Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/227

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INDIA (RACES AND LANGUAGES) 215 originally from Chota Nagpore, and are de- scendants of the old Mundas of that district ; they have also the same cast of countenance as the Mundas, though perhaps with a wilder and fiercer expression. The Ramoosee tribes are spread over the central and western parts of the peninsula, and are partly predatory. The Bheels, as a distinct tribe, are found chiefly on the hills surrounding the fortress of Asirgurh in the Central Provinces. The Bheels of Berar occupy the eastern slopes of the Gawilgur range to its western extremity and reaching far into Candeish. The same people are also in posses- sion of the eastern part of the "Western Ghauts, and all the branches that run out from it to- ward the east as far south as Poonah; they have even spread over the plains to the east, especially north of the Godavery, and the neighborhood of the Wurda. Latham says that the Bheels seem to have been the aborigines of the hills near Mount Aboo, but at some time or other they mixed with marauding Rajpoots from the plains, and with the workmen who were so long engaged in building the Dilwarra temples. The Kolees are a numerous race on the western side of India, being the laborers and low cultivators in Guzerat ; they are also in large numbers in the western part of the Nizam's Dominions. Kolee is also the name given to the lower class of cultivators in the Simla hills. The same race is scattered over a great portion of the Bombay presidency, from the Thur and the neighborhood of Sinde south- ward to Goa and eastward along the banks of the Beema, the Kistnah, and Tumbuddra, into the centre of the peninsula as far as Kurnool, where they act as ferrymen. The Kolees and Bheels seem to have a similar if not a com- mon origin. In some portions of India they are mixed, and Kolees frequently marry Bheel wives. The most important race of the Dra- vidians proper are the Tamils or Tamuls, and the name of Tamulian is sometimes used for the whole Dravidian group. Their number is estimated at 10,000,000; they inhabit princi- pally the extreme southeast of the peninsula and N. and E. Ceylon. They are dark brown, very email, lithe, active, social, and more given to seafaring and emigration than any other Indian race. They wander along the coast and to re- mote islands for employment, and have given the name oooly (Tamil, Tculi, hire) to the whole class of Indian laborers. The Telugu or Telin- ga people are estimated at about 14,000,000 ; they inhabit the eastern borders of the penin- sula. They are a taller and fairer race than the Tamil, and equally energetic, though less restless. They are the Andhra of Sanskrit writers, a name mentioned by ancient Greek geographers as that of a nation dwelling on or near the Ganges. They are good farmers, and many of them were formerly seafaring men, undertaking long voyages. They held at one time large islands in the eastern archipel- ago, where the people of India are still called Kling, from the former Kalinga dynasty. The people called Canarese are about 5,000,000 in number, and are found chiefly in the centre of the peninsula. They are a tall and sin- gularly graceful race. Their avocations are mostly those of civil life, cultivators and shop- keepers. People speaking Canarese are spread over the plateau of Mysore and the western districts of the Nizam's Dominions, extend- ing as far north as the neighborhood of Beder. The Kotar, who speak a dialect of Canareso have seven villages in the vicinity of Kota- gherry, and are supposed to number a little more than 1,000. Dead cattle and carrion of every kind find acceptance among them as food. They are, however, the most industrious of the hill tribes, giving much attention to ag- riculture, and finding employment as carpen- ters, smiths, basket makers, and menders of ploughs. They, are well built, of a tolerable height, rather good-featured, copper-colored, and may bo considered among the fairest tribes of this portion of the country. In the low country and along the Western Ghauts, from Cape Comorin to the Chandagiri river, live a people speaking the Malayalam or Malealam language. These inhabitants of Malabar, who probably number about 2,500,000, have from their situation in the extreme southwest been little exposed to external influences. They are of an exclusive disposition, avoid contact with foreigners, and live isolated with their families in their high-walled paramlu, even where the enterprising Tamil people have opened lines of communication. The race speaking the Tulu or Tuluva tongue live in a small tract of coun- try in the vicinity of Mangalore, and prob- ably number no more than 150,000. Malaya- lam and Tulu are considered to be in a grad- ual course of extinction. The Toda, properly Tuda or Tudavera, are a primitive tribe hard- ly 500 in number, occupying the Neilgherry mountains in the southern part of the Indian peninsula, and commonly believed to be the aboriginal inhabitants of these hills. Logan styles their physical appearance Indo-Semitic. The Kotar tribe ranks next to the Toda in priority of occupation of the hills, but the Badakar, also called Budugur, Budaga, and Vadakar, are the most numerous. The other tribes on these hills live in isolated communi- ties, but the Badakar dwell in villages with streets running in parallel lines, and in thatched houses built of stone and mud, and divided into separate compartments, but strangely enough with no other opening than a doorway about 40 inches high and 25 broad. The Ba- dakar is smaller in stature and lighter in com- plexion than the Toda. The district of Coorg is inhabited by about 40,000 natives called Koodaga. They are a tall, muscular, some- what civilized and intelligent race. The Coorgs divide themselves into Coorgs and Amma Coorgs. They have a fair complexion, and wear whiskers and mustaches, but never a full beard. A very important aboriginal tribe is that of the Gonds. (See GONDS.) Mr. J.