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An Account of the Tribe of Mhadeo Kolies, 



[April 



the ghauts was completely depopulated, for the purpose of restoring it 

 to prosperity, a number of Kolies from the Ballaghaut* and the Mhadeo 

 hills were assembled and taken to the deserted dwellings of the Goulliesi 

 and invited to occupy them and cultivate their fields. 



It is a common practice with such of the inhabitants of the plains as 

 bury their dead, as well as the hilly tribes to erect ihurgahs (tombs 

 commonly of a single stone), near the graves of their parents. In the 

 vicinity of some of the Koly villages and near the site of deserted ones j 

 several of these thurgahs are occasionally to be seen, especially near 

 the source of the Bhaum river. The people say they belonged to Gur- 

 sees and Goullies of former times. The stones with many figures in 

 relief roughly carved upon them, and one of these holding a drum in his 

 hand, and in the act of beating time on it, are considered to have be- 

 longed to the Gursees who are musicians by profession. The other 

 thurgahs with a Saloonka (one of the emblems of Mhadeo) and a band 

 of women forming a circle round it, with large pots on their heads, are 

 said to be Goully monuments. This might be reckoned partly confir- 

 matory of the tradition. 



This account of the Kolies having come from the Ballaghaut and 

 Mhadeo hills is certainly quite the reverse of what might have been 

 expected ; it was natural to suppose that they had migrated from the 

 northward, as the tract of country occupied by them is bounded, both 

 on the western and northern sides, by districts in which the Koly 

 population is numerous, and it is quite evident; that those Kolies have 

 advanced from the northward. It is to be remarked that, the Mhadeo 

 Koly holds little or no intercourse with the other tribes in the adjoining 

 districts. They are considered a more pure and respectable class of 

 people. The Koonbies in the Joonere districts drink water from the 

 hands of a Koly, and will also eat food prepared by them ; the few Koon- 

 bies in the Kotool and Rajoor districts will do the same, but I believe they 

 have some scruples on this score. However the Koonbies in Malldesh 

 will not partake of water or food from the Mhadeo Kolies in that part 

 of the country 5 this is said to be in consequence of the vicinity 

 of the other tribes of impure Kolies, in the Nassick and Wunn Dindory 

 districts and in the Attaveessy. If a Koonby has been working for a 

 Koly in Malldesh he will receive rice or flour from the Koly and prepare 

 his own victuals. Tradition says that Bhoregur, Phoolgown, &c. in 

 the Ghorenahir, were the first villages established by the Mhadeo 

 Kolies, and the inference we are to draw from thisis, that they gradually 

 advanced northward ; to which is to be added the tradition of their 

 having attacked and exterminated the Sombatta and Gursee inhabitants 

 of Malldesh. Another circumstance that would tend to corroborate the 



* Ballaghaut is the hilly tract along the western boundary of the Hydrabad territory. 



