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Rh entire population, Aryans represent one-seventeenth, Parjas one-sixth. The mountaineers retain far greater independence than the ryots of the Jeypore and the Malakanagiri plateaus. In the uplands patriarchal authority is still unassailable; in the low-lying lands it is only preserved in parts M^here jungle tracts abound which are being slowly brought under cultivation.

The Maharajah is the rightful owner of the land. Every variety of land tenure is found throughout Jeypore. The tenants have no occupancy right. When the Maharajah is satisfied as to the advisability of leasing out the land to a stranger, he has a legal right to do so. The pattas and muchalkas exchanged between the Maharajah and his tenants are yearly documents and they contain express stipulations binding the tenants to relinquish their right to the lands at the end of the Fasli.

The religious ceremonies and social customs of the various tribes differ but little from one another. The process of fusion of the habits of the later immigrants with aboriginal customs is, however, very apparent. In those parts of the country which are in a prosperous condition ideas and manners imported from the coast districts are gradually overcoming and absorbing all aboriginal conceptions, but on the other hand, in jungle-covered and backward lands the colonists are always corrupted by the superstitions of the indigenous races. The following is Mr. Carmichael's account of the Zemindary tenure:—

"At the period of the cession of the Northern Circars we found the country divided into Navili and Zemindari. The Navili lands consisted of the old domestic or household lands of the sovereign and tracts near to towns