24 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



the Korkus imbedded among the Guilds, is found a 

 small body of Bygas, who have not yet been traced 

 either to the Kolarian or the Dravidian stock. They 

 present, from many circumstances to be afterwards 

 noticed, the most curious ethnical problem of all. Less 

 raised above the condition of the mere huntincr savage 

 than any, and clinging to the most secluded solitudes, 

 they have yet entirely lost all trace of their own lan- 

 guage, and speak instead a rude dialect of the tongue of 

 the Aryan immigrants. They present some points of 

 affinity to the Bheels of Western India, of whom also, 

 in the extreme west, some 20,000 are reckoned in this 

 cauldron of peoples. The number of the aborigines is 

 completed by about 25,000 souls, forming the fag-ends 

 of tribes who have lost all semblance of distinct cohe- 

 sion, without language or territory of their own. 



Which of these entirely distinct families are the 

 autochthones of the land, or which of them first settled 

 here, may possibly never be known. None of them 

 have any reliable tradition of • their arrival ; and no 

 evidence bearing on the subject, beyond what has been 

 already mentioned, has been discovered. It is not 

 within the scope of my present purpose to attem]3t any 

 elaborate investigation into the ethnical history or pecu- 

 liarities of these tribes. The evidence yet recorded is 

 too scanty to yield valuable results ; and such has been 

 the admixture of their customs, religion, and language 

 with those of the Hindus, that it is improbable now 

 that much of their original distinctive peculiarity re- 

 mains to be discovered. Yet there is much that is 

 curious and interesting in their present condition, 

 gradually being absorbed as they are in the vast mix- 

 ture of races composing modern Hindiiism ; and a grave 



