25 
1877.] Chandrasekhara Banurji —The Kaimur Range. 
The panduka, or the dove of different sorts and hues, from the plain 
ash-coloured to the'spotted brown, frequents almost every bush both at the 
foot and the top of the hills. 
Aquatic birds are not to be found towards the northern slopes, owing 
to the heat and the want of watering-places, but in winter the ehakrabdk, 
or the golden Brahmani geese, may be seen in pairs cutting through the 
silent waters of the Son. 
The sportsman may have his game any time in these forests. In the 
Mirzapur district, we learn, peacocks and partridges abound. Black ante¬ 
lopes range the open country, and the white-footed deer shelter in the deep 
woods. Further to the east, the Nilgai, the gour, the bear, the hyena, and the 
leopard infest the country ; while there are glens here and there known as 
the homes of the royal tiger. The mungoose, porcupine, and hare also inha¬ 
bit the bushes and slopes. The ring-horned deer, however, which roam by 
dozens, if not hundreds, in certain tracts in the Gaya district, are missed in the 
woods of the Kaimur Range. The family of the monkey also, which Dr. 
Buchanan found to be numerous, has become scarce. The lion, the 
rhinoceros, and the wild elephant, which the Emperor Babar saw close to 
his camp at the edge of the Chanar hills, have altogether disappeared. 
Ethnology. The forests of the Kaimur Range, hemmed in by the hills 
on the one side and the broad Son on the other, have in the historic period 
given shelter to different tribes of aborigines. The memoirs of the 
adjacent districts record that they receded before the wave of the Aryan 
migration to the shelter of the slopes and forests of the Kaimur Range. Yet 
different tribes followed one another into these secluded summits, struggled, 
or blended with each other according to exigencies, until the “ iron heel” of 
the Rajput settler stamped out their political life. These tribes are the 
Bhars, Suriyas, Cherus, Binds, and Kharwars, who, according to the current 
tradition, extended their dominions on both sides of the Ganges to the pro¬ 
vince of Audh. The Cheran Parganah and the Cheran Island on the Ganges in 
the Saran district are still traced as the original settlement of the Cherus; 
and, although suffering humiliation from defeat in battle and from decep¬ 
tion in the game of treachery, their scattered villages and the debris of their 
forts must still be the subject of interesting study to the antiquarian and 
the ethnologist. 
At times these aborigines had their revenge. Whenever the neighbour¬ 
ing Aryan ruler proved weak, these barbarians repeated history, came 
down upon him, ravaged his land, and ruled his country. Sometimes the 
policy of conciliation resulted in social blending. Intermarriage between 
the daughters of the Kharwar chief and a Chanclel Rajput prince is men¬ 
tioned in the annals of Bundelkhand. The present Raja of Palamau, al¬ 
though claiming to be a Kshatriya, is suspected to have a mixed origin. 
