Jeremiah

tells his tribe that a stone begat them, and that they committed adulteries with stones Jer. ii, 27; iii, 9. See also Gen. xxx i, 48; and 1 Sam. iv, 1; vii, 12). Aban (says Delitzsch) has the sense of a “peak” or “ pointed thing”—the A yrian Ubanw “ peak, rock, or finger” (see Finger), Abhi-Marsin. Sanskrit. Courting, inciting. Abi-Kama. Sanskrit. “Love primeval,” intense desire, struggle, war. Ablathanabla. See Abraxas, Abors. Bors. The Asimese term for the wild race, calling themselves Padams or Pagdams, inhabiting the N.E. frontier of British territory at the bend of the Brahmapitra River (N. and N.W.), and embracing the greater and le er Dihong river valleys, north of Sadiya. The term Abor is said to mean “savage,” “non-tribute payer,” or “fierce man”: for Abors are a much-feared people who hunt down even the “wild cow” (or Nilgan), and eat buffalo beef, but not cows—showing a Hindu influence. They worship Nats or fays, spirits of the woods and waters: they tattoo their bodies, and clothe themselves in skins and bark, but go naked in the hot season. They are never without their bows and arrows—the latter poisoned (for war) with the powdered root of the wild aconite, or with blood, They wear a dhar, or long cutla , at the waist, or slung (as by Burmese) over the shoulder. These people are scarcely as yet out of the communal stage, and pay scant respect to chiefs, with some 250 of whom the Government had to deal in 1859-1870, and to try to keep them quiet by subsidies, ‘They are all sullen, clownish, and violent when roused, like their congeners of Tibet and Barmah, Families are distinguished by totems, or by marks on the forehead. The poorer are often polyandrous: the richer are polygamous; and sometimes they are communists, a group of men living with a group of women, There are barracks for bachelors and women, where considerable licence is practised; and chastity consists in having no intercourse outside the clan, As regards religion, they believe in a life hereafter, with rewards and punishments; and sacrifices are said to please and propitiate the spirits, and to be nece ary to prevent famine and pestilence. Abram. Abraham. There is no very satisfactory etymology of this mythical patriarch’s name, Abram (Babylonian Ab-ramu) is usually rendered “high father,” that is to say, a deity like Brahma. 37