List Group 17

Tirmali - Toda - Tottivans - Tottiyan - Turaihas - Turi - Tîrí - Uppalingas - Upparas - Vada - Vaddar - Vadi - Vaghe - Vagiri - Vaidu - Vaidu - Vajantris - Varli - Vendan - Wâghya (Vâghe, Murli)

Tirmali.: -They are mendicants going around with bulls dressed up in colours. They live in South India.

Toda.: - Quite recently [1], my friend Dr. W.H. Rivers, as the result of a prolonged stay on the Nílgiris, has published [2] an exhaustive account of the sociology and religion of this exceptionally interesting tribe, numbering, according to the latest census returns, 807 individuals, which inhabits the Nílgiri plateau.

1 See Thurston. 2 . The Todas. 1906.

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I shall, therefore, content myself with recording the rambling notes made by myself during occasional visits to Ootacamund and Paikâra, supplemented by extracts from the book just referred to, and the writings of Harkness and other pioneers of the Nílgiris. The Todas maintain a large-horned race of semidomesticated buffaloes, on whose milk and its products (butter and whey) [1] they still depend largely, though to a less extent than in bygone days before the establishment of the Ootacamund bazar, for existence. It has been said that "a Toda's worldly wealth is judged by the number of buffaloes he owns. Witness the story in connection with the recent visit to India of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. A clergyman, who has done mission work among the Todas, generally illustrates Bible tales through the medium of a magic-lantern. One chilly afternoon, the Todas declined to come out of their huts. Thinking they required humouring like children, the reverend gentleman threw on the screen a picture of the Prince of Wales, explaining the object of his tour, and, thinking to impress the Todas, added 'The Prince is exceedingly wealthy, and is bringing out a retinue of two hundred people.' 'Yes, yes,' said an old man, wagging his head sagely, 'but how many buffaloes is he bringing?"

The Todas lead for the most part a simple pastoral life. But I have met with more than one man who had served, or who was still serving Government in the modest capacity of a forest guard, and I have heard of others who had been employed, not with conspicuous success, on planters' estates. The Todas consider it beneath their dignity to cultivate land. A former Collector of the Nílgiris granted them some acres of land for the cultivation of potatoes, but they leased the land to the Badagas, and the privilege was cancelled. In connection with the Todas' objection to work, it is recorded that when, on one occasion, a mistake about the ownership of some buffaloes committed an old Toda to jail, it was found impossible to induce him to work with the convicts, and the authorities, unwilling to resort to hard remedies, were compelled to save appearances by making him an overseer. The daily life of a Toda woman has been summed up as lounging about the mad or mand (Toda settlement), buttering and curling her hair, and cooking. The women have been described as free from the ungracious and menial-like timidity of the generality of the sex in the plains. When Europeans, (who are greeted as swâmi or god) come to a mand, the women crawl out of their huts, and chant a monotonous song, all the time clamouring for tips (inâm). Even the children are so trained that they clamour for money till it is forthcoming. As a rule, the Todas have no objection to Europeans entering into their huts, but on more than one occasion I have been politely asked to take my boots off before crawling in on my stomach, so as not to desecrate the dwelling-place. Writing in 1868, Dr. J. Short makes a sweeping statement that "most of the women have been debauched by Europeans, who, it is sad to observe, have introduced diseases to which these innocent tribes were once strangers, and which are slowly but no less surely sapping their once hardy and vigorous constitutions. The effects of intemperance and disease (syphilis) combined are becoming more and more apparent in the shaken and decrepit appearance which at the present day these tribes possess." In fact it undoubtedly is true, and proved both by hospital and naked-eye evidence, that syphilis has been introduced among the Todas by contact with the outside world, and they attribute the stunted growth of some members of the rising generation, as compared with the splendid physique of the lusty veterans, to the results thereof. It is an oft-repeated statement that the women show an absence of any sense of decency in exposing their naked persons in the presence of strangers. In connection with the question of the morality of the Toda women, Dr. Rivers writes that "the low sexual morality of the Todas is not limited in its scope to the relations within the Toda community.

Conflicting views are held by those who know the Nilgiri hills as to the relations of the Todas with the other inhabitants, and especially with the train of natives which the European immigration to the hills has brought in its wake.

[1] Ney=ghi or clarified butter.

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The general opinion on the hills is that, in this respect, the morality of the Todas is as low as it well could be, but it is a question whether this opinion is not too much based on the behaviour of the inhabitants of one or two villages [e.g., the one commonly known as School or Sylk's mand] near the European settlements, and I think it is probable that the larger part of the Todas remain more uncontaminated than is generally supposed."

I came across one Toda who, with several other members of the tribe, was selected on account of fine physique for exhibition at Barnum's show in Europe, America and Australia some years ago, and still retained a smattering of English, talking fondly of "Shumbu" (the elephant Jumbo). For some time after his return to his hill abode, a tall white hat was the admiration of his fellow tribesmen. To this man finger-prints came as no novelty, since his impressions were recorded both in England and America.

