4 The Ethnology, of India. 



error can only be met by explaining in detail the tribes variously 

 known in various localities ; but in respect to the latter, some general 

 caution seems necessary. It often happens that the same term is 

 applied both to a Tribe or Caste, and to the profession usually exer- 

 cised by that caste, and that while in one sense the term is proper 

 to the caste, whether exercising the same or any other profession, in 

 another sense it is applied to all exercising the profession, whether of 

 the same or of any other caste. For instance, in the greater part of the 

 Punjaub, the great agricultural tribe is the Jat, and there the words 

 1 Jat' and ' Zemeendar' have come to be used by the people as 

 almost synonymous. A man who is asked of what caste he is, will 

 reply ' a Zemeendar,' meaning a Jat. And, vice versa, a Punjabee 

 will sometimes call a man a Jat, meaning only that he is a Zemeendar. 

 When I pressed some of the servants of the Maharajah of Cashmere 

 regarding the Ethnology of the valley of the Upper Indus and other 

 little known parts, I was at first much puzzled by finding them de- 

 clare that the great mass of the people there are ' Jats,' but I pre- 

 sently discovered that they meant merely Zemcendars or cultivators, 

 there being in fact no Jats within the Hills. In the West and South 

 too, I believe that the terms ' Koonbee' and ' Wocal' are used both 

 to designate certain agricultural tribes, and cultivators generally ; so 

 that while " the Wocals are by the Mahommedans called Koonbees," 

 that circumstance gives no assurance that the tribes are the same. 

 The term Bunneah or Banian is properly applied to the great trading 

 caste, but it also means a trader, and is often so applied. Again in 

 India religious denominations are often applied in a way which con- 

 founds them with proper tribal denominations. The character of the 

 Hindoo religion is such that it is a pretty safe Ethnological guide, 

 converts not being ordinarily received. Mahommedan and other pro- 

 selytising religions, on the other hand, are no guide in Ethnology ; on 

 the contrary, the Mahommedan Laws of Marriage and Legitimacy are 

 such as to tend very much to efface Ethnological demarcations. For 

 our purposes therefore, Mahommedan denominations may be entirely 

 put aside. But the mere fact, that people are Mahommedans, should 

 not deter us from seeking their Tribal denominations in the back 

 ground. Many Mahommedan tribes still retain their Hindoo caste 

 names, some Hindoo laws, and something of caste exclusiveness. 



