46 The Ethnology of India. 



but somewhat lower in the scale of humanity. I do not know whe- 

 ther these are really sub-divisions of the Bheels or separate tribes. In 

 fact there may be many remnants of tribes in the jungles of Central 

 India yet undescribed. I have now, however, noticed all the aboriginal 

 tribes of the hilly portions of the Indian Peninsula known to me, with 

 the exception only of the Bhooyas of the borders of Bengal. 



In the plains, of course, we do not look to find separate aboriginal 

 tribes, and those now classed as l castes' will be afterwards noticed ; 

 but before leaving the subject of Koolees or Kolaries I may mention 

 an assertion of Col. Tod that all the weaver caste throughout 

 Hindustan are of this class, though they now call themselves ' Julahas' 

 or Julahees. I do not know what is the ground for this assertion, 

 but the weavers who have not turned Mahommedans are certainly 

 sometimes or generally known as ' Korees' and considered to be low in 

 the social scale. 



There are no aboriginal tribes, of the character which I have been 

 describing, in the Himalayas. The Kolees of the Simla hills and 

 Domes of Kumaon are merely inferior castes living among the 

 general population. Both in Kumaon and Nepal, there seems to be 

 a sort of tradition or popular belief of the existence in some remote 

 forests of a ' Ban-manush' or wild man of the woods, but I cannot 

 find that any one has ever seen one of these creatures, or that his 

 existence is really in any way authenticated. One can hardly say whe- 

 ther the story points to the recent disappearance of the last remnants 

 of an ancient race, or whether it is merely a nursery tale. 



It is not then in the Himalayas, but in the forests at their foot, 

 that we must look for some aboriginal tribes. And here I must 

 observe that I think the use of the term Sub- Himalayan by Hodg- 

 son, and (following him) by most other authorities, leads to a good deal 

 of misapprehension, from an Indian point of view at least. We are 

 in the habit of considering the Simla hills, Kumaon, and Nepal to be' 

 part of the Himalayas (and with good reason too I think), but 

 Hodgson calls everything below the Snowy Bange " Sub-Himalayan," 

 and classes as ' Sub-Himalayan' people who live higher than the 

 highest mountaineers in Europe, in the most precipitous mountains, 

 8,000 or 10,000 feet high ; while the people really living under the 

 hills are usually put in another class. I am now about to notice 





