1865.] Xofen of a tour in the Trihuiary Mehah. 3 



the Bhooya aborigines, and when a succession to the Raj takes place 

 in any of these districts, the acknowledged head of tho Bhooya clan 

 goes through a ceremony of making over to the new chief the country 

 and the people. The person who claims this prerogative in Bonai is 

 titularly called " Sawunt." He holds, at the very trifling quit-rent of 

 Rs. 18 a year, twelve villages with their hamlets, and claims to be the 

 hereditary Dewan of Bonai, but the chief neither employs nor acknow- 

 ledges him as such. There are two other similar tenures with the 

 titles of ' Dhunput' and ' Mahapater,' and subordinate to them are 

 certain privileged heads of villages called Naiks. Under the Sawunt, 

 Dhunput, or Mahapater, the subordinate officers of the Bhooya militia, 

 — all the able-bodied males of the tribe are bound at the requisition 

 of the chief or of the Government, to turn out for service fully 

 armed and equipped. There are no military tenures in the hands of 

 people of any other caste. The Bhooyas thus have great power in the 

 little state. Nor is it only in consequence of their being thus orga- 

 nized as a military body ; I find they have also charge of the oldest 

 temples and shrines, and discharge the duties of Levites to the exclu- 

 sion of Brahmins. Yet the temples are dedicated to Hindu gods. 

 Whatever their origin may be, the Bhooyas are now completely Hin- 

 duized. They have no peculiar language or customs of their own. 

 In Bonai and the southern parts of Gangpore they speak Ooriah. In 

 the northern parts of Grangpore and Jushpore, Hindi. They are a 

 dark-complexioned race, with rather high cheek-bones, but with 

 nothing else in feature or form to distinguish them as of extraneous 

 origin. According to their own traditions, they were once a great peo- 

 ple in Eastern India and had a king of their own, but were dispersed 

 by invasion from the west. They are now found in all the districts 

 between Cuttack and Behar, but they are most numerous in this and 

 the adjoining estates, and here may be found the most civilized and 

 respectable and the most primitive of the family. While in the low- 

 lands, they dwell in villages, clothe themselves decently, and otherwise 

 follow the customs, adopt the manners, and, I may add, the intriguing 

 nature of the more civilized Brahminical races. In the hills of Bonai 

 they are found as naked, as simple, as truthful and unsophisticated as 

 the wildest of the Cole tribes. There are a great number of Bhooyas 

 in the Singbhoom district, and it is said that they were driven out of 

 the west portion of it, by the advance and spread of the Lurka Coles. 



