1851.] Notes upon a Tour through the Rdjmahal Hills, 547 



tants of the jungleterry of Rajamahal, who had long infested the neigh- 

 bouring lands by their predatory incursions, inspired them with a taste 

 of the arts of civilized life, and attached them to the British Government 

 by a conquest over their minds ; the most permanent, as the most 

 rational mode of dominion." 



The tomb whence this Epitaph is copied, was erected to the memory 

 of Mr. Cleveland at Bhagalpur, by order of the Governor General 

 and Council of Bengal, in honor of his character and for an example 

 to others ; and bears date 1784. 



As disputes from time to time still occasionally occurred between 

 the hill-men and the zemindars at the foot of the hills, relative to their 

 proper boundaries and the right of grazing, cutting wood and other 

 matters, Government in the year 1832, deputed Mr. John Petty Ward, 

 of the Civil Service, in company with Captain Tanner as Surveyor, to 

 demarcate a boundary that should secure to the hill-men the undis- 

 puted possession of their hilly tract, and effectually separate them from 

 the lowlanders ; this, after an immense deal of labour, — for the whole 

 of the boundary demarcated, and which measures two hundred and 

 ninety-five miles iu circumference, was entirely through heavy jungle, — 

 was accomplished, and large masonry pillars erected at convenient dis- 

 tances, thus enclosing with the exception of a few outlying hills to 

 the south, the whole of the Rajmahal Hills ; all land within the pillars 

 was claimed by Government, and by Government given over to the 

 hill-men to be held by them as long as they behaved themselves in an 

 orderly manner ; all without the hills belongs to the various Pargau- 

 nahs of the district Bhagalpur, bordering upon the hills. 



All land within the pillars bona fide occupied by the hill-men pays 

 no rent or tax to Government ; but as the hill-men cannot be induced 

 to cultivate the valleys, nor the extensive tract of level land lying out- 

 side the hills but within the masonry pillars and named the Damin-e- 

 Koh, or skirt of the hills, Government permitted a wandering race of 

 people named Sonthals, whose country extends from Cuttack across 

 Manbhum, Chota Nagpur, Hazaribagh, Palamow to Rewah, to locate 

 themselves upon the land repudiated by the hill -men, paying at the 

 same time a light land tax for the ground so occupied. 



In process of time these Sonthals increased in numbers, both by 

 births and immigration, until their numbers became so numerous and 



4 a 2 