Writing in 1870, [1] Colonel W. Ross King stated that the Todas had just so much knowledge of the speech of their vassals as is demanded by the most ordinary requirements. At the present day, a few write, and many converse fluently in Tamil. The Nílgiri C. M. S. Tamil mission has extended its sphere of work to the Todas, and I cannot resist the temptation to narrate a Toda version of the story of Dives and Lazarus. The English say that once upon a time a rich man and a poor man died. At the funeral of the rich man, there was a great tamâsha (spectacle), and many buffaloes were sacrificed. But, for the funeral of the poor man, neither music nor buffaloes were provided. The English believe that in the next world the poor man was as well off as the rich man; so that, when any one dies, it is of no use spending money on the funeral ceremonies. There are two mission schools near Paikâra. At the latter I have seen a number of children of both sexes reading elementary Tamil and English, and doing simple arithmetic.

A few years ago a Toda boy was baptised at Tinnevelly, and remained there for instruction. It was hoped that he would return to the hills as an evangelist among his people. [2] In 1907, five young Toda women were baptised at the C.M.S. Mission chapel, Ootacamund. "They were clothed in white, with a white cloth over their heads, such as the Native Christians wear. A number of Christian Badagas bad assembled to witness the ceremony, and join in the service."

The typical Toda man is above medium height, well proportioned and stalwart, with leptorhine nose, regular features, and perfect teeth. The nose is, as noted by Dr. Rivers, sometimes distinctly rounded in profile. An attempt has been made to connect the Todas with the lost tribes; and, amid a crowd of them collected together at a funeral, there is no difficulty in picking out individuals, whose features would find for them a ready place as actors on the Ober Ammergau stage, either in leading or subordinate parts. The principal characteristic, which at once distinguishes the Toda from the other tribes of the Nílgiris, is the development of the pilous (hairy), system. The following is a typical case, extracted from my notes. Beard luxuriant, hair of head parted in middle, and hanging in curls over forehead and back of neck. Hair thickly developed on chest and abdomen, with median strip of dense hairs on the latter. Hair thick over upper and lower ends of shoulder-blades, thinner over rest of back; well developed on extensor surface or upper arms, and both surfaces of forearms; very thick on extensor surfaces of the latter. Hair abundant on both surfaces of legs; thickest on outer side of thighs and round knee-cap. Dense beard-like mass of hair beneath gluteal region (buttocks). Superciliary brow ridges very prominent. Eyebrows united across middle line by thick tuft of hairs. A dense growth of long straight hairs directed outwards on helix of both ears, bearing a stinking resemblance to the hairy development on the helix of the South Indian bonnet monkey (Macacus sinicus). The profuse hairy development is by some Todas attributed to their drinking "too much milk."

Nearly all the men have one of or more raised cicatrices, forming nodulous growths (keloids) on the right shoulder. These scars are produced by burning the skin with red-hot sticks of Litsaea Wightiana (the sacred fire-stick).

[1] aboriginal tribes of he Nilgiri Hills. . [2] Madras Diocesan Magazine, November, 1907.

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The Todas believe that the branding enables them to milk the buffaloes with perfect ease, or as Dr. Rivers puts it, that it cures the pain caused by the fatigue of milking. "The marks," he says, "are made when a boy is about twelve years old, at which age he begins to milk the buffaloes." About the fifth month of a woman's first pregnancy, on the new-moon day, she goes through a ceremony, in which she brands herself, or is branded by another woman, by means of a rag rolled up, dipped in oil and lighted, with a dot on the carpo-metacarpal joint of each thumb and on each wrist.

The women are lighter in colour than the men, and the colour of the body had been aptly described as of a cafe`-au-lait tint. The skin of the female children and young adults is often of a warm copper hue. Some of the young women, with their raven-black hair dressed in glossy ringlets, and bright glistening eyes, are distinctly good-looking, but both good looks and complexion are short-lived, and the women speedily degenerate into uncomely hags. As in Maori land, so in Toda land, one finds a race of superb men coupled to hideous women, and, with the exception of the young girls, the fair sex is the male sex. Both men and women cover their bodies with a white mantle with blue and red lines, called putkîli, which is purchased in the Ootacamund bazar, and is sometimes decorated with embroidery worked by the Toda women. The odour of the person of the Todas, caused by the rancid butter which they apply to the mantle as a preservative reagent, or with which they anoint their bodies, is quite characteristic. With a view to testing his sense of smell, long after out return form Paikara, I blindfolded a friend who has accompanied me thither, and presented before his nose a cloth, which he at once recognised as having something to do with the Todas.

In former times a Badaga could be at once picked out from the other tribes of the Nílgiri plateau by his wearing a turban. At the present day, some Toda elders and important members of the community (e.g., monegars or headmen) have adopted this form of headgear. The men who were engaged as guides by Dr. Rivers and myself donned the turban in honour of their appointment.

Toda females are tattooed after they have reached puberty. I have seen multiparae, in whom the absence of tattoo marks was explained either on the ground that they were too poor to afford the expense of the operation, or that they were always suckling or pregnant-- conditions, they said, in which the operation would not be free from danger. The dots and 1 circles, of which the simple devices are made up, are marked out with lamp-black made into a paste with water, and the pattern is pricked in by a Toda woman with the spines of Berberis aristata. The system of tattooing and decoration of females with ornaments is summed up in the following cases:

1. Aged 22. Has one child. Tattooed with three dots on back of left hand. Wears silver necklet ornamented with Arcot two-anna pieces; thread and silver armlets ornamented with cowry (Cypraea moneta) shells on right upper arm; thread armlet ornamented with cowries on left forearm; brass ring on left ring finger; silver rings on right middle and ring fingers. Lobes of ears pierced. Ear-rings removed owing to grandmothers death.

