INTRODUCTORY. 23 



aboriginal races of countries lying to the east of India. 

 Further to the east again, in the Mykal range, and like the 

 Korkiis imbedded among the Gonds, is found a small body of 

 about 18,000 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 curiour 

 ethnical problem of all. Less raised above the condition of 

 the mere hunting savage than any, and clinging to the most 

 secluded solitudes, they have yet entirely lost all trace of their 

 own language, 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 cohesion, without language or territory 

 of their own. 



Which of these entirely distinct families are the autoch- 

 thones of the land, or which of them first settled here, may 

 possibly never be known. None of them have any relia- 

 ble 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 attempt any elaborate investigation into the eth- 

 nical history or peculiarities 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 lan- 

 guage with those of the Hindus, that it is improbable now 

 that much of their original distinctive peculiarity remains 

 to be discovered. Yet there is much that is curious and 

 interesting in their present condition, gradually being ab- 

 sorbed as they are in the vast mixture of races composing 



