The Ethnology of India. 151 



I have been struck by those parts of Colonel Dalton's description, 

 which would seem to show, among the more civilised of these tribes, 

 some institutions akin to those of the modern Hindoos. Not only 

 does it appear that the Kolarian tribes burn their dead, but also I 

 notice that the systematic division of their tribes is very similar to 

 that which I have described among the Hindoos, and especially that 

 they have the peculiar rule which forbids intermarriage among people 

 of the same tribe, and imposes on every man the necessity of taking 

 his wife from another tribe. The question will be, whether the prac- 

 tices common to Kolarians and Hindoos are borrowed by Kolarians 

 from Hindoos, or by Hindoos from Kolarians. Many interesting sub- 

 jects of inquiry may be opened out. 



Colonel Dalton's account of the tenacity with which some of the 

 tribes cling to their ancient rights in the soil, seems somewhat at 

 variance with the information which I had noted respecting their 

 ready emigration. That many of them do emigrate, is certain ; but 

 perhaps my information has reference to the Dravidians and less 

 settled tribes, 



Colonel Dalton in one place speaks of the Kolarian Hos as more 

 dignified and more like North American Indians, and the Dravidian 

 Oraons as more like light-hearted Negroes ; but in other places he 

 seems rather to confirm my suggestion that the Kolarian Sontals and 

 Moondahs are an especially light-hearted race, and the Dravidians less 

 so ; the Dravidian Oraons having, he says, learned their songs and 

 dances from the Moondahs and other Kolarians among whom they 

 have settled. Certainly the flat and broad-faced Sontals and Moon- 

 dahs seem to bear no resemblance to the North American style of 

 feature. 



Colonel Dalton more than confirms what I have said in regard to 

 the increase of numbers of the Kolarian tribes of the Chota-Nagpore 

 division. He tells us that, notwithstanding their tendency to drink, 

 they increase rapidly. He evidently takes a most favourable view of 

 them, and I think it impossible to doubt that we have in these tribes, 

 in a healthy and accessible country in the immediate vicinity of the 

 Capital of India, a people whom it behoves us to cherish and utilise — 

 a people comparatively free from the peculiar vices of the modern 

 Indians, simple, truthful and ready to receive our religion and the 



