1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 147 



absorbed in the general population ; the savage non-Hindoo tribes are 

 few, scattered, and much intermixed in blood. It is in the North of 

 the Peninsula that the aborigines are found in large masses and of purer 

 type, and it is regarding them that inquiry is wanting. Dr. Caldwell 

 and his fellow labourers, who have successfully affiliated together all the 

 Southern tongues, civilised and savage, in one Dravidian class, seem 

 also to have shown as satisfactorily as it is possible to show from 

 scanty Catalogues, that not only the Glonds, but the Uraon Coles 

 (the low-type Negritoes of Col. Dalton) and the Mountaineers 

 of the Rajmehal Hills are also Dravidian. This is just what we 

 should have expected, but it is a surprise to find that among tribes in 

 appearance and character so nearly of one type, and dwelling to so near 

 one another, that we know them all under the general name of ' Coles J 

 there is so extreme a difference of language that the tongue of the 

 Uraon Coles of Chota-Nagpore and that of the Moondah Coles of the 

 same district have not, so far as our slight knowledge extends, 

 exhibited even the same affinities as are found between widely 

 different branches of the Turanian class. In truth, however, we have 

 but very small vocabularies and no grammars of these languages, and 

 farther inquiry will probably either affiliate them, or lead to the dis- 

 covery of a curious meeting of very different races in the plateau of 

 Chota-Nagpore. In short, endless and most interesting problems may 

 be opened out in tracing the various races of Moondahs and Kharwars 

 and Korewahs and Bhoois and Kaurs of which Col. Dalton's paper 

 gives us glimpses. The Moondahs, Sontals, and several other tribes 

 are clearly related by the bond of a common language not yet ascer- 

 tained to be Dravidian, and the possible foundation of some of the 

 Northern languages, though the affinity is not yet found. 



" From a vocabulary taken by Dr. Voysey at Ellichpore (and published 

 in the Society's Journal) of a tribe called " Coours" in the G-awalghur 

 hills of the Sautpoora range, I find it to be evident that these " Coours" 

 are very nearly allied to the Moondahs and Sontals of this side of 

 India. This brings lis very near to the Bheels and Coles of the 

 hills to the North of the Bombay Presidency and Rajpootana, regard- 

 ing whom also we have scarcely any information. They are probably 

 allied to our aborigines, the word Cole or Coolee being a wide one, 

 applied by the Hindoos to the Helot races whom they subdued or 

 drove to the hills. 



