2 Migratory Tribes of £No. 145. 



pie who had occupied the soil perhaps before any of the nations now 

 possessing it; and it may not be uninteresting to mention some of the 

 habits of these nomade races. 



THE GOHUR, CALLED BY EUROPEANS AND NATIVES BENJARI, OR 



LUMBARI. 



The Binjarries are separated among themselves into three tribes — 

 Chouhone, Rhatore, and Powar. Their original country, they say, 

 was Rajputana,* but they now are spread over Hindostan, all adher- 

 ing to the same customs, and speaking the same language This bears 

 a strong resemblance to the language of Guzerat, though there are 

 many words in it without affinity with any of the dialects we are ac- 

 quainted with. At the head of the Binjarries in the Dekhan are two 

 individuals who receive the title of Naeks. They reside in Hyderabad, 

 and the encampments located near that city refer any disputes that 

 arise to them for their decision ; but the chief occupation of these 

 Naeks is to keep up a correspondence with the different parts of the 

 country, to gain early information from localities where war or famine 

 has raised the price of grain. 



The Binjarries are grain merchants; indeed the name is given them 

 from their occupation ; and their traffic being carried on by bullocks, 

 they traverse the most impracticable countries to collect supplies, which 

 they pour into the districts where scarcity prevails, or they move in 

 the track of large armies, to furnish them with grain during the cam- 

 paign. In carrying on war in India, where armies carry their maga- 

 zines along with them, the services of the Binjarries are almost in- 

 dispensable, and their occupation renders them sacred. For this 

 reason, though moving among hostile bodies in time of war, they con- 

 sider themselves secure from being molested by any party, and there 

 have been instances of large bodies passing near camps, and though 

 refusing to dispose of the grain they carried, being allowed to move on 

 to the enemy, the dread of alarming them, and thus banishing them 

 for ever, being sufficient to protect them from interruption. The time 

 of hostilities or of dearth was a period of activity among them ; but 



* On the summits of the hills (formerly islets) which, united, form the island of 

 Bombay, reside about 75 families of cultivators, who say they emigrated from Raj- 

 putanah. Many of the words in the language of this people, and the dress of their 

 women, are similiar to the Gohurs. They call themselves Purmans. 



