The Ethnology of hid i a. 21 



probably to a good deal of robbery, have come down on the enervated 



people of the plains and valleys, and have established a temporary 

 dominion over considerable tracts of country. Just as on the depart- 

 ure of the Romans and before the establishment of Teutonic rule, 

 the Picts and Scots came down on the cultivated portions of Britain, 

 so it seems certain that, at periods long subsequent to the glories of 

 the Solar and Lunar Rajpoots, Aboriginal Bhurs and Cheroos estab- 

 lished considerable principalities in parts of Oude and of the Benares 

 and Behar Provinces. So also Bheels, Mairs, and Kolees seem to 

 have had at one time considerable power in Rajpootana and G-oojerat. 

 In comparatively modern times, the Bedas or Beders (whose name is 

 I believe really identical with that of the Vedahs or Vedders) seem to 

 have established considerable power in the South, and the Gronds in 

 Central India acquired quite a wide dominion. Under such circum- 

 stances, the savage conquerors are generally themselves socially conquer- 

 ed, and the tribes so situated, while gaining some civilisation, lose much 

 of their peculiarities of blood and feature, and more of their language. 

 By far the largest tract in which the Aboriginal tribes prevail, 

 and may be said to form the mass of the inhabitants, is that 

 extending through the hilly country from the western and southern 

 borders of Bengal, Behar and Benares to the frontiers of the Hydera- 

 bad and Madras territories, and from the Eastern Ghats inland to the 

 civilised portions of the Nagpore territory ; but even in this tract it 

 appears that there are evident monuments of old Hindoo civilisation, 

 showing that Hindoos, or at any rate Sivites, had at one time a far 

 greater hold on much of this country than they now have, and that 

 probably after being partially civilised, it was gained back by the 

 Aborigines. Even now this country is intersected by settled and 

 cultivated tracts. Hindoos are scattered about it, and there is an 

 admixture of Hindoo blood. Still, in all this part of the country, 

 Aboriginal tribes muster very strong, and they preserve their lan- 

 guage, their manners, and their peculiarities much better than elsewhere. 

 It is, however, as I have said, only in the heart and kernel of the 

 best preserved tribes, that we must look for the real original character- 

 istics existing in a palpable and little-diluted form. In less pure 

 specimens, they will be found less distinct. My impression is that, if 

 we look carefully, they will seldom be altogether wanting. The 



