52 Tlie Ethnology of India. 



in races and in language. The Bhooyas in the west seem to be 

 numerous. They appear to be the original occupants of much of the 

 lower country to the south of the Chota-Nagpore plateau, great part of 

 Singbhoom and Bonai, and the borders of Orissa. From a portion of 

 their country they have been partly driven and partly they are dominated 

 over by Coles, themselves probably impelled south and east by pres- 

 sure from the north and west. They are still very numerous in all 

 the districts and petty states hereabouts, and are found more or less 

 all the way across the lower hill -country to the borders of Behar. 

 Col. IMton calls them a dark complexioned race, with rather high 

 cheekbones, but not otherwise peculiar. They have no language of 

 their own, but speak Oorya on the Ooriah borders, Bengalee on the 

 borders of Bengal, and Hindee farther north. They are now some- 

 what Hinduised, but have still priests of their own and traces of an 

 old religion, which seems even down to recent times to have included 

 human sacrifices. Major Tickell speaks of the Aboriginal Bhooians 

 who preceded the Coles in lower Singbhoom as " an inoffensive 

 simple race, but rich in cattle and industrious cultivators." The 

 descriptions of Col. Dalton and Major Tickell seem to suggest a 

 resemblance in appearance to the Ooryahs, among whom high cheek 

 bones seem to prevail with good features and straight hair. The 

 Bhooyas whom I have seen in the hills towards the Bahar border 

 seemed to have a larger dash of the black Aboriginal type. Seeing 

 how far these Bhooyas are spread to the west, I was curious to know 

 whether they might be related to the Buis, a tribe of Telengana and 

 Central India who serve all over the centre, south, and west as 

 palanquin bearers and domestic servants, and from whose name is, I 

 believe, the most authentic derivation of the widespread word 

 ' Boy' as applied to a dark servant. Travelling from Nagpore towards 

 Jubbulpore I observed that I changed the Buis of Central India for 

 the Kahars of Hindoostan. Col. Dalton did not know whether there 

 was any connection between Bhooyas and Buis. But quite recently, 

 making a trip through a part of the Chota-Nagpore country, I found 

 that the palanquin was carried by, Bhooyas there and below the hill 

 country till I got close to Gya, and I ascertained that they had no 

 connection with the Hindoostanee Kahars by whom they were then 

 relieved, but were considered to be a wholly different race. I cannot 



