The Ethnology of India. 123 



At any rate it may generally be said, that the whole population of 

 the Punjab, both high and low, is above the average Arian type. 



I have before mentioned that the lower class of cultivators and 

 labourers in the Simla hills are called " Kolees." I have not noticed 

 among them any marked aboriginal features. 



I have alluded to the Chamars as the labourers of Hindustan, 

 but there the functions of the Punjabee Helots are divided ; the 

 Chamars are the labourers (besides their own proper profession of 

 curing skins), and the out-caste sweepers are an entirely separate and 

 lower class. I have never quite made out whether the Chamars are 

 considered to be properly Hindus. They are not considered abso- 

 lutely offensive to the touch like the unclean out-castes, but their 

 name is commonly used to signify a low man, and the greatest insult 

 commonly proposed is to beat a man by the hands of Chamars. 



They used to be sworn in a court by a peculiar Gooroo of their 

 own, not by the ordinary name of God ; and the sweepers again had 

 a different Gooroo. They really are the modern Sudras of Hindu 

 society, and no Hindustanee village could get on without them. 

 Like others, they do not appear to advantage when engaged in 

 menial offices, but to judge them fairly we should take them clean 

 and decently fed and dressed. Most of our Hindustanee Syces are 

 of this caste, and any one in Northern India may among them satisfy 

 himself of their general style. It seems to me that they are a 

 good specimen of the lower grade of the low- Arian type. An ancient 

 proverb, quoted by Sir H. Elliott, speaks of a black Bramin and a fair 

 Chamar as perversities to be avoided. In these days I think many 

 Bramins may be found darker than many Chamars ; but as a rule and 

 on an average the Chamars are very decidedly dark, also rather small, 

 though active and well knit. In features they are as it were quite 

 the opposite of the high-Arian ; there is a want of prominence, a 

 simplicity as it were of feature ; but still they do not I think show 

 anything whatever that can really be called aboriginal. Judged by 

 a European standard, and colour and size apart, I think that their 

 features are quite as good as the average of Europeans of inferior 

 degree. 



I The Chamars have never been soldiers, though I believe that we 

 have enlisted some of them since the mutiny j nor have they generally 



