— KHA
125
The climate
is reckoned much better than that of Kukra Mailani goitre almost unknown, but fever makes great ravages. In the interior of the forest the savannahs of rank grass which occur are tenanted almost exclusively by Tharus, who enjoy fairly good health by reason of their houses being raised on platforms. Kain is heavy, much above the district average, and it commences earlier than elsewhere, coming down the gorge where the Kauriala bursts through the lower ranges of the Himalayas.
is
Large herds of nil-gae occasionally do some damage to the crops, but all along the banks of the Kauriala, and in the forests south of the Mohan, tiger, spotted deer, porcupine, hog deer, sambur, and pig abound in profusion. Wild elephants used to be common, but have now almost entirely disappeared, and it is only occasionally that a stray one wanders across the Mohan during the rains. Black and grey partridge, hares, peafowl, and bustard are met with in great numbers in the large open savannahs above described. Large parties of sportsmen, mounted on elephants, annually spend April and May in these forests, which several Viceroys, and recently the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh^ have at different times during the century explored in pursuit of game.
The population is 33,046, in 60 inhabited villages, or 69 to the square mile, but the revenue paying land is only 143 square miles, and this alone can be peopled, as the forests are not allowed to be occupied. Taking the available area therefore, the population is actually about 231 to the square mile. Two-thirds of the inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and only 68 square miles are cultivated. There are not more than 2,100 Musalmans, less than six per cent, of the whole. Ahirs are the principal There are only caste, numbering 5,.500, or 16 per cent, of the population. 840 Brahmans, about 2^ per cent., these wild and waste districts not suiting them. There are 1,400 Chhattris, principally Bais and Pahdris Kurmis number 3,300, or 10 per cent. and Muraos 1,700, or 5 per cent. but the Tharus alone call for special notice, as this is the onlycis-Gogra pargana in which they are met with as permanent residents. They number 900, and an account of this caste by Captain Thurburn is appended
—
" The race is of the Hindu Aryan family, though the features of its members bear evidence of intermixture with Tartar blood. It is supposed that the race is descended from the same Kajput caste as the Rana of Chittaurgarh, and prior to its exile it was settled in the province of that name in Central India, but during the wars iri the reign of Ala-ud-din Ghori, in the year 1151 A.D., its members migrated to tlie wild jungles at the foot of the Himalayan mountains in the province of Oudh, and have ever since remained there. In every village the Mahamdi Tharus are said to appoint four office-bearers, one as chief or headman, one as accountant, one as arbitrator of disputes and distributor of resources, and another to attend on the chief and to the requirements of the community as well as share of the produce is assigned for the performance of of strangers. these duties. The Tharus are hardworking, and surpass other natives in this respect ; they are peaceful and united, and mutually help each other Rice is their staple crop, and from this they used in cultivating the soil. to distil an intoxicating liquor, to the consumption of which they were much addicted. They eat meat (which has died or been killed), fish,
A
17
