50 The Ethnology of India. 
diluted. I have not heard of the Tharoos serving as labourers, but if they 
ave akin to the Dhangar Coolees now so much sought after, seeing their 
immunity against malaria, they would be very valuable to any one who 
could induce them to emigrate. As yet, however, they are very shy. 
From Goruckpore eastward in the Nepal Terai and along the 
Frontiers of Bengal, I cannot learn that there are any Aboriginal 
tribes till we come to the neighbourhood of Sikkim and Kooch Behar. 
Those whom I have asked knew of none, and it is probable that if 
there were any, Hodgson would haye mentioned them. Dr. Campbell 
of Darjeeling speaks generally of the population of the Nepal Terai as 
composed of a most varied assemblage of bastard Hindus. 
The Kooch Behar people have become so Hinduised, that their 
original character cannot be distinguished with certainty, They call 
themselves “ Rajbansees,” as I think do several Hinduised Aboriginal 
tribes. ‘fang 
About this parallel we come upon the Meches or Mechis who form 
the chief population of the forests and Doars at the foot of the 
Sikkim and Bhootan hills, and a few of whom have recently settled in 
the extreme eastern portion of the Nepal Terai. I understand that 
these people are the same as the Bodos of Hodgson, who are of 
an Indo-Chinese family. I shall rank them and other similar tribes 
as ‘ Borderers,’ and now only notice them for the purpose of com- 
parison. They are described as very Mongolian or Indo-Chinese in 
feature, fairer than the Hindus and of a yellow tinge, taller and 
larger than the Nepalese cultivators, addicted to spirits and to smoking 
opium. They make small and temporary clearances in the forest and 
are proof against malaria. In an industrial point of view they are 
evidently much inferior to the Tharoos. 
Dr. Campbell incidentally mentions among the lowland neighbours 
of the Mechis a tribe inhabiting similar tracts called ‘ Thawas’ whom 
I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. They seem (so far as one 
can gather from the slightest notices) to be more industrious and 
settled than the Mechis. Dr. Campbell seems to speak of them as 
a different race. It would be interesting to know whether these - 
Thawas may not possibly be related to the Tharoos. 
Also among the neighbours of the Mechis are the Garrows, whose 
yain habitat is the hill country just within the bend of the Berham- 
