26 The Ethnology of India. 
ascertained), speaking a language akin to that of the Oraons. Those 
hills form a kind of knot at the extreme eastern point of the hill 
country of Central India. It was known that the people were entirely 
different from their neighbours the Santals. The latter cultivate the 
lower lands, and it may at first sight seem surprising that the higher 
grounds should be in the possession of more recent settlers of a distant 
southern stock. The fact, however, seems to be explained by the 
plundering habits of the Rajmahal hillmen. They seem to have 
occupied those hills as a kind of stronghold, from which they could 
conveniently plunder the plains around them. 
The greater part of the Chota-Nagpore division and adjoining tracts 
is occupied by tribes whom I take as representative of the second or 
northern division of the Aborigines. There are ‘ Lurka Coles,’ ‘ Hos,’ 
‘ Bhoomiz,’ ‘ Moondahs,’ and Santals, and wilder tribes of the border 
hills, all speaking dialects of a language very different from the 
Dravidian. In fact, so far as vocables go, no substantial connection can 
be traced. Max Miller speaks of these tongues as quite unconnected 
with any other. Still I venture to think that there seems to be some 
similarity of structure between them and the Dravidian languages. 
Major Tickell has published in the Journal of the Society a grammar 
of the Hos or Lurka Col language ; and I note the following as a few 
of the peculiarities common to it and to the Dravidian tongues, as the 
latter are set forth by Dr. Caldwell. 
First, there is the general coincidence of structure, which I have 
already noticed as common to all the Aboriginal tongues as well as to 
Hindustanee, Turkish, &c. In this respect, the northern Aborigines 
do not differ, and they similarly use postpositions, &e. 
Further. In the Dravidian tongues there is no regular gender, 
all inanimate things are neuter, and the terms male and female are 
prefixed when necessary. 
It seems to be the same in the northern aboriginal tongues. 
Adjectives do not decline, nor are there degrees of Sgtnplnisee 
Tt is the same in the northern tongues. 
There are two forms of the first person plural, one to include, and the 
other to exclude the person addressed. 
This peculiarity also is found among the northern tribes, as well as 
in the Australian tongues. 
