Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/399

 BHIL TRIBES. many

389

down, as members of the police or as husbandmen, At the same time, though peace was established, and has since on the whole prevailed, any local disturbance has sufficed Bhi'ls settled

into regular industry.

to re-awaken in

The

some of the Bhil

made

tribes their old love of plunder.

advance in the standards of civilization or comfort. Ignorance, carelessness, and love of liquor have, especially in Western Khandesh, sunk many of the race deep in debt to the astute Hindus. The machinery of the law courts is worked by the Hindu usurer to keep his Bhil debtors in his pow'er ; and notwithBhil has

little

standing the great rise in the value of their labour,

on

many

of the Bhils

bondage to their creditors. They are fed between seed-time and harvest, and they receive an occasional turban or cotton toil

in practical

In other respects they are not

cloth.

Even

times of oppression.

and want of although

prevent their

skill

physically

their idleness

as

and

strong and fitfulness

much

better off than in the old

small landholders, their carelessness rise in

As

the social scale.

efficient

workers when

labourers,

they please,

stand in the way of their earning high

wages.

How

modern Bhil has changed from the original Bhil it is Bhi'Is, and when well fed many hill Bhils also, become equal in size and appearance to the low - class Hindus. In Poona they are superior in stature, appearance, and intelligence to the Satpurds. This seems to show that the stunted, stupid, and savage Bhils of Khandesh, Gujarat, Rajputana, and Central India have, either from marriage with older and lower races, or from exposure and want of food, suffered both in mind and body. The wild woodsman of the Satpuras is dark, short, but well made, active and hardy, with high cheekbones, wide nostrils, and in some cases coarse, Among the southern and western tribes, almost African features. who probably more nearly represent the original type of Bhil, are many well-built and not a few tall, handsome men, with regular The lowland Bhils are now scarcely to be features and wnvy hair. far the

hard to

The lowland

say.

distinguished from the local low-class Hindus.

The

may conveniently be arranged under namely (i) those of the plains, (2) those of the hills and (3) the mixed tribes. The first are found in small almost all the villages of Central and South Khdndesh.

Bhils of the present day

—

three groups,

and forests, numbers in The second have

their settlements in the

Sahyddris, the Bardas,

and the Dangs.

Vindhyas, the Satpuras, the

The mixed tnbes

are

—

(i) the

and half Rajput or Kumbi), found in the Eastern the Tadvis, and (3) the Nirdhis, both found in the

Bhilalas (half Bhil

Satpuras;

(2)

SatmaMs and Eastern Satpuras. The two last-named sections of the The hill Bhils have seldom race are half Bhil and half Musalman. any clothing except a

strip of

cotton round their loins.

Their

women