THE NARBADA VALLEY. 47 



the iron road, when population will flow in from denser 

 peopled regions ; and the " struggle for life," of which high 

 land-rents are by some the much-wished-for result, will com- 

 mence among its people ; probably leading to the high rate of 

 produce per acre, the high rents, the enrichment of the few 

 and the pauperization of the many, which are the peculiar 

 happiness of " old countries." At present, plenty for all is 

 the rule, poverty the very rare exception. Well-built houses, 

 well-stocked cattle yards, and a general air of comfort and 

 happiness, cannot fail to arrest the attention in Hindu 

 villages. It is true that the people of the soil, those of the 

 Gr6nds who have preferred to stay and serve a Hindi! master 

 to a retreat to the hills, are poorly clad and housed, living 

 like outcasts beyond the limits of the Hindii quarter ; but 

 they too are at least sufficiently fed ; and nothing but their 

 own innate apathy and vice prevents them from receiving a 

 greater share of the surrounding plenty. This is a matter, 

 however, which will come to be discussed further on. 



As the influence on the aborigines in the past, and at the 

 present time, of their contact with these invading Hindi! races 

 will afterwards form matter of consideration, it is important 

 to understand of what material these Hindu races themselves 

 are really composed. They have generally been comprehended 

 in the category of " Aryan," as distinguished from the "Taura- 

 nian" peoples who are believed to have preceded the fair- 

 complexioned Aryan invaders from Upper Asia in the occupa- 

 tion of Hindostan, and among whom are included the rem- 

 nants of wild tribes still found in the hills. But it needs but 

 little observation of these Hindu races to perceive that they 

 themselves have long been subjected to some influence which 

 has greatly modified the original high Aryan type a type 

 which includes the noblest races of mankind ; the Caucasian 



