1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 241 



Individually, the men are brave to desperation, athletic and hardy, 

 many of them tall with fine countenances, denoting their superior 

 origin. Similarly as the Purihar has no resemblance to the Aborigi- 

 nal Bheel, Mair, Kole, or low caste Meena of the Aravulla, so he has 

 nothing in common with these races, but their lawlessnesses. He will 

 neither eat, smoke, nor intermarry with them, that is to say, the Puri- 

 har will not give a daughter in marriage, though he will take to his 

 bed as many daughters of inferior tribes as he can support. Their 

 pride of birth indeed is excessive, fostered by traditions ascending 

 beyond the bounds of history to the region of myth, till they arrive at 

 the celestial origin of the Purihars on the occasion of the creation of 

 the four warrior races on the holy Mount Aboo. The genealogist of 

 the tribe is the honored guest in every village he visits in his annual 

 round. Each family engages his company for one entire day, which 

 is occupied in recording in the ponderous MS. volume the recent 

 additions to the family tree whether in the male or female branch ; for 

 even the ancestry of the women is duly recorded. It is easy to un- 

 derstand the effect of this cherished pride of birth in supporting their 

 indomitable spirit. About half the tribe are armed with matchlocks 

 of a superior manufacture, about half with the bow, and all with the 

 kattar, or double-hilted dagger, which is a weapon they peculiarly 

 affect. It is never detached from their person for a moment, waking 

 or sleeping. Free from the ordinary prejudices of caste, the Purihars 

 are great eaters of meat which their cattle-lifting raids furnish in pro- 

 fusion, and drinkers of spirits which serve to increase their natural 

 ferocity. All are married, and many besides, take in keeping the 

 widows of their deceased clansmen to the number of two or three each, 

 or otherwise domicile women forcibly abducted in their raids. Thus 

 . the villages have become greatly over-populated as regards the possi- 

 bility of finding support from the village lands. Collectively, the 

 most noteworthy circumstance perhaps relating to the tribe, was their 

 utter ignorance up to the day of my arrival among them of the true 

 character of the British G-overnment as the paramount power. If 

 any other proof of this were needed than that then so recently afforded 

 by their having deliberately marked out the prosperous British district 

 of Ajineer as the field of their repeated inroads, it would be found in 

 the record of their svstematie obstruction to the officers of our Govern- 