2. Aged 28. Tattooed with a single dot on chin; rings and dots on chest, outer side of upper arms, back of left hand, below calves, above ankles, and across dorsum of feet. Wears thread armlet ornamented with young cowries on right forearm; thread armlet and two heavy ornamental brass armlets on left upper arm; ornamental brass bangle bead bracelet on left wrist; brass ring on left little finger; two steel rings on left ring finger; bead necklet ornamented with cowries.

3. Aged 35. Tattooed like the preceding, with the addition of an elaborate device of rings and dots on the back.

4. Aged 35. Linen bound round elbow joint, to prevent chafing of heavy brass armlets. Cicatrices of sores in front of elbow joint, produced by armlets.

5. Aged 23. Has one child. Tattooed only below calves, and above ankles.

[1] See Madras Museum Bull., IV, 1896. XII.

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The following are the more important physical measurements of the Toda men, whom I have examined:

Av.

Max.

Min.

CM.

CM.

CM.

Statue

169.8

186.8

157.6

Cephalic length

19.4

20.4

18.2

Do. breadth

14.2

15.2

13.3

Do. index

73.3

81.3

68.7

Nasal height

4.7

4.9

4.6

Do. breadth

3.6

3.8

3.4

Do. index

74.9

79.9

70.

Allowing that the cephalic index is a good criterion of racial or tribal purity, the following analysis of the Toda indices is very strinking. A thing of exceeding joy to the Todas was my Salter's hand-dynamometer, the fame of which spread from man to man, and which was circulated among the crowd at funerals. Great was the disgust of the assembled males, on a certain day, when the record of hand-grip for the morning (73 Ibs.) was carried off by a big-boned female, who became the unlovely heroine of the moment. The largest English feminine hand-grip, recorded in my laboratory note-book, is only 66 Ibs. One Toda man, of fine physique, not satisfied with his grip of 98 Ibs., went into training, and fed himself up for a few days. Thus prepared, he returned to accomplish 103 Ibs., the result of more skilful manipulation of the machine rather than of a liberal dietary of butter-milk.

The routine Toda dietary is said to be made up of the following articles, to which must be added strong drinks purchased at the toddy shops:

(a) Rice and boiled in whey.

(b) Rice and jaggery (crude sugar) boiled in water.

(c) Broth or curry made of vegetables purchased in the bazar, wild vegetables and pot-herbs, which, together with ground orchids, the Todas may often be seen rooting up with a sharp-pointed digging-stick on the hill-sides. The Todas scornfully deny the use of aphrodisiacs, but both men and women admit that they take sâlep misri boiled in milk, to make them strong. Sâlep misri is made from the tubers (testicles de chiens) of various species of Eulophia and Habenaria belonging to the natural order Orchideae.

The indigenous edible plants and pot-herbs include the following:

(1) Cnicus Wallichii (thistle). The roots and flower-stalks are stripped of their bark, and made into soup or curry.

(2) Girardinia heterophylla (Nílgiri nettle). The tender leafy shoots of vigorously growing plants are gathered, crushed by beating with a stick to destroy the stinging hairs, and made into soup or curry. The fibre of this plant, which is cultivated near the mands, is used for stitching the putkuli, with steel needles purchased in the bazar in lieu of the more primitive form. In the preparation of the fibre, the bark is thrown into a pot of boiling water, to which ashes have been added. After a few hours' boiling, the bark is taken out and the fibre extracted.

(3) Tender shoots of bamboos eaten in the form of curry.

(4) Alternanthera sessilis.

Stellaria media. Pot-herbs.

Amarantus spinosus.

Amarantus polygonoides.

The following list of plants, of which the fruits are eaten by the Todas, has been brought together by Mr. K. Rangachari:

Eugenia Arnottiana. - The dark purple juice of the fruit of this tree is used by Toda women for painting beauty spots on their faces.

Rubus ellipticus.

Rubus molucanus. Wild raspberry.

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Rubus lasiocarpus.

Fragaria nilgerrensis, wild strawberry.

Elaeagnus latifolia. Said by Dr. Mason to make excellent tarts and jellies.

Gaultheria fragrantissima.

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, hill gooseberry.

Loranthus neelgherrensis.

Loranthus lonicerondes. Parasitic on trees.

Elaeocarpus oblongus.

Elaeocarpus Munronii.

Berberis aristata.

Berberis nepalensis. Barberry.

Solanum nigrum.

Vaccinium Leschenaultii.

Vaccinium nilgherrense.

Toddalia aculeata.

Ceropegia pusilla.

