1 232 THE LORDS OF THE HILLS; —
2 It was at this time that one of the distant branches of the
3 family settled in Chumba and another about or at Teera-Kangra.
4 The first of these is called now the Chummiall Rajpoot, the second
5 the Katochee family ; and other members of the house became
6 the founders of different principalities at present known by
7 divers names, such as Patancote, Mandote, Seeba, Samba, Jesro-
8 ta, &c. while the two principal or head members of the family
9 wandered for some time in search of a proper and suitable place
10 of rest for their families. Ultimately Kirpal Dehu and his
11 brother Singram Dehu settled in the then thickly- wooded and
12 almost uninhabited hills of Dhahman, and about the spot where
13 the present fort of Bhow stands. This occurrence is put down at
14 about 591 of the Hejira, or three years after their return from
15 the battle of Thanessur. These hills were then but a wild,
16 mountainous, thickly-wooded tract, very thinly peopled by a
17 few Meghs, a poor race of low caste, and by yet fewer of a
18 Hindoo race called Tukkers. But these hills, though wild,
19 still afforded good pasturage, which was enticement sufficient to
20 ensure the annual visits of the northern and eastern Ghaddees, —
21 herdsmen and shepherds who generally live in and about the
22 snowy ranges, north of Chumba, Kistowar, &c. and who were
23 then a bold, independent and wandering race, who for ages
24 past had been in the habit of proceeding with their flocks and
25 families to the southern and milder parts, and to pass the severity
26 of winter grazing their numerous flocks of sheep, goats, &c.
27 in the hills now described. A long continued animosity existed
28 between the bold and hardy hill shepherds and their neighbours,
29 the poor and helpless Meghs, and each year's visit only brought
30 on a new succession of quarrels and sometimes bloody affrays.
31 The Ghaddees in their annual visits monopolized and partly
32 destroyed the best pasture spots, and even sometimes encroached
33 on the small tillage fields of the Meghs, who, too weak openly