1855.] Notes on Northern Cachar. 601 



and honest. Not so, however, when under the light of a little education, 

 having learned to read and write, they merge more into the world, and 

 become acquainted with the practice of our courts. Such knowledge 

 appears to develope the worst portions of their character, and they 

 emulate the Bengali in chicanery and rival him in intrigue. Persever- 

 ing and industrious, they work themselves up into places of conse- 

 quence under us, in connexion with these hills, and use their influence 

 for the furtherance of anything but good. Corrupt practices and 

 oppression are much spoken of with regard to their administration, 

 and all the mischief that lias been done in the country may, in a 

 measure, be attributed to the under-current of power possessed and 

 exercised by them. The presence of a European officer is a great 

 check upon them, and most necessary, as from among them are 

 composed the chief omlah and police officials of the district. 



In dress and ornaments neither the hill Cacharee nor the Hazai 

 have much to distinguish them from the Assamese or Bengalis, except 

 in remote parts, where the coarseness and scantiness of apparel and 

 the rudeness of the ornaments are conspicuous. Their cloth is for 

 the most part home made, and is strong and coarse. The Hazai 

 also manufacture a coarse kind of silk from the Eria-worm, which 

 the higher classes wear. 



The Purbuttia or hill Cacharee seems to be the same individual 

 as the Hazai, but ruder and more unsophisticated. His residence 

 among remote hills and forests must necessarily infuse habits and 

 peculiarities into his nature, which will make him differ from his 

 brother in the plains both morally and physically, and such is the 

 case. The baneful effects of that "little learning" which is charac- 

 terised as so dangerous, is not felt here. The Purbuttias have no 

 means of being educated, and they live among their hills in pristine 

 ignorance and simplicity, alike free from the advantages and dis- 

 advantages of the approaching civilization which has reached the 

 Hazai. Unacquainted with the use of opium, drinking spirits, but 

 in no immoderate degree, constantly employed in the hard labour of 

 their cultivation, and breathing the fine bracing air of the hills, the 

 Purbuttias are physically much superior to the Hazai Cacharees 

 and are a stout, strong, hardy and courageous race, very industrious, 

 though rather inclined to be quarrelsome and turbulent. 



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