1839.] 



Report on the Mackenzie Manuscripts. 



There are four classes among them, some of their household, or do- 

 mestic, customs are stated. Marriage settlements, and observances, mode 

 of receiving proselytes into their class. The) 7 have no Brahmans 

 amongst them. Many of them live professionally by theft. They are 

 scattered; some in villages, some in wilds, or forests. 



Section 4. Account of the Cunumbi Mahrattas. 



The Surya race deduced from Brahma, down to Vaivasvatu-menu t 

 and then a reference to Paricshit, and Nanda; from whom various 

 races sprang by intermarriages. Hence the Cunumbis deduce their 

 lineage ; they are scattered in various countries j both in the north, 

 and in the peninsula. 



Section 5. Account of the, Bamjagar tribe of Telugu people. 



Their household customs. Fourteen minor subdivisions among them 

 specified. Their marriages. Mode of correcting offenders f and some 

 other details ; of no consequence. 



Section 6. Account of the Cudl Cumbhar, or tribe of potters. 



Various local usages, and customs. Marriages are only contracted 

 by adults. They sometimes burn, and sometimes bury, their dead. 

 They do not admit of proselytes from among other classes of people. 

 These with minor details, form the subjects of this paper. 



Section 7. Account of the Gangadicar, or gardeners in Sunda. 



Their domestic, marriage, and other local, or peculiar, customs, are sta* 

 ted ; but there does not seem any thing needing special note. In many 

 points their customs have an affinity with those of the potter-tribe. 



Section 8. Account of the tribe of Manvettiyar, or diggers of water 

 reservoirs. 



They have minor distinctions among themselves; and their customs 

 are stated. They dig wells, reservoirs, channels for irrigation, &c., 

 being, like the two preceding classes, very useful, though servile ; and 

 are apparently derived not from colonist Hindus, but from aborigines 

 of the country. 



General Remark.— Though the papers in this volume are in some 

 degree curious, as to local tribes and manners, and the first of some 

 little historical value, yet they do not seem to claim restoration, especi- 

 ally as the ink is tolerably good, and the paper, though very inferior, 

 only in a slight degree damaged by insects, 



K - 



