Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/36

 THAROOS (ROHILCUND).

HAROO is the name of a tribe found chiefly in Nipal and in the Terai of Rohilcund: it is considered uncertain whether they belong to the aboriginal or the Aryan stock; but from their habits, they are most probably, aboriginal. They are believed to have left the plains of Behar for many generations. In our own territory, they inhabit the country along the base of the sub-Himalayan mountains between the Ganges and the Gmiduk. Though occupying, with the Boksas, the whole of this large jungle tract, they "are not, and never have been, permanent residents in any one. locality; nor are they possessed of sufficient intelligence to know the tale of their own chosen region, or to be able to recount the revolutions which have occurred on the scene of their migrations. They are extremely restless in their habits, and are peculiar in requiring at their several locations more land for their periodical tillage than they can show under cultivation at one time or in one year."

But as cultivators they are most useful from the capacity (which they possess in common with many of the Tamulian aboriginal tribes of India) of not only living, but thriving, in the most malarious situations; even in the Saul forests, where they exhibit no spnptom whatever of that fever-stricken aspect which marks the victim of malaria. Hence they are invaluable in effecting and cultivating forest clearances.