BHILS, BUBMESE, AND BATTAKS. 



35 



by means of whicli we can properly study the features of the indi- 

 vidual whom we have photographed, and learn something of the 

 facial angle and similar 'characters. It will be noted that this 

 Bhil beauty wears as many as half a dozen heavy metal bracelets 

 upon either wrist, and the 

 collection of trinkets that 

 hang over her ears is ex- 

 tremely curious. Her rather 

 light attire permits us to 

 form some opinion as to the 

 physique of this woman, and 

 it is not difficult to see that 

 in such particulars she is re- 

 markably well proportioned. 

 She is evidently broad and 

 deep- chested ; has finely de- 

 veloped limbs, and a well- 

 balanced head, upon rather 

 square shoulders. The form 

 of her face is nearly circu- 

 lar, with large mouth and 

 nose, and the eyes are set far 

 apart. Her complexion is 

 dark, and she is somewhat 

 small in stature. Bhils have 

 the reputation of being very 

 active and capable of endur- 

 ing much fatigue with im- 

 punity. Twenty years ago, or less perhaj)s, this tribe occupied a 

 British political agency the Bhil agency, in central Asia which 

 covered an area of some eighty-one hundred and sixty square 

 miles, and had a population of nearly a quarter of a million of 

 people. This agency was established in 1825, at which time a 

 Bhil corps was organized " with a view to utilizing the warlike 

 instincts of the Bhil tribes. This brave body of men have done 

 good service, and gradually put down the predatory habits of 

 their countrymen. The Bhil tribes chiefly inhabit the rocky 

 ranges of the Vindhya and Satpur^ Mountains, and the banks of 

 the Narbada and the Tapti. In common with other hill tribes, 

 the Bhils are supposed to have been aborigines of India, and to 

 have been driven to their present fastnesses at the time of the 

 Hindu invasion." 



I understand that numerous efforts have been made to break 

 up their plundering ways by the home Government, and that the 

 official reports stated in 1869-'70 that " the Bhils of Manpur are 

 becoming reconciled to the life oi cultivators, though not yet 



Fig. 2. A Biiil Beauty, India. Photographed 

 en profile. Same subject as shown in Fig. 1. 



