218 .^,- ■.;. -;\,- STATISTICAL SICETCH 



unite in an excessive distrust of the natives of the low country, whom 

 they regard as a race of swindlers and extortioners : the jealousy with which 

 the mountaineers of one pergunna view those of another, amounts to a spirit 

 of clanship, which feeling may, doubtless, be ascribed to the state of govern- 

 ment that, at one time, existed in these hills, when every pergunna and sub- 

 division formed a separate and independant principality. Local attachments 

 are very predominant, and an eventual return to their natal village continues 

 to be the cherished hope of those, whom the want of means of subsistence 

 may have compelled to migrate : from the same sentiment, the petty landed 

 proprietors entertain an overwhelming affection for their hereditary fields. 

 Of the honesty of the hill people, too much praise cannot be given : property 

 of all kinds is left exposed in every way, without fear and without loss : in those 

 districts whence periodical migration to the Tarai takes place, the villages 

 are left with almost a single occupant during half the year, and though a 

 great part of the property of the villagers remains in their houses, no precau- 

 tion is deemed necessary, except securing the doors against the ingress of 

 animals, which is done by a bar of wood, the use of locks being as yet con- 

 fined to the higher classes. In their pecuniary transactions with each other, 

 the agricultural classes liave rarely recourse to written engagements, bargains 

 ^ concluded by the parties joining hands, ("Hath Marna") in token of assent, 

 prove equally effectual and binding, as if secured by parchment and seals. 

 If exceptions to this general character for honesty exist in the hills, they are 

 to be found only in the class of Doms, or outcastes, who are commonly of 

 loose and dissipated habits, confirmed, if not acquired, by continued inter- 

 course with the plains. At a former period, the higher orders would appear 

 to have been rapacious, oppressive, and vindictive, and acts of violence and 

 bloodshed, perpetrated from motives of rapine or revenge, were of common 

 occilrrence. The impotence of the government, which had neither the power 

 to repress outrages, nor to redress injuries, was doubtless the principal cause of 

 these disorders, which, under the strong and vigorous sy stein of the GorMias, 



