96 The Ethnology of India, 



known by their own tribal names only ; they have no common appel- 

 lation. On the one hand much in their features. &c. would seem to show 

 that they have kindred with the Kashmeerees or with the pre-Hindu 

 congeners of the earlier Indians found in the hills farther west ; on the 

 other hand, their language and character, dress, and the architecture 

 of their houses would indicate that they are nearly allied to the 

 Punjabees. The language is altogether Punjabee. In these respects 

 they wholly differ from Kashmeerees. Jats and Rajpoots are so well 

 known that one would think that if they belonged to those tribes, 

 they would say so. As it is, the only tribe which admits a Hindu- 

 stanee origin, is that which seems to have the least claim to it, the 

 Dilazaks, the predecessors of the present Pathan tribes in the Peshawar 

 valley, and who seem to have themselves so considerable an infusion 

 of Pathan blood that it has been doubted whether they are not earlier 

 Pathans. 



The Swattees too, the people driven out of Swat by the Euzofzyes, 

 though in the main of the blood which supplied the early Indians, 

 must be considered pre-Hindus, and have now a considerable Pathan 

 intermixture. 



The Grukkurs were the rulers of the Rawal Pindee district in com- 

 paratively modern times. They might possibly be foreign conquerors, 

 but if so, it would seem singular that they should have completely 

 lost their language, and so entirely assimilated to those around them. 

 In appearance I do not think Gukkurs could be distinguished from 

 Awans. Both are very large fine men, but not exceedingly fair, in- 

 habiting as they do a dry, bare, rather low country, hot in summer. 

 The Awans are the most numerous of these frontier tribes, and the 

 best ; there is no finer people in India. They are settled in large 

 agricultural communities in the ' Chuch' plain, immediately facing 

 the Peshawur valley on this side the Indus, and are also found in 

 smaller bodies somewhat to the east, in the Jhelum, Guzerat, and 

 Sealkot districts. They are good soldiers as well as good cultivators, 

 and might be taken for the best class of Jats. 



The Dhoonds and Tanaolees are to the north in the outer range 

 of the Himalaya and about the Indus near Torbela. I have not been 

 in the Tanaolee country, but the Dhoonds seemed to me to be the hand- 

 somest among handsome tribes. It is to be remarked, however, that 



