JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Notes on the Bendkar, a people of Keonjur. By Lieut. S. R. Tickkll, 

 Political Assistant, S. W. Frontier. 



In the course of my last annual tour through the Kolehan district, 

 (January and February 1842,) I came upon a set of people, whose names 

 and history we have hitherto been quite ignorant of, (even within the 

 Agency,) and whose existence I only then for the first time ascertained. 

 They comprise one insulated clan or tribe, not above 250 or 300 in 

 number, and call themselves " Bendkars." Their habits and manners, 

 in restricting themselves entirely to hills, assimilate them to the Kur- 

 riahs, a people well known in the mountainous districts, east and west of 

 the Kolehan, and to be met with also in Birbhoom; but they deny 

 any affinity to, or even knowledge of, the latter. 



The Bendkars inhabit a small range of hills, called Bendkar Booroo, 

 in the north of Keonjur, and close to Jamdapeer, (the southern border 

 of the Kolehan.) The country is exceedingly wild, being in fact one 

 uninterrupted sea of jungle, bounded to the N. and N. E. by the culti- 

 vated lands and villages of the Hos in Kotegurh and Burpeer, but whose 

 limits in other directions have not been, nor probably ever will be, de- 

 fined. These people have no separate language, but converse either in 

 the Ho or the Ooria dialect, as occasion offers. In appearance they are 

 much the same as the Bhooians <of that part of the country, tolerably 

 fair, well-made, and not devoid of intelligence ; although from the exces- 

 sive seclusion of their lives, they may be pronounced purely savage. By 

 sending one of my chuprassees, with money and fair speeches, I was 

 able to induce five or six of them to come into my camp in Sarndapeer. 

 They were minutely questioned respecting their manners, customs, &c. 

 but these appear to offer nothing particularly worthy of notice, being 

 similar to those of other Semi-Hindoo tribes, such as the Bhoomijes, 

 Bhooians, Sontals, &c. They worship Kalee and several tutelar 

 Deotas ; eat neither beef nor pork, drink water from a Ho's hand; but 

 will not eat with them, nor would they touch food cooked by any 

 Hindoo, even a Bramin. They have neither cattle, goats, sheep, nor 

 pigs; but some keep a few head of poultry. Their houses are mere 

 hovels formed of branches, leaves, and thatched with jungle grass, these 

 are not built together, so as to form a village, but are scattered by ones 



No. 123. New Series, No. 39. 2 e 



