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REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT 



stockade for his own use ; he had however built it so small that he 

 might easily be dislodged by means of a long spear. 



In addition to these, there is a village called Bone, on the Nam- 

 toroan ; the path leading to this is crossed soon after leaving Nam- 

 tusseek, and another stockaded village, on the right bank of the 

 Namtoroan, a little below the mouth of the Saxsaikha. 



None of the above villages are situated on strong positions. The 

 stockades are as usual of bamboo, and are but weak defences ; the 

 space between the stockade and the outer palisades is covered 

 with short pointed bamboos, placed obliquely in the ground : these 

 are called Panjahs by the Assamese ; they inflict very troublesome 

 wounds, and are universally employed by the Singphos. The 

 interiors of the stockades are dirty, the houses are built without 

 order, and generally fill the stockade completely, so that the people 

 inside might be burnt out with the greatest ease. The average num. 

 ber of houses in each of the above villages, may be estimated at 

 about 12, of these the largest occur at Wullaboom. They are built 

 on muchowns, and resemble in all respects those of our Assam 

 Singphos. They are generally thatched with grass (Imperata cylin- 

 drical) The larger kinds have invariably one end unenclosed ; 

 under this portico, which is usually of some size, all the domestic 

 operations are carried on. The Dupha Gam's is not distinguished 

 above the rest in any one way. 



Population. — No country inhabited by sets of petty chieftains be- 

 longing to different tribes, which are generally at enmity with each 

 other, can be populous; it is therefore with considerable surprise 

 that I find it stated that the number of houses in the north and east- 

 ern sides of the valley is estimated at not less than 3000, which at 

 the rate of 7 men to one house, which is, considering the great size 

 of very many Singpho houses, rather underrated, would make the 

 population of these portions of the valley amount to 21,000 souls. 

 The part of the valley which I have traversed, and during which 

 route 75 miles of ground were passed over, does not present a single 

 sign which, in the absence of direct evidence, would lead one to sup- 

 pose that it contained a considerable population. During the before 

 mentioned marches, I saw only four paths, crossing or diverging from 

 that which we followed. Of these, one leads, as I have mentioned, to 

 Bone, one to the hills on the NE., one to a Singpho village, some 

 miles to the south of our track, and the fourth diverged from the 



* This is certainly not the Ulukhor of Buch. Hamilton's statistics of Dinajpoor. 



