CHAPTER III. 



miscellaneous. 



Section 1. — Inhabitants. 



In connection with the future development of the mineral resources 

 of Palamow, it may be useful to make a few remarks on the leading 

 characteristics of the population. 



Palamow being, as Mr. Forbes has pointed out, a sort of border 

 land, is inhabited by both Aryan and non-Aryan peoples. The former, 

 as is usually the case, occupy the open and cultivated parts, which, 

 though smaller in extent, support a larger number of individuals than 

 the wilder regions inhabited by the latter. In the portion of Palamow 

 under description, which includes a large part of these wilder regions, 



the non-Aryans largely prevail, and as these 

 Non -Aryan tribes. ti i n • i i 



tribes would most likely furnish the most consider- 

 able proportion of the labour, it will be only necessary to describe them, 

 the more particularly as the characters and capabilities of the various 

 castes of Hindus do not, so far as I know, present any local or unusual 

 peculiarities. 



Both the principal families of Kols are represented — the Mundas by 

 about a dozen different tribes among which the 

 Chiros, Kherwars, Korewas, Paharias and Agurias 

 are the most numerous ; the Oraons by Oraons proper and Kol-lohars. 



The Kherwars and Chiros appear to me to be both indolent and 



wanting in stamina. The villages of the former 



Kherwars and Chiros. ,, . , ,. . i ii • i 



are generally excessively dirty, and their houses, 



notwithstanding the fact that building materials are generally abundant, 



are in a most miserable state of dilapidation. They are not likely to make 



good labourers ; but possibly they might improve somewhat if the weight 



of indebtedness to the money lenders, which now depresses them, were 



removed from their shoulders. 



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