OF KAMAON. 



209 



Jhe *' Goia,'" or " Gosamp,'' is nearly white in the northern parts of the 

 hills, and its skin, which is extremely hard, and forms a handsome material 

 for sword scabbards, is rendered the more valuable from the scarceness of 

 the animal. 



Page 160. They represent themselves as being the descendants of one 

 of the aboriginal princes of Kamaon, who, with his family, fled to the jungles 

 to escape the destruction threatened by an usurper : under the pretension to 

 royal origin, the Rdwats, or Rajis, abstain from offering to any individual, what- 

 ever his rank, the usual eastern salutation. The orgin of this tribe, howsoever 

 the claim to regal descent be disposed of, must certainly be referred to some 

 race of inhabitants anterior to the settlement of the present race. The great 

 difference in customs and religion from the Hindu tenets, which exists 

 among the Rqjis, might be ascribed to the savage mode of life pursued by 

 them and their ancestors for so long a period, but the total dissimilitude of 

 language, which renders the Raji and present Kumaya wholly unintelligible 

 to each other, cannot be accounted for in the same mode, and can only be 

 attributed to a separate origin. A conjecture may be hazarded, that the out- 

 castes, or Doms, are in part descended from the aborigines. A marked dif- 

 ference exists in the personal appearance of this class and of the Hindu 

 inhabitants ; the former being, for the most part, extremely dark, almost black, 

 with crisp curly hair : they are, at the same time, in a state of nearly universal 

 slavery, a circumstance which, from its extent, can scarcely be ascribed wholly 

 to the mere process of purchase, but which may be explained by supposing a 

 part of the aboriginal inhabitants to have been seized by the first Hindu 

 colonists, and reduced to slavery, in which state their descendants have since 

 remained. 



Page 161. The name " Badari," is derived from Badari, Sanscrit, the 

 Beri or Jujube. The legends respecting the origin of this idol differ : by 



2 F 



