Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/51

 KHAS, OR KHUS.

HE Klias, or Klius, now the dominant population of Nipal, were, until 1816, the ruling tribe of the entire tract from the Sutlej to the Teesta. They are called Purbuttiah, or Highlander, from their residence in the Hills; the term being chiefly confined to them, though equally applicable to other tribes similarly located. Their aboriginal stock is Turanian; a fact, says Hodgson, "inscribed in characters so plain upon their faces, forms, and languages, that we may well dispense with the vain attempt to trace it historically in the meagre chronicles of barbarism." When the tide of Musulman conquest and bigotry, from the twelfth century downwards, swept multitudes of the Brahmins from the plains into these hills, they endeavoured to make the natives converts to Hinduism, and thus to confirm the fleeting influence which their learning and refinement gave them over an illiterate and barbarous population. In order to secure their end, they granted to their earnest distinguished converts, in defiance of the creed they taught, the lofty rank and honours of the Khastriya order, which they also communicated to their progeny by the Hill-women. Thus originated the now numerous, predominant, and extensively ramified tribe of the Khas, which, favoured by the Brahminical system, became entirely devoted to it. Subduing the neighbouring tribes, they "gradually merged the greater part of their own habits, ideas, and language, but not physiognomy, in those of the Hindoos, and the Khas language became a corrupt dialect of Hindi," concealing from all but curious eyes its barbaric origin.

They are excellent soldiers, and form a considerable proportion of the Nipalese (Goorldia) army. Though more liable to Brahminical prejudices than other military tribes of the country, they have no religious feelings which prevent them from becoming excellent servants in arms, and they possess pre-eminently that masculine energy of character and that love of enterprise which distinguish so advantageously the Nipal soldiery. Despatching their meals in half-an-hour, and "satisfying the ceremonial law by merely washing their hands and face, and taking off their turbans before cooking, they laugh at the pharisaical rigour of our (Bengal) Sepoys, who