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Rising from the rice swamps and level land of Chittagong District now in Bangladesh there stretches out a vast extent of hilly and mountainous country inhabited by various hill tribes. The author discusses the climate the bazars where they bartered their produce for such items as salt spices dried fish etc. found only in plains the flora and fauna especially descriptions of valuable forest trees medicinal plants varieties of bamboos and canes their mode of cultivation (jhum cultivation which is a form of slash and burn agriculture) and community life. It also contains descriptions of the British interaction with the hill tribes their exploitation by the Hindu mahajans the origin of the tribes living there believed to be of Burmese extraction their habits customs religion festivals attire marriage ceremony social habits and language. The author fondly describes them as lovable simple honest who do not believe in the accumulation of wealth and believe in perfect social equality. About the Author Thomas Herbert Lewin (1839-1916) travelled to India as a Lieutenant and was involved in several campaigns to put down the Indian Mutiny. His appointment as Political Agent for the unregulated Hill Tracts meant that he became in effect the Governor of the Lushai and Chittagong Hill Tracts. On the basis of his experiences there he wrote The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers There (1869) and The Wild Races of South Eastern India (1870).
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