100 An Account of the Tribe of Mhadeo Kolies. [Jan. 



Their character and habits, fyc. — From what has been stated it 

 will be seen that the Mhadeo Kolies, must be considered a strictly 

 agricultural people, and in general they appear to be well acquaint- 

 ed with the usual system of husbandry of the country. Many of 

 them are hard working and diligent in their farming pursuits, and 

 are consequently placed in pretty easy and comfortable circum- 

 stances, compared with a large portion of them who live in the 

 greatest distress and poverty. Although the Kolies are quick and 

 possess a good deal of shrewdness, they are not so steady and intelli- 

 gent as the Koonby cultivators of the plain, being generally disposed 

 to be more indolent, thoughtless and improvident. No doubt local 

 circumstances, the influence of climate and the nature of an oppressive 

 government, tended much to induce unsettled and predatory habits 

 among them. A few of the most ignorant and destitute frequently quit- 

 ted their homes, and fled to a distant part of the country, to evade pay- 

 ing their rents or adjusting their accounts with their creditors ; while 

 some of the most dissolute, who preferred leading a life of idleness, 

 and enjoying such comforts as a little money only could procure, were 

 in the habit of stealing privately to supply their wants, or joining a 

 party of their kinsmen on a plundering excursion, most commonly 

 into the Konkan, for they always have been a most determined and 

 desperate set of robbers.* However, within these few years, they have 

 been greatly restrained, indeed nearly weaned from this wicked propen- 

 sity of helping themselves to the property of others. Generally speak- 

 ing they are not so stout and robust in their persons as the inhabitants 

 of the open country ; their clothes, too, are of a coarser description and 

 more scanty ; but, in other respects, they differ little. In former days 

 many were of a bold and high bearing ; a spirit of great independence 

 and freedom existed among them, chiefly inspired by their inhabiting 

 a naturally strong and romantic country, where they could roam at 

 pleasure, and enjoy the liberty their wilds conferred, by seeking refuge 

 in their fastnesses, when they deemed it necessary to fly from the strong 

 arm of power. 



They may be considered a sober and temperate people, not being 

 much addicted to the use of spirituous liquors ; this, however, may be 

 owing principally to their poverty. They are excessively fond of to- 

 bacco ; they both chew and smoke it, and declare they could not exist 

 withoutrit— the elderly females enjoy this weed amazingly. Both men 

 and women consume an immense quantity of red pepper in their food, 



* They were in the habit of torturing persons they seized, in order to extort money 

 from them. I recollect seeing the Patell of a village near Trimbuk in 1819, who was cruelly 

 burnt by the members of a gang with the matches of their guns, as he refused giving them 

 three hundred rupees. A man, the same gang had previously seized and treated in a most 

 shamefully cruel manner, died in consequence, 



