172 REPORT—1850. 
Hills, they continue to make human sacrifices, a practice to which these races 
have been prone, according to Hindu records, from the earliest ages. 
Their offerings are made to the god of the elements, of floods and of the 
soil; they propitiate the goddesses of contagious and epidemic diseases. They 
also worship power in every shape to avert danger; hence all beasts of 
prey, such as tigers, bears and leopards, venomous serpents and other rep- 
tiles; as also the elephant and the rhinoceros in a wild state. 
Their domestic habits and institutions have a strong affinity to those of 
the great Tartar family; they may serve as a specimen of the whole race. 
They employ whipping as a remedy for tertian fever and ague, as practised 
among the Turkish hordes in Persia; and it is also adopted as a remedy for 
violent insanity, for they consider persons so afflicted to be possessed of an 
evil spirit, whom they thus endeavour to expel. 
In some parts both men and women bore their ears and wear heavy rings 
to extend tlhe lower lobe. Unlike the Hindu women, they wear no bodice 
to support the breasts, instead of which, in many cases they gracefully throw 
the end of a muslin cloth ten or twelve yards long, as it comes from the loom, 
round the body, and which is tastefully arranged so as to cover the person. 
Their weapons are the sword, the bow and arrow, the javelin, and almost 
universally a bill-hook, which is worn in a belt over the right hip. 
The virtues of this race consist in dauntless courage, fidelity and loyalty to 
their superiors and chiefs, and probity towards those with whom they may 
have entered into engagements. They have great regard to truth, and ex- 
ercise hospitality, and are generous in their dealings with each other, as well 
as with strangers. 
In Rajputana such is the consideration they obtain from the Hindu princes, 
that the latter submit to the form of being placed on the throne by an 
aboriginal chieftain, from whom each receives on his succession a recogni- 
tion of his sovereignty by the impression of a spot of blood fresh drawn from 
the foot of one of the ancient race. 
This act ensures devotion and loyalty ; these are never withheld unless in 
case of some acts of wanton oppression on the part of the sovereign, which 
calls forth resistance and open war. Such are the virtues of the aboriginal 
tribes. 
Among their vices may be reckoned drunkenness on all occasions of do- 
mestic or national festivity. ‘Those who dwell in the forests and mountains 
chiefly subsist (where they can succeed ) by plundering or levying tribute on 
the inhabitants in the open plains, on the plea of the latter having dispossessed 
them of their native soil. In their pursuit of this object they seldom commit 
murder, if it can be avoided; but they sometimes practise cruelty on their 
prisoners in order to extort confessions of concealed wealth, or to deprive 
them of the means of escape in the absence of guards, which is effected in 
the latter case by burning the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands of 
their captives. 
Captain Newbold of the Madras army, who has written on the Chenchies 
of the Nalla Malla or Black Mountains, represents those he saw as having 
long bushy hair, thick lips, high cheek bones, and small but piercing eyes. 
Sir Richard Jenkins and Colonel Agnew confirm this description in speaking 
of the Gonds; and I believe no instance will be found of those residing entirely 
on the hills having the aquiline nose or the delicacy of feature of the Cauca- 
sian family. In this respect they partake rather of the Tartar or Thibetan 
physiognomy than of the Hindu. 
The remote period of their settlement in India, and the possibility of an 
occasional intermixture with the Hinds, may in some cases have somewhat 
