( 3i ) 



ON 



THE INHABITANTS 



OF 



THE HILLS NEAR RAJAMAHALL. 



BY LIEUTENANT THOMAS SHAW. 



A SLIGHT knowledge of the language of the 

 natives of the hills, in the districts of Bhagal- 

 pur and RajamahttM, having brought to my observa- 

 tion that their customs and manners, as well as their 

 language, differed from those of the inhabitants of 

 the neighbouring plains, I have, for some time, en- 

 deavoured to acquire a good account of them, from 

 the belief that, notwithstanding their connexion with 

 and dependence on our government, they have been 

 little known beyond the limits of the hills. The fol- 

 lowing description does not contain much more than 

 a bare translation of what was written by the best in- 

 formed mountaineer whom I have met with. I 

 have spared no pains to render it faithful ; for there 

 alone it can have any merit. My information has 

 been derived through a Sdubaddr of the Ranger* 

 (whom the late Mr. Cleveland had instructed in 

 writing JSagree) as far as relates to the inhabitants of 

 the hills in the three Tuipahs of Mitdjewafr Ghurry, 



and 