To which may be added mushrooms. A list containing the botanical and Toda names of trees, shrubs, etc., used by the Todas in their ordinary life, or in their ceremonial, is given, by Dr. Rivers. [1]

Fire is, in these advanced days, obtained by the Todas in their dwelling huts for domestic purposes from matches. The men who came to be operated on with my measuring instruments had no hesitation in asking for a match, and lighting the cheroots which were distributed amongst them, before they left the Paikâra bungalow dining-room. Within the precincts of the dairy temple the use of matches is forbidden, and fire is kindled with the aid of two dry sticks of Litsaea Wightiana. Of these one, terminating in a blunt convex extremity, is about 2'3" long; the other, with a hemispherical cavity scooped out close to one end, about 2,5" in length. A little nick or slot is cut on the edge of the shorter stick, and connected with the hole in which the spindle stick is made to revolve. "In this slot the dust collects, and, remaining in an undisturbed heap, seemingly acts as a muffle to retain the friction until it reaches a sufficiently high temperature, when the wood-powder becomes incandescent."[2] Into the cavity in the short stick the end of the longer stick first, so as to allow of easy play. The smaller stick is placed on the ground, and held tight by firm pressure of the great toe, applied to the end furthest from the cavity, into which a little finely powdered charcoal is inserted. The larger stick is then twisted vigorously, "like a chocolate muller" (Tylor) between the palms of the hands by two men, turn and about, until the charcoal begins to glow. Fire, thus made, is said to be used at the sacred dairy (ti), the dairy houses of ordinary mands, and at the cremation of males. In an account of a Toda green funeral, [3] Mr. Walhouse notes that "when the pile was completed, fire was obtained by rubbing two dry sticks together. This was done mysteriously and apart, for such a mode of obtaining fire is looked upon as something secret and sacred." At the funeral of a female, I provided a box of tandstickors for lighting the pyre.

[1] Oo. cit. Appendix IV, 738.

[2] R. Bache. Royal Magazine, August 1901.

[3] Ind. Ant., III, 1874.

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A fire-stick, which was in current use in a dairy, was polluted and rendered useless by the touch of my Brâhman assistant! It is recorded by Harkness [1] that a Brâhman was not only refused admission to a Toda dairy, but actually driven away by some boys, who rushed out of it when they heard him approach. It is noted by Dr. Rivers that "several kinds of wood are used for the fire-sticks, the Toda names of these being kiaz or keadj (Litsaea Wightiana), mórs (Michelia Nilagirica), parskuti (Elaeagnus latifolia). He states further that, "whenever fire is made for a sacred purpose, the fire-sticks must be of the wood which the Todas call kiaz or keadj, except in the tesherot ceremony (qualifying ceremony for the office of palol) in which the wood of mulli is used. At the niroditi ceremony (ordination ceremony of a dairyman), "the assistant makes fire by friction, and lights a fire of mulli wood, at which the candidate warms himself." It is also recorded by Dr. Rivers that "in some Toda village, a tone is kept, called tutmîkal, which was used at one time for making fire by striking it with a piece of iron."

The abode of the Todas is called a mad or mand (village or hamlet), which is composed of huts, dairy temple, and cattle-pen, and has been so well described by Dr. Shortt [2] that I cannot do better than quote his account. "Each mand," he says, "usually comprises about five buildings or huts, and the other for sheltering the calves at night. These huts form a peculiar kind of oval tent-shaped [half-barrel-shaped] construction, usually 10 feet high, 18 feet long, and 9 feet broad. The entrance or doorway, measures 32 inches in height and 18 inches in width, and is not provided with any door or gate; but the entrance is closed by means of a solid slab or plank of wood from 4 to 6 inches thick, and of sufficient dimensions to entirely block up the entrance. This sliding door is inside the hut, and so arranged and fixed on two 1 stout stakes buried in the earth, and standing to the height of 2,5 to 3 feet, as to be easily moved to and fro. There are no other openings or outlets of any kind, either for the escape of smoke, or for the free ingress and egress of atmospheric air. The doorway itself is of such small dimensions that, to effect an entrance, one had to go down on all fours, and even then much wriggling is necessary before an entrance is effected. The houses are neat in appearance, and are built of bamboo closely laid together, fastened with rattan, and covered with thatch, which renders them water-tight. Each building has an end walling before and behind, composed of solid blocks of wood, and the sides are covered in by the pent-roofing, which slopes down to the ground. The front wall or planking contains the entrance or doorway. The inside of a hut is from 8 to 15 feet square, and is sufficiently high in the middle to admit a tall man moving about with comfort. On one side there is a raised platform or pial formed of clay, about two feet high, and covered with sâmbar (deer) or buffalo skins, or sometimes with a mat. This platform is used as a sleeping place. On the opposite side is a fire place, and a slight elevation, on which the cooking utensils are placed. In this part of the building, faggots of firewood are seen piled up from floor to roof, and secured in their place by loops of rattan. Here also the rice-pounder or pestle is fixed. The mortar is formed by a hole dug in the ground, 7 to 9 inches deep, and hardened by constant use. The other household goods consist of three or four brass dishes or plates, several bamboo measures, and sometimes a hatchet. Each hut or dwelling is surrounded by an enclosure or wall formed of loose stones piled up two or three feet high [with openings too narrow to permit of a buffalo entering through it]. The dairy and usually contains two compartments separated by a centre planking. One part of the dairy is a store-house for ghee, milk and curds, contained in separate vessels. The outer apartment forms the dwelling place of the dairy priest. The doorways of the dairy are smaller than those of the dwelling huts. The flooring of the dairy is level, and at one end there is a fireplace. Two or three milk pails or pots are all that it usually contains. The dairy is usually situated at some little distance from the habitations. The huts where the calves are kept are simple buildings, somewhat like the dwelling huts. In the vicinity of the mands are the cattle-pens or tuels [tu], which are circular enclosures surrounded by a loose stone wall, with a single entrance guarded by powerful stakes.

