194 Notes on a Tour in Maunhhoom. [No. 3, 



religious settlements amongst the unsubdued Dasyas. This would 

 account for the Brahminical ruins, mostly dedicated to the worship of 

 Siva, scattered about the wild regions of this Province, some in pictur- 

 esque secluded spots that a hermit would delight in, others in connec- 

 tion with fortified cities, all now deserted. "We may conceive that 

 these colonies, gradually assuming a more aggressive policy, were, after 

 severe struggles, finally extirpated by the progenitors of the Kols, 

 Bhoomi and Moondah of the present day ; that the aborigines thus 

 maintained their independence and their autonomy, but that from a 

 feeling of lingering admiration for the superior intelligence, higher 

 civilization and God-like beauty of the unsuccessful invaders, they 

 retained some amongst them as their guides and instructors, and it may 

 be, in some instances, from the remnant thus retained, elected their 

 chief. We might thus account for the Aryan features and Brahminical 

 predilections of some of the chiefs whom we find ruling an alien people 

 without any evidence that they had by conquest attained that position. 



The District of Maunbhoom is entirely composed of the estates 

 formerly known as Jungle Mehals. The great proportion of the 

 agricultural population are of the Bhoomi j tribe who, as they speak 

 the same language, have the same ceremonies, feasts and customs as 

 the Moondahs of Chota-Nagpore and also intermarry with them, are, 

 without doubt, of the same origin. Though in many places partially 

 Ilindooized, they retain the great festivals of their race, when both 

 sexes join in the feast and the dance. The chiefs, who, as I have stated, 

 all aspire to be Kshetriyas, have each his tradition regarding his 

 accession to power. These are generally fables devised by the Brah- 

 mins, and they may thank me for having given them a method of 

 claiming an Aryan descent without having recourse to them. 



The Rajah of Paciiete is lord of half the district, and several petty 

 rajahs with whom separate settlements were made, formerly acknow- 

 ledged him as Suzerain. These petty rajahs and others, called 

 Jagheerdars, claim to be the descendants of the chiefs of the confederacy 

 who made the first Rajah of Pachete. The fable framed for this 

 family is that a noble lady of the Kshetriya race, on her way from 

 Daranugger to Juggernath, was delivered of a male child under a hill 

 near Jhaldah, which, it appears, she incontinently abandoned and pro- 

 ceeded on her way. The child was found by the people protected by, 



