Tlie Ethnology of India. 33 



them. The Gonds or Gours have been mentioned as found in a not 

 very pure form in the west of Oodeypore, and Sirgoojah of the Chota- 

 Nagpore division. In the highlands to the east of those states and 

 of Jushpore, the Oraons are found. Col. Dalton mentions them as form- 

 ing the greater part of the population of a considerable portion of the 

 Jushpore highlands, and it is these whom he describes as the ugliest of 

 the race. Thence eastwards the Oraons have pushed themselves into 

 the proper country of the Moondahs (of Kolarian race) in the plateau 

 of the Chota-Nagpore district and adjoining country. They must 

 have been strong, to effect an ingress to a country not originally their 

 own, but I do not understand that they are now at all dominant over 

 the others. In fact they seem to have very much adopted the habits 

 of the Kolarians, among whom or in contact with whom they live, 

 are industrious and laborious, and as much as the others contribute to 

 the supply of the labour market'of Bengal. I understand that they 

 form a considerable proportion of the Calcutta Dhangars ; that last 

 term being one the proper meaning of which I cannot ascertain, but 

 which, so far as I can learn, is applied generically to the aboriginal 

 labourers in Calcutta. 



Separated from the Oraons by a considerable space (principally of 

 lower but still more or less hilly country, occupied by mixed tribes of 

 Kolarians, Hindustanees, and Bengalees), are the Dravidian Bajma- 

 halees, whose proper tribal name, I have not ascertained. They are 

 sometimes called Maler, but that is merely the Dravidian form for 

 mountaineers, the word applied to so many of these tribes. 



These are the men who are well known in connection with Mr. 

 Cleveland's endeavours to tame and reform them. They seem to have 

 been in those days terrible depredators. That all the parts of India 

 adjoining the Central hills, both at this point and throughout a con- 

 siderably wider range, were'in times of anarchy dreadfully subject to 

 injury from the hill-men, is still attested by the numerous and exten- 

 sive 'ghatwallee' tenures held all along the foot of the hills and 

 about the Ghats and passes. They are particularly numerous in the 

 Bhaugulpore and Beerbhoom districts, adjoining the Rajmahal hills 

 on either side. Such estates pay little or no revenue, but are held on 

 the condition of guarding the passes against hill robbers, murderers, 

 and cattle-lifters. The hill-men have been successfully reclaimed, 



