131 



History of the Ka7noossies, 



[April 



They are at present in greater numbers in the Kuttow district, 

 than ill any other over which they have spread themselves. There 

 are one hundred and fifty-six villages, and the number of Ramoos- 

 sies above the age of sixteen years, is one thousand and sixty-three. 

 Frorn Kuttow they sulisequently extended westerly into Waidesh^ 

 and along the Phultun desh, (the district on the south bank of the 

 Neera,) and, latterly, they crossed the Neera into the Poona dis- 

 trict. — Hereafter notice will be taken of their occupying the Poo- 

 runder hills, — of their moving across the Bheema, and of their 

 advance towards the Godavery, as far as Sinnure and Nassik, in 

 the collectorship of Ahmednugour. 



In the small district of PabuU, north of Poona, there are fifty-one 

 Government villages, and the population of them amounts to about 

 33,950 souls ; there being males grown up, 10,747, boys "^,474 

 •women 11,547, and girls 4,182. Now, the Ramoossies in the dis- 

 trict residing in these fifty-one villages, including men, women, and 

 children, only amount to 340, of these 108 are males above sixteen 

 years of age ; and 69 boys, and the remainder 163 are women and 

 girls. 



By the aggregate of these returns we find that there are 5,636 

 Ramoossy males above sixteen years of age — we might add about 

 two hundred more grown up men to this number, as residing in the 

 Nizam's or other foreign villages within our own boundary, that 

 may have escaped enumeration — Now by the return from PabuU^ 

 we find, that the proportion of women and children of both sexes 

 to the grown up males, is very little more than three to one, and, 

 calculating on this principle, we might reckon that the whole popu- 

 lation of the Ptamoossies did not much exceed 18,000 souls. 



It is very probable that this tribe originally migrated from some 

 part of the ancient kingdom of Telingana, probable east or south 

 east of the present town of Hydrabad ; because, in the scanty re- 

 mains they have of a distinct language, many of the words evident- 

 ly belong to the Teloogoo, and it might have been a dialect of that 

 tongue. While their funeral rites and ceremonies of purification 

 bear a great analogy to those of the Linggaiuts, of whom the Jun- 

 gums are priests, and in the part of the country in which the Ra- 

 moossies at present reside, few of the Linggaiut persuasion are to 

 be found. These are more to the east and south east. 



A considerable diversity of customs and languages would, in the 

 course of ages, be naturally introduced among them ; and, in fact, 

 the amalgamation of the Ramoossies with the inhabitants of the 



