156 The " Koh" of Chota-Nagpore. 



and appearance, to make us certain of their consanguinity, and at the 

 same time sufficient divergence to lead to the inference that the 

 relationship is a remote one, and that the two branches of the family- 

 had been long separated when they met again on the banks of the 

 Koel. These points of resemblance and divergence I will describe, 

 when treating of the manners and customs of the race generally. 



The Juangas or Puttoons (leaf-clad) are noticed in a paper by 

 Mr. E. A. Samuells.* They are found in the Cuttack tributary 

 mehals of Keonjur, Pal Lehra, Dhekenal and Hindole. They are 

 thus isolated from all other branches of the Moondah family, and 

 have not themselves the least notion of their connection with them ; 

 but their language, a specimen of which is given in the table 

 appended, shews they are of the same race, and that their nearest 

 kinsmen are the Kheriahs, a fragment of the tribe left behind when 

 the remainder ascended the valley of the Koel. The Hos of Sing- 

 bhoom have a tradition that they once wore leaves only, and not 

 long ago threatened to revert to them, unless cloth-sellers lowered 

 their prices ! 



The Bhoomij form the majority of the population in all the estates 

 of the Manbhoom district to the south of the Kassae river. As they 

 approach the confines of Chota-Nagpore, they appear to be called 

 indiscriminately Moondahs or Bhoomij, and they intermarry. More 

 to the east the Bhoomij have become Hindooized, or rather Ben- 

 galeeized, to a great extent, and many of them have acquired consider- 

 able estates, like the Mankees of Chota-Nagpore, and positions of 

 influence as " Sirdar Ghatwalls," the hereditary custodians of the 

 passes. 



The characteristics of the tribe that they most tenaciously cling to, 

 are the national dances and songs. The Bhoomij appear to have 

 been the first to colonise the large pergunnah called Dhulbhoom or 

 Grhatsillah, attached to the Singbhoom district. The Rajah or 

 Zemindar is, in all probability, himself a Bhoomij by race, though 

 (without thereby improving his pedigree, so far as I can see) he 

 endeavours to conceal his extraction under one of those hazy traditions 

 that Bramins always have ready for families in want of them. His 

 ancestor, according to their version, was a washerman, a Bhoby who 

 * As. Soc. Journal, Yol. XXV. p. 295, 1856. 



