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 _gra_ or
head. This is Hindu--except that as the Hindu 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_.

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 Hindu, and no native term--the
native name (_i.e._, of the Kachars) being _Bodo_. On the other hand,
the _Hindu_ 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.

When we have passed the rajahship of Sikkim, we reach that of Nepal.
This, ag