oct. — mar. 1859-60.] Parvatipore and Jeypore. 



293 



porting great fatigue. They speak Oorea, a very simple, but lit- 

 tle cultivated language, bearing a strong resemblance to Hindu- 

 stani, properly so called, i. e. devoid of all Persian and Arabic words, 

 although containing many words used in Teloogoo and derived 

 from the Sanscrit. Its terminations are almost entirely vowels in this 

 respect resembling the Teloogoo and other languages of Southern 

 India, and it is spoken with an accentuation, which bears some 

 resemblance to that used in speaking Gaelic. This would seem to 

 indicate the above to be an ancient race, which has inhabited this 

 country at least centuries before the irruption of the Mahomedans 

 into India, and the Rajah indeed boasts of being descended in an 

 unbroken line from those who ruled the country ten centuries back. 

 He is, moreover, universally looked up to, in spite of his poverty, 

 as the descendant of a very ancient race. His authority although 

 nominally respected, seems really to be little so beyond 'the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Jeypore, as each man seems to do pretty much as 

 he likes, while murders and robberies, and all kinds of violence 

 seem common and unrepressed, and even unnoticed, while such 

 seems to be the extent to which corruption is carried by those 

 about him, that a bribe to them will procure immunity from the 

 punishment consequent on the most atrocious crimes. The whole 

 Revenue of the country including the Gunipooram Taluq which as 

 before stated pays upwards of 60,000 Rs. is I believe considerably 

 under a lac of Rs., but there is not a doubt that it could, under 

 European management, and were encouragement given to the em- 

 ployment of European capital, be easily raised to 5 and even 10 

 times that amount. The great seeming difficulty is the want of 

 population, but that heretofore bugbear fever, dissipated, as I doubt 

 not it will soon be, population would increase as people would from 

 various quarters be attracted to a country where land can be pro- 

 cured at a merely nominal rate, and where living is so cheap. It 

 is a country such as this, to which so little has been done by man* 

 where so much remains to be done, and where that much may be 

 so easily done, that offers the greatest attraction to the employ- 

 ment of new capital, industry, and enterprise, and therefore although 

 it may yet be distant, I do not despair of seeing the time ar- 

 rive when this hitherto much neglected and unknown coun- 

 try will receive much more of the popular attention. The 



