1865.] Notes of a tour -in the Tributary Mehals. 19 



dahs amongst them ; the Jushpore Oraons are the ugliest of the race, 

 and appear to me utterly destitute of all ambition to rise into respect- 

 ability of appearance. With foreheads " villainous low," flat noses 

 and projecting mamillaries, they approach the negro in physiognomy, 

 much closer than do their brethren in Chota-Nagpore. 



Jushpore produces an excellent iron, much prized for making wea- 

 pons and implements of husbandry. Amongst its exports may be 

 included about ten thousand maunds of cotton. 



The lowland villages of Jushpore have a sprinkling of the tribes 

 from all the surrounding districts. Of the Orissa type are " Makoors" 

 from Keonjhur, the most thriving people in these parts, well dressed, 

 and occupying good houses. They have great herds of cattle, like the 

 Aheers and Grwallas. Then there are a few of the Grangpore Bhooyas, 

 intermingled with a good many Khairwars from Palamow, (of which 

 caste is the Rajah,) and Grours or Gronds from the south and west, and 

 as we approach Oodeypore, we come for the first time on the Kaurs. 



The Kaurs form a considerable proportion of the population 

 of Oodeypore, Sirgoojah, Korea, Chang Bhukar, and Korbah of 

 Chutteesgurh, and there is this point of interest in them, thai 

 they claim to be the descendants of the " Kooroos" who fought the 

 Pandavas, who, when defeated and driven from the scenes of the war, 

 found a safe retreat in these mountainous and densely-wooded regions. 

 In appearance they more resemble the aborigines than the Hindu 

 tribes. They are, in fact, next to the Jushpore Oraons, the ugliest 

 race I have seen in the course of my tour : dark and coarse-featured, 

 broad noses, wide mouths and thick lips. They resemble the Khair- 

 wars of Palamow, especially that ill-favoured section of them called 

 Bhogtahs, in features, but in nothing else, as the Kaurs are an exceed- 

 ingly industrious and thriving people. Their houses are unusually neat 

 and commodious, built like bungalows, with verandahs on two or more 

 sides. Of these there is one to each married member of the family, who, 

 however, meet and eat together in the largest, belonging to the head. The 

 houses are placed so as to form a small court-yard, which is kept scru- 

 pulously clean. The Kaurs do not strictly conform to Hinduism : they 

 rear and eat fowls, and have no veneration for Brahmins. The " Nau," 

 the village barber, whom they sometimes call Thakoor, is their priest, 

 and officiates as such at all marriages and other ceremonies. The 



