In the Cosseah hills a large supply of potatoes is annually raised and sold in the Gowahatty market, realizing to the Cosseahs no inconsiderable profit. The effect of this traffic being to promote a more frequent intercourse with the people of the plains, it is hoped that in course of time the Cosseahs may learn the value of peaceable commercial pursuits, and become a prosperous and civilized race.
Singphoo, Cosseah, and Garrow swords.
BOOTEAHS.
The hills of Bootan, about two hundred and twenty miles long by ninety broad, form the northern boundary of Assam. The population of the country, including the Dooars, is assumed at 145,200 souls, the Bootan hills 79,200, and the Dooars or low lands at 66,000; but this calculation, made by the late Captain Pemberton, has been proved to be greatly in excess of the truth, as regards the population of the Dooars. In 1842 a census was taken of five Dooars: namely, Ghurkola, Banska, Chapagorie, Chapakhamar, and Bijnee, in the Kamroop district; when it appeared there were about 10,000 inhabitants, and the net revenue of the tracts amounted to 17,544 rupees 7 ans. 4 pice, or 1,754l. 8s. 11d. It may, therefore, justly be inferred that the population of the whole of the Dooars would not exceed 40,000 souls. Captain Pemberton, the British Envoy deputed to Bootan in 1838, describes the Booteah to be “in disposition naturally excellent; he possesses an equanimity of temper almost bordering on apathy, and he is seldom sufficiently roused to give vent to his feelings in any exclamations of pleasure or surprise; on the other hand, they are indolent to an extreme degree, totally wanting in energy, illiterate, immoral, and victims of the most unqualified superstition. The punishment of the most heinous offences may be evaded by the payment of a fine, which for murder varies from eighty to two hundred Deba rupees, or 40 to 100 Company’s rupees, or from 4l. to 10l.”
Polyandry, or plurality of husbands, prevails throughout Thibet and the northern parts of Bootan; and on the death of the head of a family his property becomes escheated to the Deba or Dhurma Rajahs, without the slightest reference to the distress entailed on the afflicted survivors. “The highest officers of state in Bootan are shameless beggars, liars of the first magnitude, whose most solemnly pledged words are violated without the slightest hesitation; who enter into engagements which they have not the most distant intention of fulfilling; who play the bully and sycophant with equal readiness, and are apparently totally void of gratitude, exhibiting in their conduct a rare compound of official pride and presumption with the low cunning of needy mediocrity; and yet preserving, at the same time, a mild deportment, and speaking generally in a remarkably low tone of voice.”
Amongst the officers of the Deba or Dhurma Rajahs of Bootan, not one appears to have been entitled to the confidence of the Envoy. The habits of all classes are most disgustingly filthy, and in the mode of preparing their food little attention is paid to cleanliness, and still less to the quality of the meat they consume. On festive occasions they imbibe large draughts of the liquor called chong, which is procured by fermentation from rice. “The diet of the great body of the people is restricted to the refuse of wretched crops of unripe wheat and barley, and their food consists generally of cakes made from these grains very imperfectly ground; but the food of the Government officers and priests consists of the flesh of goats, swine, cattle, and rice, imported from the Dooars.” The Dooars are large tracts of country leading up to the passes into the Bootan mountains. In January, 1842, they were all appropriated by our Government as a permanent measure; in consequence of the non-payment of tribute by the Booteahs, their “repeated acts of aggression in the murder and seizure of British subjects, and likewise for assisting to organize bands of robbers and sharing in the profits of their plunder.” Whether the Bootan hills will furnish a sufficient support for their scanty population seems problematical; and if pressed by hunger it is not improbable the Booteahs will rush down and ravage the fertile plains of Assam. The measure was, however, indispensably necessary to prevent the frequent recurrence of oppression and systematic plunder of the people located at the foot of the Bootan mountains. The extensive territory denominated Dooars has always belonged to the Assam kings, and the Booteahs invariably paid tribute for the same. Their exactions and malpractices having imposed on the Government the necessity of depriving the Booteahs of a charge they were unworthy of retaining, this cannot be viewed as a harsh proceeding: it was most reluctantly adopted, and only when it became evident that the finest land in Assam had been converted into a desolate waste, overgrown with jungle and nearly depopulated, owing to the arbitrary severity of the Bootan rulers.
In December, 1842, a friendly meeting took place at Banska Dooar between the highest officers of the Bootan Government and the Governor-General’s Agent. The Booteahs were attended by about two hundred followers; and during their few days’ stay their complaints were fully entertained, and will probably be satisfied by the grant of a small annual sum as compensation for the loss they have sustained in the annexation of the Dooars to Assam.