﻿A SECT COMMON I.Y DEXOMTNATED XUTS. 46 I 



have not seen any who, in my opinion, came under 

 th.it (.lescrijjtion as to personal charms. 



I cannot observe any pccaharity of feature which 

 Avouhl characterize tliem as a distinct people. 



Before the establishment of the Britir<h govern- 

 ment in Bengal, the Surkar appointed an oiftcer 

 termed a Dam-Dar^\ or tax gatherer, to ke?p a re- 

 gister of and to collect taxes, not only from thcse> 

 hut fro.ii all the other tribes of a similar description. 

 Some say they amounted to eighteen, others to thirty- 

 two sets, all of whom I consider as coming under 

 the general denomination of Mat ; but in statements 

 of this kind, having* no public records to resort to, 

 I can only relate their traditions and opinions. 



Tlie dread of an intended revival of this officer's 

 powers, caused at first much alarm among them, and 

 operated as a considerable impediment to my en- 

 quiries. They have a strong and a very natural wish 

 to obtain lands, which many of them have done in 

 several parts of the country, but with no intention 

 of being the cultivators of the soil. They have two 

 languages peculiar to themselves, One intended for 

 the use only of the craftsmen of the set; the other, 

 general among men, women, and children. The 

 Jiindoostante is the basis of both ; the tirst in gene- 

 ral 



* This is clearly derived from dam, a small coin, and Jar, a keeper, 

 &c. This word was perhaps in use even among our forefathers, and 

 may inndcently account for the expression, " ?ist ivortb a fig," or a 

 dam, especially if we recollect that ba-dam, an almond, is to this day 

 current in some parts of India as small money. Might not dried figs 

 have been employed anciently in the same way, sini'e the Arabic word, 

 fooloos, a halfpenny, also denotes a cassia bean, and the root fuls means 

 the scale of a fish. Mankind are so apt, from a natural depravity, that 

 " flesh is heir to," in their use of words, to pervert them from their ori- 

 ginal sense, that it is not a convincing argument against the present con- 

 jecture our using the word curse in vulgar language in lieu of dam. The 

 shells, well knu.vn as sm;tU money under the name oi kourcc,.Qhtn oc- 

 cur in the H'lndoostanee, as fig, dam, farthhig, sometimes with the 

 epithet p,hoQtee kuoree, a j/)/i7 farthing. Ten kcnrees becoiae a dumree 

 probably from dam. 



