1122 A cursory Notice of Nayakote. [No. 107. 



chiefly mentioned here because of their participating with the races now 

 before us, in that singular immunity from malarious affection which is 

 not known to be the attribute of any other people whatever. 



Wherever malaria rages from March till November, beyond the 

 saul forest and within the hills, there the Denwars, Durres, Bramoos, 

 Kumhals, and Manjhis dwell, and dwell exclusively ; sometimes collect- 

 ed in small villages, more usually in scattered cottages comfortably 

 built of unhewn stone, or wattles laid over with plaister, and furnished 

 with a pent and overhung roof of grass or rice straw, which is veran- 

 dahed towards the east. They follow the avocations of agriculturists, 

 potters, fishermen, and ferrymen, and at all these crafts, and more 

 especially at the second, they are very expert ; the Kumhals of Nayakote 

 in particular being renowned for their workmanship even in the vicinity 

 of the very able craftsmen in that kind, whom the great valley produces. 



These races of men affect a distinctness among themselves which is 

 fit only to make an enlightened stranger smile, though it may possibly 

 indicate different periods of migration from below, and of settlement 

 within the hills, or migrations from different parts of the plains. In 

 general the five tribes or races will not intermarry among themselves, nor 

 with any of the races around them ; and they allege that their lan- 

 guages (dialects) as well as usages are distinct. But they all call 

 themselves Hindoos, though they neither believe in the sacred scrip- 

 tures of the Hindoos, nor accept the sacerdotal offices of the Brahmans. 

 "With a general resemblance of manners and customs, they have some 

 trivial diversities of usage, as follows : — 



Manjhis. Their priests are the old men of the tribe ; in making burnt 

 or other offerings to their deities, they use no sacred or other words or 

 prayerso On account of births they are impure for four days: they 

 cut the navel on the day of birth, and four days afterwards make 

 a feast. On account of deaths the impurity lasts for ten days, but 

 under stress of business one day's observance will suflfice at the 

 moment, so that the other nine are observed afterwards. Denwars, 

 They allege that they came from the western hills ; their priests are 

 their husbands' daughters' and sisters' sons.* Impurity at births lasts 

 for ten days, and the same at deaths : they will not eat pulse dressed by 



* These purely arbitrary customs may serve hereafter as helps in tracing the 

 affinity of these and other semi-barbarous races throughout the mountains and hills 

 of the Indian continent, the disjecta membra of its original population. 



