THE RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE URAONS. 167 



swallow many a bitter pill with a light heart, and they appear to be happy even under 

 the most trying circumstances. They appreciate and enjoy a good joke, and, after 

 a short acquaintance, feel quite at ease with Europeans. Well trained and well taken care 

 of they might become good house- servants. But they should not be treated harshly like 

 the Hindus. Strictness tempered by much kindness on the part of their master would 

 make them devoted servants. Like their brothers, the Madrassis, they seem to be born 

 cooks. Any Uraon boy in a few months can become a decent cook. Colonel Dalton 

 remarks that their adaptability to other ways and customs is something wonderful, and 

 this is very true. It goes so far that their exterior appearance changes entirely; even 

 the colour of their skin, which is naturally very black, becomes tawny when they live for 

 a long time among fair-complexioned people. You see them laugh sometimes at people 

 who come back from the Duars after a long sojourn there, because they look like Lepchas. 

 They have even remarked themselves that Uraons who are generally beardless wear long 

 whiskers and look like Muhammadans when they have lived for a long time among 

 them. 



The Uraon boys seem to be for a time very quick in learning and very intelligent. 

 But this impression does not last long. In a short time they master reading, writing and 

 simple arithmetic, but after that they come to a standstill. Their brains seem to have be- 

 come filled to the brim. Anything added to this, for most of them, is useless and simply 

 overflows. Boys and girls up to a certain age have decent and even agreeable features. 

 But the women after bearing one or two children become shapeless, and the men, specially 

 those addicted to drinking, become real horrors. In height they are not much above 

 the average, but there are some well-built men among them. Many of them are real dul- 

 lards who cannot even add two and two by counting on their fingers. Others always 

 add with the help of small pebbles or the phalanges of their fingers. In such a 

 state one can fancy how easily they become a prey to the vexation of the local police 

 and the exactions of the zamindars. They are quite helpless, as they cannot explain 

 what has happened. Even when asked plain questions, and in the courts of justice, in 

 cross-examination, they are sure to make a mess of the most simple cases. The best 

 way to mete out justice to them is to condescend to listen to their complaints personally 

 in a kind of paternal and quasi official way. They are not altogether ungrateful, and the 

 memory of officials like Dalton, Power and Streatfeild will live among them. 



Language. — There is not the least doubt about the origin of their language beino- 

 Dravidian, though it appears to be entirely different from the parent stock. In their long 

 peregrinations they have adopted a great number of foreign words and expressions. 

 Their pronunciation even has suffered radical changes, most probably on account of their 

 long intercourse with the Muhammadans, just as the pronunciation of Spanish has suffered 

 from the long intercourse of the Spaniards with the Moors. They have a strong predi- 

 lection for gutturals and aspirates unknown to the Dravidians. This is specially notice- 

 able in the Kh, which has two sounds — one deeply guttural, which is identical with the 

 Spanish (iota) in joven, or the Arabic (■£) : this might be represented by the Greek (x). 

 The other is pronounced like the ordinary Kh in Hindi. The conjugations of their 

 verbs also have undergone great modifications. In the past tenses they make use as 



