1851.] Notes upon a tour through the Rdjmahal Hills, 565 



lias, such as asan, bahira and iburra, all of which are burnt for char- 

 coal by the iron smelters belonging to Belpattah who live within sight 

 of the coal, but who cannot be induced to use it, being afraid as they 

 say of the " Boot" or demons of the forests. 



\9th January, 1851. — Direction north, four miles, to Katikund. 

 The tract of land passed over is partly cultivated, here and there cut 

 up by ravines but is well populated being studded with Sonthal vil- 

 lages, besides small patches of Asun jungle. 



This tract of land bordered by the Brahminee River to the south and 

 west, and by the Ini Nallah to the north and east, and containing 

 twenty-five square miles is claimed by Sumar Sing, a stipendiary hill 

 chief, residing at Gango, under the Singhi Math hill in Tuppeh Bel- 

 patta, he receives ten rupees from Government per mensem although 

 residing outside the Damin Boundary. 



It appears that all the Pergunnahs lying contiguous to the hills have 

 lost land, by Government having included the hills within a boundary 

 as pointed out by the Zemindars in 1832, at which period all the land 

 lying immediately under the hills as well as a portion of the outer hills 

 which in reality did belong to the Zemindars and not to the hill-men 

 were covered with an almost impenetrable jungle, and little imagining 

 that the land could or ever would be cleared were careless in defining 

 their boundaries. The Damin-i-koh boundary after a great deal of 

 trouble was settled, the Sonthals from the south were admitted ; be- 

 fore whose axes the forest disappeared in a few years ; the wild beasts 

 that had been the terror of these hitherto unexplored wilds were soon 

 destroyed by the arrows of the omnivorous Sonthal, the land was sown 

 and being a virgin soil yielded large returns ; the Zemindars seeing 

 these facts before their eyes and seeing themselves fairly ousted from 

 their own land, nevertheless by their own consent, for each Zemindar 

 on the boundary signed an agreement as to the correctness of the 1832 

 boundary, are now beginning to repent of their hastiness in having 

 signed away their land and are endeavouring to recover what can never 

 be theirs again. That the land did belong to the Zemindars there is 

 no doubt, as large masses of the hills are still known by the names of 

 the neighbouring Pergunnahs, and Pergunnah Sultanabad lying on 

 the East of the hills has acknowledged land, about five thousand acres, 

 lying on the Western side of the hills ; and the valley known as the 



