The Ethnology of India. 101 



Of the races which I call in some respect pastoral, I will take first 

 The Goojars. 



They have been long known to us as cultivators of predatory pro- 

 clivities in the country about Dehli, and after 50 years of enforced 

 peace and quietness, they distinguished themselves by breaking out 

 into wholesale plunder all over that district within a few hours of the 

 out-break of the mutiny, just as if the present generation had been 

 accustomed to it all their lives. However, we must take a wider 

 survey, for the Goojars are a far extending people, numerous in the 

 Punjab and on the Northern Frontier. In fact, they now extend 

 farther to the North-West than any other Indian people. I understand 

 that they are still numerous in Swat ami the adjacent hills, and they 

 are said to have been the original inhabitants and owners of part of 

 the Ilazareh District, on this side the Indus, before they were in great 

 degree dispossessed by the Swattees, themselves pushed forward by 

 the Affghans. In the hills about Kashmere the Goojars are very 

 numerous ; and there more than anywhere else they have an actual 

 pastoral character, being apparently somewhat vagrant in their habits, 

 and at one season receiving the cattle of the Kashmeerees to graze, 

 while at another they bring their own down for sale. Perhaps 

 these are the Goojars who were dispossessed of their homes in 

 Hazareh. It is supposed that in the event of any disturbance in 

 Kashmere, they might visit the valley for other than pastoral purposes. 



Descending into the plains of the Punjab, we find the Goojars about 

 Goojerat and the country thereabouts in very much better repute than 

 elsewhere, in fact they are there said to be among the best cultivators. 

 They are very numerous, settled in prosperous communities, and give, 

 it appears, their name to the town and thence to the district of 

 Goojerat. There might be some question whether the word is not 

 the Persian one, ' Goozerat,' i. e. l Fords' or e Ferries,' in allusion to 

 the ferries over several rivers thereabouts, but I understand that it 

 is really Goojerat from Goojar. And there are frequent names in 

 the Punjab derived from the same source. In fact, Goojars are very 

 much mixed with Jats in all the northern, if not in all the Jat 

 country, and form a considerable proportion of the population. About 

 Dehli they are, as I have said, very numerous, and they are so in the 

 Meerut and Seharanpore Districts of the Doab. They are numerous 



