The Ethnology of India. 103 



are usually settled in separate villages of their own, and in the absence 

 of pastoral and predatory opportunities are cultivators, like other 

 tribes, though in most places indifferent ones. 



I shall here just mention ' Mewattees,' not because I am prepared 

 to class them as ' Pastorals,' but because they are very frequently 

 classed with Goojars, as " Goojars and Mewattees," with reference to 

 their plundering propensities. In fact, although I have always been 

 familiar with Mewattees as a very thieving tribe of cultivators found 

 here and there along the south-western borders of the North West Pro- 

 vinces, I have not been able to make out what they really are. They seem 

 to come from the Central country, from somewhere in Rajpootana or 

 Central India, and their name might seem to indicate a connection 

 with Mewar. I have seen mention of ' Mewassees,' hill chiefs, in those 

 parts, but don't know if they are connected with the Mewattees. In 

 fact, the Alwar country near Dehli seems to have been of late 

 called * Mewat.' Mewattees are mentioned as common in Malwa in 

 the characters of irregular soldiers and depredators. They extend 

 farther east than the Goojars. I think the villages razed to the 

 ground in the station of Allahabad, for their predatory activity in the 

 mutiny, were those of Mewattees. My impression is that they are 

 mostly Mahommedans and not bad looking, but in truth I know and 

 can find very little about them. 



The Goojars are succeeded as cattle-keepers to the east and south 

 by the ' Aheers,' who seem to be the pastoral element of the Rajpoot 

 and Bramin countries, as the Goojars are of the Jat countries. 

 Aheers and Goojars are sometimes spoken of as if connected, but 

 that I believe is an error arising from mere coincidence of profession. 

 Meeting as they do in the country east and south of Dehli, they keep 

 entirely apart (in a social point of view), and are universally recognis- 

 ed as entirely separate and distinct castes, with no connection what- 

 ever. The Aheers are not a very strict sect of Hindus in the modern 

 sense, and their widows re-marry, but still they are decided Hindus 

 of the respectable position which their charge of the sacred animal 

 demands. In the strictest days of caste there were a good many 

 Aheers in the Sepoy army. They are good and upper-class-looking 

 Hindustanees. Like the Goojars, they are not a mere cow-keeping 

 caste, but have many independent villages, and in some parts of the 



