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which are brimful of worldly wisdom, as well as practical knowledge of agriculture, have been unearthed. Dák's agricultural sayings and the prohibitions concerning not building and not even cutting bamboos on certain days of the month, are well known to the Assamese cultivators throughout the province, and it is believed that the former are much respected and the latter often strictly observed by Assamese Hindus. It will probably surprise the non- Assamese reader to hear that mustard cannot be sown on the four lunar days of the month ending in the suffix শী, or that pulse cannot be sown on the five lunar days ending with the suffix মী, and that cane or bamboos cannot be cut during the six days of the Sharan. Then, again, there is the prohibition regarding ploughing on the day of the full moon, or during the Ambubachi, when the earth is consi- dered to be in a state of impurity. The proverbs to which I have referred above, as also the greater number of the other agricultural sayings, are ascribed to Dák.
It is to be hoped that the inaccuracies in the rendering of some of the proverbs that appeared in the first edition and in the translation have now been rectified, but it should be stated that in the work of revision I am specially indebted to Rai Madhav Chandra Bardalai Bahadur, Messrs. Parsu Ram Khaund, Hem Chandra Gossain, Rajani Kanta Bardalai, Jagat Chandra Gossain, and Upendra Nath Barua. The names, however, of Mr. Abdul Majid, who helped me so much with the first edition, and of Guru Prasad Kakati, who assisted me in collecting in the district of Sibsagar, must on no account be omitted.
In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the present attempt to render into English some of the sayings of the people of the Brahmaputra Valley may help to save the former from oblivion, and the agricultural sayings, which it is believed
