66 The Ethnology of India. 
north of the Gogra and Ganges all the way into Tirhoot there are, 
I believe, many Bramins. South of the Gogra and thence across the 
Ganges, into the Arrah District (Bojpore), runs the Rajpoot dominions. 
But about Benares, and still more in the greater part of Bahar, the 
dominion is held by a numerous class of bastard Bramins called 
‘ Bamans’ or ‘ Bhabans,’ to which belong both the Raja of Benares 
and almost all the great landholders of Bahar. There seems to be 
no doubt that this class is formed by an intermixture of Bramins with 
some inferior caste. They live in strong and pugnacious brother- 
hoods, and are in character much more like Rajpoots than Bramins. 
The main country of the Bramins may then be described to be that 
part of Hindustan (between the Vyndyas on one side and the Hima- 
layas on the other), from the longitude of Kanouj and Lucknow 
to near the frontiers of Bengal, with a large segment of more 
especially Rajpoot country (stretching from Lucknow to Bojpore) 
cut out of the centre of this tract. 
The Hindustanee Bramins are all strict Hindus of the modern type. 
They are generally good sized aud on the whole well-looking men, 
not I think particularly fair among the higher castes, but seldom so 
dark as the lower. Their features are good, but by no means 
generally of the peculiar High-Arian and sub-aquiline type. In fact 
the breed has here lost some of the purity of its blood, and the 
features are very much as in Europe. I think I have noticed among 
many of the Hindustanee Bramins a good deal of the open, blunt, 
bullet-headed, and as it were anti-aquiline style of countenance ; not 
so handsome as more High-Arian features, but still pleasant enough, 
I do not think that in appearance they have any decided superiority 
over the higher castes of Hindustanees in general, though the higher 
castes have some general advantages over the inferior castes. By 
far the greater number of them are quite illiterate and have nothing 
of the clerkly character about them. The priests and Pandits are learned 
enough in their way, but they have never taken to the use of the 
Persian character. I doubt whether Hindustanee Bramins are as a 
body much more clever that several other classes; if they had been, 
they would have held their own better in spite of Mahommedan rule, 
as they have done in several other parts of India. As it is, they 
have scarcely any share of high office and very little literate service. 
