50 Tlie Ethnology of India. 



diluted. I have not beard of the Tharoos serving as labourers, but if they 

 are akin to the Dhangar Coolees now so much sought after, seeing their 

 1 mmunity against malaria, they would be very valuable to any one who 

 could induce them to emigrate. As yet, however, they are very shy. 

 From Goruckpore eastward in the Nepal Terai and along the 

 Frontiers of Bengal, I cannot learn that there are any Aboriginal 

 tribes till we come to the neighbourhood of Sikkim and Kooch Behar. 

 Those whom I have asked knew of none, and it is probable that if 

 there were any, Hodgson would have mentioned them. Dr. Campbell 

 of Darjeeling speaks generally of the population of the Nepal Terai as 

 composed of a most varied assemblage of bastard Hindus. 



The Kooch Behar people have become so Hinduised, that their 

 original character cannot be distinguished with certainty. They call 

 themselves " Rajbansees," as I think do several Hinduised Aboriginal 

 tribes. 



About this parallel we come upon the Meches or Mechis who form 

 the chief population of the forests and Boars at the foot of the 

 Sikkim and Bhootan hills, and a few of whom have recently settled in 

 the extreme eastern portion of the Nepal Terai. I understand that 

 these people are the same as the Bodos of Hodgson, who are of 

 an Indo-Chinese family. I shall rank them and other similar tribes 

 as ' Borderers,' and now only notice them for the purpose of com- 

 parison. They are described as very Mongolian or Indo-Chinese in 

 feature, fairer than the Hindus and of a yellow tinge, taller and 

 larger than the Nepalese cultivators, addicted to spirits and to smoking 

 opium. They make small and temporary clearances in the forest and 

 are proof against malaria. In an industrial point of view they are 

 evidently much inferior to the Tharoos. 



Dr. Campbell incidentally mentions among the lowland neighbours 

 of the Mechis a tribe inhabiting similar tracts called ' Tliawas 1 whom 

 I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. They seem (so far as one 

 can gather from the slightest notices) to be more industrious and 

 settled than the Mechis. Dr. Campbell seems to speak of them as 

 a different race. It would be interesting to know whether these 

 Thawas may not possibly be related to the Tharoos. 



Also among the neighbours of the Mechis are the Garrows whose 

 main habitat is the hill country just within the bend of the Berlmm- 



