J OURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



On the Migratory Tribes of Natives in Central India. By Edward 

 Balfour, Esq., Assistant Surgeon Communicated by the Author 

 to Jameson's Edinburgh Journal. 



We have copied the following interesting article from Jameson's Edinburgh 

 Journal, No. LXIX, for 1843, and we add to it from Dr. Voysey's Journals, his 

 brief Vocabulary of the Goand and Cole words. We cannot on this occasion refrain 

 from again urging upon gentlemen who may be so situated as to be able to obtain these 

 notices and vocabularies, the extreme importance and great utility of doing so. It is im- 

 possible, we think, for the oldest resident in India to read this curious article without 

 being struck with the reflection of how much there is in India, of which we as yet 

 know little or nothing, and yet the knowledge of which is so important to us in 

 every capacity. We trust that Dr. Balfour's praiseworthy labours will not stop here, 

 and that he will go on in the useful and honorable field in which he has chosen to 

 labour.— Eds. 



The hills and forests in the centre of India, are inhabited by people 

 differing widely from the inhabitants of the plains. Their great abode, 

 says Mr. Elphinstone, is the Vindya mountains, which run east and 

 west from the Ganges to Guzcrat, and the broad tract of forest which 

 extends north and south from the neighbourhood of Allahabad to the 

 latitude of Masulipatam, and with interruptions almost to Cape 

 Comorin. These people have separate names — Paharias, Kols, Gonds, 

 Bheels, Colis, and Colaris ; but in many points they differ from each 

 other, and little has been done to shew that they are the same people- 

 In addition to these races, there are many smaller communities spread 

 throughout India, each with a distinct name, and speaking a distinct 

 tongue; leading a migratory life, and resorting only to towns to pur- 

 chase a few necessaries; they seem the remains of some aboriginal peo- 



No. 145. New Series, No 61. b 



