66 Remarks on the Country between [Feb. 



in jungle, and save where cultivation extends, is surrounded by rank 

 vegetation and underwood. The very air around is tainted by malaria, 

 while the rottening foliage adds to the unwholesomeness of the place . 

 The water of the nuddee is unfit to drink, for it is contaminated by 

 leaves and putrid vegetable matter : — like all mountain torrents, it is 

 nearly dry in the cold and hot seasons, and water is only to be seen in 

 pools. I happened to be stationed on command at this village, with a 

 company of sepoys and a few irregular horse, in the month of October, 

 and lost two or three men from cholera, while several others were laid up 

 with fevers, chiefly of the intermittent kind, with some few cases of ague. 

 The water in the best and most frequented well, and which the camp 

 used occasionally, if drawn up in a lota over-night, and set aside, had 

 its surface covered in the morning with oily particles. 



The population is scanty about Mugurduh. The village of Indra- 

 poora, (of which a Goand, named Lutteea, was paUl in 1825,) 

 Sanajhar and Banspanee, fine-sounding names, are wretched ham- 

 lets, buried in the jungle, and inhabited by Goands. This caste of 

 Hindoos are almost jet-black, and dirty and forbidding in their appear- 

 ance ; while they are short in stature, and thick-set in point of make. 

 Their dialect is peculiar to themselves. The whole race appeal's wretched 

 and poor — a small dhotee and a coarse chudur to wrap over their bodies 

 form their outward garments. Their tenements consist of huts, whose 

 walls are built of stakes cut from the neighbouring forest, entwined with 

 rude wicker-work, and plastered and besmeared over with mud ; while 

 the roofs consist of a thin layer or coating of dried grass, over which are 

 spread some praus leaves, and a few battens made from the bamboo, 

 fastened over all to prevent its being acted upon by the wind. The 

 Goands are remarkably fond of swine and buffaloes ; they are fond also 

 of rearing fowls. When leaving the road, and penetrating the forest's 

 depths, an occasional hut is met with, completely isolated, and from 

 such I have seen a Goand issue forth, its only human tenant, while a 

 favorite pig has met my eye not far from the threshold. This race of 

 human beings are little better in the human scale than demi-savages ; 

 they are very superstitious, and like all dark minds, place great confidence 

 and belief in the charms and quackery of their gooroos (or priests). 

 They have rites peculiar to themselves, and tread the jungles' depths at 

 dead of night, without the slightest feeling of dread or fear from tigers or 

 other wild beasts. It has often been a matter of surprise to me, that 

 these men should dare, both by day and night, to traverse and thread 

 these deep forests, unapprehensive of danger from wild beasts (especially 

 tigers) which in these parts are fearfully abundant. Habit with man is 

 certainly a second nature. 





