The whole class has passed beyond the hunter state, if ever such existed. It has passed beyond the pastoral or nomadic state also; if such existed. It is at present—and, perhaps, has always been—an agricultural state of society. On the other hand—the industrial state, the development represented by towns and commerce, has not been attained.
The whole stock is essentially agricultural. Likewise, the agriculture is peculiar. We may explain it by the term erratic. They "never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain in the same village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse of four or five years they frequently return to their old fields[128] and resume their cultivation, if in the interim the jungle has grown well, and they have not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence of appropriation other than possessory, and if, therefore, another party have preceded them, or, if the slow growth of the jungle give no sufficient promise of a good stratum of ashes for the land when cleared by fire, they move on to another site, new or old. If old, they resume the identical fields they tilled before, but never the old houses or site of the old village, that being deemed unlucky. In general, however, they prefer new land to old, and having still abundance of unbroken forest around them, they are in constant movement, more especially as, should they find a new spot prove unfertile, they decamp after the first harvest is got in."
Arva in annos mutant et superest ager. This passage is explained by their customs.
In respect to their social constitution, they dwell in small communities of from ten to forty houses; each of which community is under a grà or head. This is Hindú—except that as the Hindú villages are both larger and more permanent, the functionaries, in addition to the headman, are more numerous. This is noted, because the difference in the two sorts of village government seems to be one of degree rather than kind.[129]
And now comes more in the way of classification. The Bodo are Kachars, or the Kachars are Bodo. Their languages are the same, so are their gods, so is their name; since Kachar is a Hindú, and no native term—the native name (i.e., of the Kachars) being Bodo. On the other hand, the Hindú name of the Bodo is Mech. Whoever looks to a map will find that the outline of the Bodo area is very deeply indented; implying either a great original irregularity of area, or great subsequent displacement.
Now follow the Garo. One fourth—fifteen out of sixty—of the words of Mr. Brown's Garo vocabulary is Bodo. The inference? That the Bodo and Garo are in the same category. What is this? Mr. Hodgson makes both Tamulian or Indian. In my own mind both are Burmese. But be this as it may, one fact is certain; viz., that a transition between the tongues of the Indian and the tongues of the Indo-Chinese peninsula exists, and that the lines of demarcation which divide them are less broad and trenchant than is generally supposed.
The Dhimal bring us to Sikkim. The dominant nation of Sikkim are—
The Lepchas.—Their language also is monosyllabic; but it is Tibetan rather than Burmese. They are a Sikkim rather than a British Indian population.[130]
When we have passed the rajahship of Sikkim, we reach that of Nepâl. This, again, is independent. Such being the case, the line of frontier between the Hindú populations and the populations of the Bodo and Garo character lies beyond the pale of the British dependencies.
But in proceeding westward, we pass Nepâl, and reach Kumaon.