[1] Description of a singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting the summit of the Neilgherry Hills, 1832.

[2] Op. cit.

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In these, the herds of buffaloes are kept at night. Each mand possesses a herd of these animals." It is noted by Dr. Rivers that "in the immediate neighbourhood of a village there are usually well-worn paths, by which the village is approached, and some of these paths or kalvol receive special names. Some may not be traversed by women. Within the village there are also certain recognised paths, of which two are specially important. One, the punetkalvol, is the path by which the dairy man goes from his dairy to milk or tend the buffaloes; the other is the majvatitthkalvol, the path which the women must use when going to the dairy to receive butter-milk (maj) from the dairy man. Women are not allowed to go to the dairy or to other places connected with it, except at appointed times, when they receive buttermilk."

In addition to the dairies which in form resemble the dwelling-huts, the Todas keep up as dairy-temples certain curious conical edifices, of which there are said to be four on the Nílgiri plateau, viz., at the Muttanâd mand, near Kotagiri, near Sholîr, and at Mudimand. The last was out of repair a few years ago, but was, I was informed, going to be rebuilt shortly. It is suggested by Dr. Rivers as probable that in many cases a dairy, originally of the conical form, has been rebuilt in the same form as the dwelling-hut, owing to the difficulty and extra labour of reconstruction in the older shape. The edifice at the Muttanâd mand (or Nódrs), at the top of the Sígîr ghât, is known to members of the Ootacamund Hunt as the Toda cathedral. It has a circular stone base and a tall conical thatched roof crowned with a large flat stone, and is surrounded by a circular stone wall. To penetrate within the sacred edifice was forbidden, but we were informed that it contained milking vessels, dairy apparatus, and a swâmi in the guise of a copper bell (mani). The dairyman is known as the varzhal or wursol. In front of the cattle-pen of the neighbouring mand, I noticed a grass-covered mound, which, I was told, is sacred. The mound contains nothing buried within it, but the bodies of the dead are placed near it, and earth from the mound is placed on the corpse before it is removed to the burning-ground. At "dry funerals" the buffalo is said to be slain near the mound. It has been suggested by Colonel Marshall [1] that the "boa or boath [poh.] is not a true Toda building, but may be the bethel of some tribe contemporaneous with, and cognate to the Todas, which, taking refuge, like them, on these hills, dies out in their presence."

Despite the hypothesis of Dr. Rivers that the Todas are derived from one or more of the races of Malabar, their origin is buried among the secrets of the past. So too is the history of the ancient builders of cairns and barrows on the Nílgiri plateau, which were explored by Mr. 2 Breeks when Commissioner of the Nílgiris. [2] The bulk of the Breeks' collection is now preserved in the Madras Museum, and includes a large series of articles in pottery, quite unlike anything known from other parts of Southern India. Concerning this series, Mr. R. Bruce Foote writes as follows. [3] "The most striking objects are tall jars, many-storied cylinders, of varying diameter with round or conical bases, fashioned to rest upon pottery ring-stands, or to be stuck into soft soil, like the amphorae of classical times. These jars were surmounted by domed lids. On these lids stood or sat figures of the most varied kind of men, or animals, much more rarely of inanimate objects, but all modelled in the rudest and most grotesque style. Grotesque and downright ugly as are these figures, yet those representing men and women are extremely interesting from the light they throw upon the stage of civilization their makers had attained to, for they illustrate the fashion of the garments as also of the ornaments they wore, and of the arms or implements carried by them. The animals they had domesticated, those they chased, and others that they probably worshipped, are all indicated. Many figures of their domestic animals, especially their buffaloes and sheep, are decorated with garlands and bells, and show much ornamentation, which seems to indicate that they were painted over, a custom which yet prevails in many parts."

[1] A Phrenologist among the Todas, 173. J. W. Breeks.

[2] Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monument of the Nilgiris, 1873.

[3] Catalogue of the Prehistoric Antiquities, Government Museum, Madras, 1901.

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Among the most interesting figures are those of heavily bearded men riding on horses, and big-horned buffaloes which might have been modelled from the Toda buffaloes of to-day, and, like these at funerals and migration ceremonies, bear a bell round the neck.

Two forms of Toda dairy have so far been noticed. But there remains a third kind, called the ti mand, concerning which Dr. Rivers writes as follows. "The ti is the name of an institution, which comprises a herd of buffaloes, with a number of dairies and grazing districts, tended by a dairy-man priest called palol, with an assistant called kaltmokh. Each dairy, with its accompanying buildings and pasturage, is called a ti mad, or ti village. The buffaloes belonging to a ti are of two kinds, distinguished as persiner and punir. The former are the sacred buffaloes, and the elaborate ceremonial of the ti dairy in some respects to the putiir of the ordinary village, dairy, and their milk and its products are largely for the personal use and profit of the palol, and are not treated with any special ceremony. During the whole time he holds office, the palol may not visit another ti village. Any business with the outside world is done either through the kaltmokh, or with people who come to visit him at the ti. If the palol has to cross a river, he may not pass by a bridge, but must use a ford, and it appears that he may only use certain fords. The palol must be celibate, and, if married, he must leave his wife, who is in most cases also the wife of his brother or brothers." I visited the ti mand near Paikâra by appointment, and, on arrival near the mand, found the two palols, well-built men aged about thirty and fifty, clad in black cloths, and two kaltmokhs, youths aged about eight and ten, naked save for a loin-cloth, seated on the ground, awaiting our arrival. As a mark of respect to the palols, the three Todas who accompanied me arranged their putkîlis so that the right arm was laid bare, and one of them, who was wearing a turban, removed it. A long palaver ensued in consequence of the palols demanding ten rupees to cover the expenses of the purificatory ceremonies, which, they maintained, would be necessary if I desecrated the mand by photographing it. Eventually, however, under promise of a far smaller sum, the dwelling-hut was photographed, with palols, kaltmokhs, and a domestic cat seated in front of it.

In connection with the palol being forbidden to cross a river by a bridge, it may be noted that the river which flows past the Paikâra bungalow is regarded as sacred by the Todas, and, for fear of mishap from arousing the wrath of the river god, a pregnant Toda woman will not venture to cross it. The Todas will not use the river water for any purpose, and they do not touch it unless they have to ford it. They then walk through it, and, on reaching the opposite bank, bow their heads. Even when they walk over the Paikâra bridge, they take their hand out of the putkîli as a mark of respect. Concerning the origin of the Paikâra river, a grotesque legend was narrated to us. Many years ago, the story goes, two Todas, uncle and nephew, went out to gather honey. After walking for a few miles they separated, and proceeded in differed directions. The uncle was unsuccessful in the search, but the more fortunate nephew secured two kandis (bamboo measures) of honey. This, with a view to keeping it all for himself, he secreted in a crevice among the rocks, with the exception of a very small quantity, which he made his uncle believe was the entire product of his search. On the following day, the nephew went alone to the spot where the honey was hidden, and found, to his disappointment, that the honey was leaking through the bottom of the bamboo measures, which were transformed into two snakes. Terrified at the sight thereof, he ran away, but the snakes pursued him (may be they were hamadryads, which have the reputation of pursuing human beings). After running a few minutes, he espied a hare (Lepus nigricollis) running across his course, and, by a skilful manceuvre, threw his body-cloth over it. Mistaking it for a man, the snakes followed in pursuit of the hare, which, being very fleet of foot, managed to reach the sun, which became obscured by the hoods of the reptiles. This fully accounts for the solar eclipse. The honey, which leaked out of the vessels, became converted into the Paikâra river.

In connection with the migrations of the herds of buffaloes, Dr. Rivers writes as follows. "At certain seasons of the year, it is customary that the buffaloes both of the village and the ti should migrate from one place to another.

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Sometimes the village buffaloes are accompanied by all the inhabitants of the village; sometimes the buffaloes are only accompanied by their dairy-man and one of more male assistants. There are two chief reasons for these movements of the buffaloes, of which the most urgent is the necessity for new grazing-places. The other chief reason for the migrations is that certain villages and dairies, formerly important and still sacred, are visited for ceremonial purposes, or out of respect to ancient custom." For the following note on a buffalo migration which he came across, I am indebted to Mr. H. C. Wilson. "During the annual migration of buffaloes to the Kundahs, and when they were approaching the bridle-path leading from Avalanché to Sispâra, I witnessed an interesting custom. The Toda family had come to a halt on the far side of the path; the females seated themselves on the grass, and awaited the passing of the sacred herd. This herd, which had travelled by a recognised route across country, has to cross the bridle-path some two or three hundred yards above the Avalanché-Sispâra sign-post. Both the ordinary and sacred herd were on the move together. The former passed up the Sispâra path, while the latter crossed in a line, and proceeded slightly down the hill, eventually crossing the stream and up through the valley. As soon as the sacred herd had crossed the bridle-path, the Toda men, having put down all their household utensils, went to where the women and girls were sitting, and carried them, one by own, over the place where the buffaloes had passed, depositing them on the path above. One of the men told me that the females are not allowed to walk over the track covered by the sacred herd, and have to be carried whenever it is necessary to cross it. This herd has a recognised tract when migrating, and is led by the old buffaloes, who appear to know the exact way."

The tenure under which lands are held by the Todas is summed up as follows by Mr. R. S. Benson in his report on the revenue settlement of the Nilgiris, 1885. "The earliest settlers, and notably Mr. Sullivan, strongly advocated the claim of the Todas to the absolute proprietary right to the plateau [as lords of the soil]; but another school, led by Mr. Lushington, has strongly combated these views, and apparently regarded the Todas as merely occupiers under the ryotwari system in force generally in the Presidency. From the earliest times the Todas have received from the cultivating Badagas an offering or tribute, called gudu or basket of grain, partly in compensation for the land taken up by the latter for cultivation, and so rendered unfit for grazing purposes, but chiefly as an offering to secure the favour, or avert the displeasure of the Todas, who, like the Kurumbas (q.v.), are believed by the Badagas to have necromantic powers over their health and that of their herds. The European settlers also bought land in Ootacamund from them, and to this day the Government pays them the sum of Rs. 150 per mensem, as compensation for interference with the enjoyment of their pastoral right in and about Ootacamund. Their position was, however, always a matter of dispute, until it was finally laid down in the despatch of the Court of Directors, dated 21st January, 1843. It was then decided that the Todas possessed nothing more than a prescriptive right to enjoy the privilege of pasturing their herds, on payment of a small tax, on the State lands. The Court desired that they should be secured from interference by settlers in the enjoyment of their mands, and of their spots appropriated to religious rites. Accordingly pattas were issued, granting to each mand three bullahs (11.46 acres) of land. In 1863 Mr. Grant obtained permission to make a fresh allotment of nine bullahs (34;38 acres) to each mand on the allotment condition that the land should be used for pasturage only, and that no right to sell the land or the wood on it should be thereby conveyed. It may added that the so-called Toda lands are now regarded as the inalienable common property of the Toda community, and unauthorised alienation is checked by the imposition of a penal rate of assessment (G.O., 18th April 1882). Up to the date of this order, however, alienations by sale or lease were of frequent occurrence. It remains to be seen whether the present orders and subordinate staff will be more adequate than those that went before to check the Toda lands, Government took up the management of these lands in 1893, and framed rules, under the Forest Act, for their management, the rights of the Todas over them being in no way affected by the rules.

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In 1905, the Todas petitioned Government against the prohibition by the local Forest authorities of the burning of grass on the downs, issued on the ground of danger to the shólas (wooded ravines or groves). This yearly burning of the grass was claimed by the Todas to improve it, and they maintained that their cattle were deteriorating for want of good fodder. Government ruled that the grass on the plateau has been burnt by the inhabitants at pleasure for many years without any appreciable damage to forest growth, and the practice should not be disturbed.

Concerning the social organisation of the Todas, Mr. Breeks states that they are "divided into two classes, which cannot intermarry, viz., Dévalyâl and Tarsezhâl. The first class consists of Peiki class, corresponding in some respects to Brâhmans; the second of the four remaining classes the Pekkan, Kuttan, Kenna, and Todi. A Peiki woman may not go to the village of the Tarserzha`l, although the women of the latter may visit Peikis." The class names given by Mr. Breeks were readily recognised by the Todas whom I interviewed, but they gave Térthâl (comprising superior Peikis) and Târthâl as the names of the divisions. They told me that, when a Târthâl woman visits her friends at a Târthâl mand, she is not allowed to enter the mand, but must stop at a distance from it. Todas as a rule cook their rice in butter-milk, when a Térthâl woman pays a visit to Tarthâl mand, rice is cooked for her in water. When a Tarthâl woman visits at a T¡érthâl mand, she is permitted to enter into the mand, and food is cooked for her in buttermilk. The restrictions which are imposed on Térthâl women are said to be due to the fact that on one occasion a Térthâl woman, on a visit at a Tarthâl mand, folded up a cloth, and placed it under her putkîli as if it was a baby. When food was served, she asked for some for the child, and on receiving the mild joke, accordingly agreed to degrade all Térthâl women. According to Dr. Rivers, "the fundamental feature of the social organisation is the division of the community into two perfectly distinct groups, the Tartharol and the Teivaliol [=Dévalyâl of Breeks]. There is a certain amount of specialisation of function, members of the Teivaliol. The Tartharol and Teivaliol are two endogamous divisions of the Toda people. Each of these primary divisions is sub-divided into a number of secondary divisions [clans]. These are exogamous. Each class possesses a group of villages, and takes its name from the chief of these villages, Etudmad. The Tartharol are divided into twelve clans, the Teivaliol into six clans or madol." When a girl has reached the age of puberty, she goes through an initiatory ceremony, in which a Toda man of strong physique takes part. One of these splendid specimens of human muscularity was introduced to me on the occasion of a phonograph recital at the Paikâra bungalow.

Concerning the system of polyandry as carried out by the Todas. Dr. Rivers writes as follows. "The Todas have long been noted as a polyandrous people, and the institution of polyandry is still in full working order among them. When the girl becomes the wife of a boy, it is usually understood that she becomes also the wife of his brothers. In nearly every case at the present time, and in recent generations, the husbands of a woman are his own brothers. In a few cases, though not brothers, they are of the same clan. Very rarely do they belong to different clans. One of the interesting features of Toda polyandry is the method by which it is arranged who shall be regarded as the father of a child. For all social and legal purpose, the father of a child is the man who performs a certain ceremony about the seventh month of pregnancy, in which an imitation bow and arrow are given to the woman. When the husbands are brothers, the eldest brother usually gives the bow and arrow, and is the father of the child, though, so long as the brothers live together, the other brothers are also regarded as fathers. It is in the cases in which the husbands are not brothers that the ceremony becomes of real social importance. In these cases, it is arranged that one of the husbands shall give the bow and arrow, and this man is the father, not only of the child born shortly afterwards, but also of all succeeding children, till another husband performs the essential ceremony. Fatherhood is determined so essentially by this ceremony that a man who has been dead for several years is regarded as the father of any children born by his widow, if no other man has given the bow and arrow.

