SUAR or Surah, a wild, half-savage, forest tribe inhabiting the Eastern Ghats of the Peninsula of India. They are known to their settled neigh bours as the Chenchu kulain, Chenchwar, and Chensuar. Wilson names them Clienchu-vadu (Vadu, T EL., a man). They dwell in the tract covering the westernmost range of the Eastern Ghat line, between the Pennar river and the Kistna, and known locally as the Nullamallay and the Lankamallay. They inhabit clearings in the forest, live in beehive - shaped huts, like the African, Nicobarian, and many of the ruder Asionesian tribes. These are of wicker-work, with walls about 3 feet high, and a conical straw roof, with a screen for a door. The men, almost nude, have in general only a rag for covering. The women dress like the wandering female basket makers, whom they resemble in features. The features of the men are small, but the expret-sion is animated, cheek-bones higher and more pro ininent than those of the Hindus in general, nose flatter, and nosttils more expanded ; their eyes black a.nd piercing. In stature they are some what shorter than their neighbours, and they are slightly, but well made, except about the knee and the leg, which is large. The colour of the
skin is dark. Newbold characterizes them as between a Teling and a Jakun of the Malay Peninsula. They speak Telugu with a harsh and peculiar pronunciation. They have large dogs, and a few are employed as hill police in the pass from the Kuman to Badwail. They have no images. They are polygamists ; they bury their dead, but sometimes burn, and they carry the deceased's weapons to the grave. They use the spear, hatchet, the matchlock, or a bamboo bow and reed arrow tipped with iron. They look on weaving and other manufacturing arts with con tempt. They are patient and docile. Mr. Logan has suggested that the Chenchwar are a continua tion of the wild forest Surah of the mountainous tracts farther north in the line of Eastern Ghats. Vocabularies of the Kond, Savara, Gadaba, Ycru kala, and Chentsu are given in the Beng. As. Soc. Journal of 1856.—Newbold in Belly. As. Soc..Ionr., 1865 ; Logan in Jour. Ind. Arch.