The Ethnology of India. al 
be tribes in the very lowest stage of savageness, with in fact scarcely 
any agriculture, mere men of the woods. ‘They are represented as of 
very diminutive stature, with thickly matted locks and supple limbs, 
living under trees in caverns or in the rudest wigwams, keeping 
sheep or collecting forest produce, very stupid but also very mild and 
inoffensive, except that they have a great reputation as sorcerers, and 
themselves believing in a religion of demons and witchcraft, are by 
their neighbours believed to be highly gifted that way. Altogether 
they seem to be very inferior to the simple but sturdy and industrious 
Coolees of the north. 
The Chenchwars, already mentioned, and several very petty and 
isolated tribes exist in the Hastern Ghats about and north of Madras. 
T can only give the names of ‘‘ Chendaurs” and ‘‘ Yende” as near the 
Kistna and Pulicat Lake. Allusions seem to be made to the existence 
of Aboriginal or quasi-Aboriginal tribes at different points in the 
Western Ghats and Coasts; the name of “ Chermars’” and ‘“‘ Neade”? 
are mentioned in Travancore and Cochin, but they are no doubt the 
same as Chermars and Nagadees, the slaves of Malabar. ‘The Dhers 
and Ramooses of the centre and west of the Peninsula seem to be mixed 
with the general population. On all these points more precise informa- 
tion is much required. ‘ 
It is not till we cross the Godavery to the north, that we come to 
the country really held by the Aborigines. 
In the highlands between the Godavery and the Mahanaddee, the 
savage Khonds, notorious for their human sacrifices, are to the Nast, 
the barbarous and less known tribes of Gonds to the West and more 
in the interior. 
The Khonds appear to be in contact with Hindus and to have some 
of that race among them. Their blood is probably somewhat mixed, 
and they are not described as so ugly and ultra-Aboriginal as some 
other tribes. 
Of the Gonds of the forests of Bustar and thence running up towards 
the Wyngunga we know very little, except that they are extreme 
Savages, black, ugly, barbarous and dangerous. The name ‘“ Marees” 
seems to be there applied to them, and they appear to be nearly inde- 
pendent, owning a scant allegiance to chiefs whose blood is for the most 
part Gond, From thence the Gonds extend a long way North, and 
