158 On the Boksas of Bijnour. [No. 3, 



They seem to have no spirit of inquisitiveness whatever, even in 

 regard to points in which one would naturally suppose they might be 

 interested. Tims it was frequently found, that they did not know 

 who was the purohit of villages within half-a-dozen miles of their 

 own : and several said that there were no Boksas beyond Nawab- 

 poora, which is the most easterly village of this section of the 

 tribe. As a specimen of their combined ignorance and credulity, 

 I may mention, that a pudhdn of one of the largest villages having 

 brought up his sick child, for some time declined to answer any 

 questions, believing that by merely feeling its pulse the details of the 

 disease would be discovered, and that any information from him would 

 be superfluous. 



They have among them no arts or manufactures whatever, all clothes, 

 leather, &c, being imported ; nor do they, so far as could be learned, 

 use a single medicinal substance. I only met one Boksa who could 

 read, and heard of one other. 



They are much more frank in manner than the villager of the 

 plains of the North West Provinces, speaking their mind pretty 

 freely, and they appear to have some sense of humour, which if the 

 latter possesses, it never comes out in his intercourse with Europeans. 

 One of the Boksas when asked what remuneration he got for being pu- 

 dhdn, answered with a grin "Nothing but dikkat;" the question, "What 

 will you get, for having guided me, if you do not wait till my servants 

 come up?" elicited " Plenty of kdntd on my way back ;" an old fellow 

 on seeing me examining under the ribs of some of the others for 

 spleen, complacently patting his lank abdomen said with a droll 

 expression such as is often seen to accompany some stroke of " Scotch 

 wut," " Do you think I've got spleen?" And I had a hearty laugh, 

 one intensely cold morning, when on my suddenly stopping to ask the 

 old guide who, with chattering teeth, was panting up an acclivity 

 after me, some question about their traditions, he replied " I may 

 remember by and bye, but its so bara jdara just now, I can recollect 

 nothing." 



Their only amusement seems to be the pursuit of game, terrestrial 

 and aquatic, and they complained bitterly that the recent carrying out 

 of the Disarming Act had deprived them of a chief means of 

 ivelihood. They are excessively greedy after animal food, and 



