28 The Ethnology of India. 



and that in short it is the word generally applied by the Northern 

 Indians to the Aboriginal tribes, most of whom they reduced to the 

 condition of Helots. 



There seems to be good reason to suppose that the original form of 

 the word was ' Kola' or ' Kolar.' In fact, India seems to have been 

 known to the ancients (who approached it coastwise from the West) as 

 Colara or Coolee-land (Asiatic Researches, Yol. IX.) and the people as 

 Colaurians. If Kolar be the original form of Kolee, it would seem 

 not improbable that, as in the mouths of some tribes by dropping the l r 1 

 it became Kola or Kolee, so in the mouths of others, by dropping the 

 1 V it would become Koar, Kaur, Koor, Khar or Khor, a form which 

 would embrace a large number of those tribes as now designated. I 

 propose then to call the northern tribes Kolarian or Coolee Aborigines. 



One may see frequent allusion to Kolarees or Colleries in the south 

 of India. It appears that the word there used is properly ' Kallar.' 

 In the Canarese language, the word i Kallar,' it seems, simply means a 

 thief or robber, and hence some of the predatory Aborigines of the 

 hills, are designated Kallars or robbers, just as the thieves of Central 

 Asia are called ' Kazaks' or ' Cossacks.' The word is applied so 

 differently from that of Coolee, that there may fairly be doubt of its 

 being the same. But the subject is worthy of farther inquiry, and if 

 it prove that in fact the two words are identical, the term Coolee or 

 Kolarian must be applied to the Aboriginal tribes generally, not to one 

 division of them. Meantime, however, I apply it to the Northern 

 tribes only, but I confess I have misgivings whether the more general 

 sense may not prove to be the true one. 



Beyond the difference of language, I am unable to state with con- 

 fidence any very marked features distinguishing the Dravidian -and 

 Kolarian groups of tribes (each taken as a whole) from one another. 

 But a marked difference in habits, manners, and national characteristics, 

 has been found to exist where the two classes are in the closest conti- 

 guity. The Santals and Rajmahalees are known to present a marked 

 contrast, and on the Chota-Nagpore plateau I am told that " the 

 difference is so great, that they appeared to be quite another nation," 

 and " their customs, appearance, even manners, are very different." 

 Of these differences we have not the details, but I hope that they may 

 be furnished in Col. Dalton's promised paper on the Coles. 



