1365.] On the Boksas of Bijnour. 159 



Mr. Batten informs me Boksas have told him, that without wild pigs 

 a Boksa would die. This statement has probably something to do 

 with their fondness for sporting, but, independent of this, wild pig is 

 said to be almost a passion with them. 



The Boksas are undoubtedly restless in their habits, and there 

 are more migrations from village to village than would appear to 

 be absolutely necessary. Still, this propensity doubtless shows more 

 strongly when contrasted with the generally extreme adhesiveness 

 of the Hindustani agriculturist to his native village. Here, among 

 the western Boksas, there is nothing like the " Never stay in a 

 place more than two years" which Jones and others state to be 

 the case with their eastern confreres. On the contrary, most of the 

 former appear never to shift their village at all, and the most exten- 

 sive changes going on of late years among them, seem to arise from the 

 Government orders to clear the Patli Boon. 



With the minor development of the nomadic instinct, shown by their 

 restlessness, they evince unconquerable adhesiveness to their natale 

 solum among the swamps and jungles. I could not hear of a single 

 instance of a Boksa having emigrated from the forest belt, and they 

 mentioned the existence of a tradition that no Boksa had ever gone 

 abroad for service. 



Although they are so fond of flesh, they keep no goats or sheep, 

 and in only one instance did I find that a few fowls were kept. 

 Agriculture may be said to be almost their sole employment, but one 

 or two others, which are followed by a few of them at times, may be 

 here noted. 



A very small number of them ever engage in cutting bamboos 

 or timber for export, and the collection of drugs and gums, which 

 are largely produced and gathered in the forest, affords employment 

 to almost none of the tribe. In some parts, however, they collect 

 a" few of these (viz. gum of jingan, Odina wodier, and solianjan, 

 Hyperanthera pterygosperma , kamela powder from the Rottlera 

 tinctoria, aorila, fruit of Emblica officinalis, and liarra immature 

 fruit of Terminalia cliebida) for sale to the bunyas, who come hither to 

 buy such things. I have already here mentioned, that the collection 

 of the kino of the dhak they object to as being too laborious, and 

 probably we must attribute to sheer laziness the fact, that they do so 



