Colonel Dalton describes the Bhuiyas as, "A dark-brown,
well-proportioned race, with black, straight hair, plentiful on
the head, but scant on the face, of middle height, figures well
knit and capable of enduring great fatigue, but light-framed like
the Hindu rather than presenting the usual muscular development of
the hillman." Their dress is scanty, and in the Tributary States
Dalton says that the men and women all wear dresses of brown cotton
cloth. This may be because white is a very conspicuous colour in the
forests. They wear ornaments and beads, and are distinctive in that
neither men nor women practise tattooing, though in some localities
this rule is not observed by the women. To keep themselves warm at
night they kindle two fires and sleep between them, and this custom
has given rise to the saying, 'Wherever you see a Bhuiya he always has
a fire.' In Bamra the Bhuiyas still practise shifting cultivation,
for which they burn the forest growth from the hillsides and sow
oilseeds in the fresh soil. This method of agriculture is called
locally Khasrathumi. They obtain their lands free from the Raja in
return for acting as luggage porters and coolies. In Bamra they will
not serve as farm-servants or labourers for hire, but elsewhere they
are more docile.