascony; and after the final examination in June, selected candidates should visit the Vosges, the Black Forest, Bavaria, and Switzerland, these being undoubtedly the European woodlands most instructive to the Indian forester. And if the young officers could, immediately on arriving in India, be taken for an extensive tour in some of the Himalayan and the lower forests, this would certainly be a very useful introduction to practical work in India; for it would accustom them to camp life, and bring them into touch with their new surroundings under the most favourable circumstances. Even if such a tour only lasted for about five or six weeks, say from the 15th of November till Christmas, it would prepare the young officers for entering on their duties in the new year with a far better introductory knowledge of them than was ever enjoyed by their predecessors, the men who have during these last forty years made the Forest Department a well-organised, efficient, and very profitable branch of our Indian Administration.

J. NISBET.

ECHOES OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES IN MODERN GREEK FOLKLORE

THAT a great deal of ancient, even of primitive, Hellenic culture survives in the life and language of modern Greece has long been a commonplace among scholars. But the extent to which this is true is very slowly revealed by the researches of the antiquarian, the linguist, and the folklorist. As regards the language, enough has already been discovered to show that many words and phrases dating from the remotest times, but not occurring in the works of classical literature which have come down to us, are to be heard among the shepherds and fishermen of contemporary Greece—that is, among those classes which, dwelling far from the highways of conquest, immigration and civilisation, have remained almost untouched by the vicissitudes of the country during its 3000 years of recorded history. The word vɛpó or vnpó, for example, which is the common modern term for 'water,' is not to be found in the classical lexicon of the Greek tongue, and yet there can be no doubt whatever that it is older than Homer, connected as it is with the same root from which spring the classical terms νάω, νέω, ναῦς, Ναϊάς, Νηρεύς and so forth. I myself have been fortunate enough to place on record another term equally old and equally unknown to students of merely 'classical' Greek-the term dúoaλa (dvo-åλs gen. áλós), meaning the dangerous or rocky parts of the sea.' Instances of similar survival could be quoted almost ad libitum, and further research will, no doubt, add to the list. Nor is there any doubt that scientific investigation in other than philological fields, if conducted on a sufficiently large scale, will throw light upon those phases of ancient Greek life in regard to which literary tradition is either silent or scanty. Meanwhile, I will give here a 'find' which has fallen to my lot and which illustrates my meaning.

In a manuscript volume of modern Greek folk-medicine which I picked up in Macedonia some years ago, and a selection from the contents of which I have embodied in my work on Macedonian Folklore, there occurs a recipe, or rather an incantation, running, with all its eccentricities of syntax and spelling, as follows: