HILLS NEAR RA'jAMAHALL. 93 



another chief, the guest is always desired to seat him- 

 self first. 



In addition to the foregoing account, a few gene- 

 ral remarks may neither be deemed superfluous nor 

 unnecessary. The natives of these hills are mostly 

 very low in stature, but stout and well proportioned. 

 To find a man six feet high would, I believe, be a 

 phenomenon : there are many less than four feet 

 ten inches, and perhaps more under five feet three 

 inches than above that standard. It may not how r - 

 ever be far from the truth to consider that as the 

 medium size of their men. A flat nose seems the 

 most characteristic feature 3 but it is not so flat as 

 the Cbffres of Africa^ nor are their lips so thick, 

 though they are in general thicker than the inhabit- 

 ants of the neighbouring plains. I shall not pre- 

 tend to say whether they ought to be considered the 

 aborigines or not: as they have no letter, figure, or 

 hieroglyphic, all accounts of their ancestors are 

 oral. It will however be remembered, that thev 

 consider themselves descended from the eldest! of the 

 seven brothers who, according to their tradition, 

 peopled this earth, and who was an outcast for re- 

 ceiving his portion of every thing eatable on an old 

 dish ; thMt the hills in the districts of Bhagalpore and 

 Rj.jiimahall were allotted for him and his descendants : 

 these being rather unproductive, and their wealthy 

 neighbours refusing to associate with them, they had 

 no alternative but that of plundering. These causes 

 are assigned for their remaining in barbarous igno- 

 rance. In numbers, the hill-language has only words 



for 



