The Ethnology of India. 21 
probably to a good deal of robbery, have come down on the enervated 
people of the plains and valleys, and have established a temporary 
dominion over considerable tracts of country. Just as on the depart- 
ure of the Romans and before the establishment of Teutonic rule, 
the Picts and Scots came down on the cultivated portions of Britain, 
so it seems certain that, at periods long subsequent to the glories of 
the Solar and Lunar Rajpoots, Aboriginal Bhurs and Cheroos estab- 
lished considerable principalities in parts of Oude and of the Benares 
and Behar Provinces. So also Bheels, Mairs, and Kolees seem to 
have had at one time considerable power in Rajpootana and Goojerat. 
In comparatively modern times, the Bedas or Beders (whose name is 
I believe really identical with that of the Vedahs or Vedders) seem to 
have established considerable power in the South, and the Gonds in 
Central India acquired quite a wide dominion. Under such cireum- 
stances, the savage conquerors are generally themselves socially conquer- 
ed, and the tribes so situated, while gaining some civilisation, lose much 
of their peculiarities of blood and feature, and more of their language. 
By far the largest tract in which the Aboriginal tribes prevail, 
and may be said to form the mass of the inhabitants, is that 
extending through the hilly country from the western and southern 
borders of Bengal, Behar and Benares to the frontiers of the Hydera- 
bad and Madras territories, and from the Hastern Ghats inland to the 
civilised portions of the Nagpore territory; but even in this tract it 
appears that there are evident monuments of old Hindoo civilisation, 
showing that Hindoos, or at any rate Sivites, had at one time a far 
greater hold on much of this country than they now have, and that 
probably after being partially civilised, it was gained back by the 
Aborigines. Even now this country is intersected by settled and 
cultivated tracts. Hindoos are scattered about it, and there is an 
admixture of Hindoo blood. Still, in all this part of the country, 
Aboriginal tribes muster very strong, and they preserve their lan- 
guage, their manners, and their peculiarities much better than elsewhere. 
Tt is, however, as I have said, only in the heart and kernel of the 
best preserved tribes, that we must look for the real original character- 
istics existing in a palpable and little-diluted form. In less pure 
specimens, they will be found less distinct. My impression is that, if 
we look cafefully, they will seldom be altogether wanting. The 
