1856.] Notes on a forest race called Puttooas or Juanga. 301 



embarrassed look until we learnt from another Puttooa, that she 

 was his wife. 



The Juanga language bears no resemblance to Ooriya or to any 

 other dialect with which I am acquainted. A list of words and 

 phrases, which I have collected, is, however, given below, and those 

 members of the Society who are familiar with the dialects of the 

 Coles, Santals, G-oands, Sowrahs, and other hill tribes to the North 

 and West of the Tributary Mehals, will be able to say whether the 

 Juanga bears an affinity to any one of these, or is, as the tribe them- 

 selves assert, a totally distinct language. In the latter case, we must 

 suppose that the Juangas are the remnant of a people vastly more 

 numerous than their descendants. It is scarcely possible that a 

 race so numerically weak and scattered over such a limited area, 

 should have originated anything more than a dialect of some one of 

 the languages, spoken by the more powerful tribes in their neigh- 

 bourhood. 1 imagine, they will prove to be merely an offshoot from 

 one of the great forest races which have, for centuries, if not for 

 ages, inhabited the mountainous region which extends from Mirza- 

 pore to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Had they ever formed a 

 race of any importance, their peculiar habits could hardly have failed 

 to attract attention, and to have been chronicled arnong the marvels 

 of the East. Our knowledge of the hill and forest tribes of India 

 is still, however, to our shame be it said, very imperfect, and it is 

 quite within the bounds of possibility that Juangas or other people 

 bearing a close affinity to them may hereafter be found in localities 

 far distant from the Tributary Mehals of Outtack. 



Since writing the above my attention has been drawn by a Madras 

 friend to the Coorumbos of the Wynaad forest, in Malabar, and the 

 Chenchoos of the Masulipatam and Gruntoor jungles, as tribes 

 whose women are said to adopt a similar costume to the Juangas, 

 and the following extract has been sent me from Pharaoh's Gazetteer, 

 p. 546. " Twenty years ago, the females of a degraded caste of 

 Holiers, used to come into Mangalore with no other covering but 

 some thick branches of a bush tied to their waist in front, and the 

 same behind. They have now substituted a cloth for the leaves in 

 front." It would be interesting to ascertain whether the resemblance 

 between the Juangas and the tribes mentioned above, is confined to 



