1849.] Kucch, Bodo and Bhimdl people. 703 



found to belong to the monosyllabic-tongued races ;* but to the south 

 of that river, I think, it is pretty evident that such is not the case, for 

 the Kacharians, Khasias and Garos are, in creed, customs and languages, 

 either identical with, or most closely affined to, the Bodo, while the 

 Kudi, Rabha, and Hajong, if not rather nominal than real distinctions 

 (Hajong, Hojai Kachari) are but branches of the great Bodo or Mecch. 

 family, whose proper habitat, be it remembered, is the plains and not 

 the mountains. I should add, that it is a mistake to suppose the mass 

 of the population in the valley of Assam to be of Arian race. I allude 

 to the Dhekras or common cultivators of the valley, who, as well as the 

 Kacharis and Kocch of that valley, are Tamulians, as is proved beyond 

 a doubt by their physical attributes, and in despite of that Bengali dis- 

 guise of speech and customs, which has misled superficial observers. The 

 illustration of these Assamese races is, however, I believe, in better hands 

 than mine ; and I therefore shall proceed for the present more westward, 

 "Whoso should advance from Gdalpara in Assam to Aliganj in Morang 

 would, in traversing a distance of some 150 miles along the skirts of the 

 mountains of Bhutanf and Sikim, pass through the country of the fol- 

 lowing aborigines of Tamulian extraction : the Kocch, the Bodo, the 

 Dhimal, the Rabha, the Hajong, the Kudi, the Batar or Bor, Kebrat, 

 Pallah, Gangai, Maraha, and Dhanuk, not again to mention the Kacha- 

 rians separately, they being demonstrably identical with the Bodo, and 

 so in future to be regarded, nor further dwelling now on the Khasias 

 and Garos than to observe that Buchanan notes them as parts of the 

 population of Rangpur in its old extent. J "We may have more to say 



* In the Northern Hills also the Dhansri seems to demark the Alpine races of 

 Tibetan origin (ending easterly with the Lhopa or Bhutanese) from the Daphlas, 

 Akas, Bors, Abors, Mishmis, Miris and others of apparently Chinese stock or Indo- 

 Chinese, that is, monosyllabic. 



f Bhutan recte Bhutant, the end of Bh6t, Sanskrit name of the country which 

 the people themselves call Lh6, but like the Hindus, consider it an appendage of 

 Bhot v. Tibet, of which the former is the Sanskrit and the latter the Persian desig- 

 nation. The native one is Bod. 



X 15 in 60 words of Brown's Vocabulary, are the same in Garo and in Mecch, 

 and the whole 60 or nearly so in Kachari and Mecch. Again, the Kacharis called 

 themselves Bodo, and so do the Mecch; and lastly the Kachari deities Siju, Mai- 

 rong and Agrang are likewise Mecch deities — the chief ones too of both people to 