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There is no doubt that, in former times, the polyandry of the Todas was associated with female infanticide, and it is probable that the latter custom still exists to some extent, though strenuously denied. There is reason to believed that women are now more plentiful than formerly, though they are still in a distinct minority. Any increase, however, in the number of women does not appear to have led to any great diminution of polyandrous marriages, but polyandry is often combined with polygyny. Two or more brothers may have two or more wives in common. In such marriages, however, it seems to be a growing custom that one brother should give the bow and arrow to one wife, and another brother to another wife."

The pregnancy ceremony referred to above is called pursutpimi, or 'bow (and arrow) we touch.' According to the account given to me by several independent witnesses, the woman proceeds, accompanied by members of the tribe, on a new moon-day in the fifth or seventh month of her pregnancy, to a shola, where she sits with the man who is to become the father of her child near a kiaz tree (Eugenia Arnottiana). The man asks the father of the woman if he may bring the bow, and, on obtaining his consent, goes in search of a shrub (Sophora glauca), from a twig of which he makes a mimic bow. The arrow is represented by a blade of grass called nark (Andropogon Schaenanthus). Meanwhile a triangular niche has been cut in the kiaz tree, in which a lighted lamp is placed. The woman seats herself in front of the lamp, and, on the return of the man, asks thrice "Whose bow is it?" or "What is it?" meaning to who, or to which mand does the child belong? The bow and arrow are handed to the woman, who raised them to her head, touches her forehead with them, and places them near the tree. From this moment the lawful father of the child is the man from whom she has received the bow and arrow. He places on the ground at the foot of the tree some rice, various kinds of grain, chillies, jaggery (crude sugar), and salt tied in a cloth. All those present then leave, except the man and woman, who remain near the tree till about six o'clock in the evening, when they return to the mand. The time is determined, in the vicinity of Ootacamund, by the opening of the flowers of Onothera tetraptera (evening primrose), a garden escape called by the Todas âru mani pîv (six o'clock flower), which opens towards evening. [1] It may be noted that, at the second funeral of a male, a miniature bow and three arrows are burnt with various other articles within the stone circle (azaram).

A few years ago (1902), the Todas, in petition to Government, prayed for special legislation to legalise their marriages on the lines of the Malabar Marriage Act. Te Government was of opinion that legislation was unnecessary, and that it was open to such of the Todas as were willing to sign the declaration prescribed by section 10 of the Marriage Ac 111 of 1872 to contract legal marriages under the provision of that Act. The Treasury Deputy Collector of the Nílgiris was appointed Registrar of Toda marriages. No marriage has been registered up to the present time.

The practice of infanticide among the Todas is best summed up in the words of a aged Toda during an interview with Colonel Marshall. [2] "I was a little boy when Mr. Sullivan (the first English pioneer of the Nilgiris) visited these mountains. In those days it was the custom to kill children, but the practice has long since died out, and now one never hears of it. I don't know whether it was wrong or not go kill them, but we were very poor, and could not support out children. Now every one has a mantle (putkuli), but formerly there was only one for the whole family. We did not kill them to please any god, but because it was our custom. The mother never nursed the child, and the parents did not kill it. Do you think we could kill it ourselves? They tell lies who say we laid it down before the opening of the buffalo-pen, so that it might be run over and killed by the animals. We never did such things, and it is nonsense that we drowned it in buffalo's milk. Boys were never killed-- only girls; not those who were sickly and deformed-- that would be a sin; but, when we had one girl, or in some families two girls, those that followed were killed.

[1] I have seen this plant growing on the grass in front of the Paikâra bungalow.

[2] Op. cit.

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An old woman (kelachi) used to take the child immediately it was born, and close its nostrils, ears, and mouth with a cloth. It would shortly droop its head, and go to sleep. We then buried it in the ground. The kelachi got a present of four annas for the deed." The old man's remark about the cattle-pen refers to the Malagasy custom of placing a new-born child at the entrance to a cattle-pen, and then driving the cattle over it, to see whether they would trample on it or not. [1] The Missionary Metz [2] bears out the statement that the Toda babies were killed by suffocation.

At the census, 1901, 453 male and 354 female Todas were returned. In a note on the proportion of the sexes among the Todas, Mr. R. C. Punnett states [3] that "all who have studied the Todas are agreed upon the frequency of the practice (of infanticide) in earlier times. Marshall, writing in 1872, refers to the large amount of female infanticide in former years, but expresses his conviction that the practice had by that time died out. Marshall's evidence is that of native assurance only. Dr. Rivers, who received the same assurance, is disinclined to place much confidence in native veracity with reference to this point, and, in view of the lack of encouragement which the practice receives from the Indian Government, this is not altogether surprising. The supposition of female infanticide, by accounting for the great disproportion in the numbers of the sexes, brings the Todas into harmony with what is known of the rest of making." In summarising his conclusions, Mr. Punnett notes that:

(1) Among the Todas, males predominate greatly over females.

(2) This preponderance is doubtless due to the practice of female infanticide, which is probably still to some extent prevalent.

(3) The numerical preponderance of the males has been steadily sinking during recent years, owning probably to the check which foreign intercourse has imposed upon female infanticide.

Death ceremonies In connection with the death ceremonies of the Todas, Dr. Rivers notes that "soon after death the body is burnt, and the general name for the ceremony on this occasion is etvainolkedr, the first day funeral. After an interval, which may vary greatly in length, a second ceremony is performed, connected with certain relics of the deceased which have been preserved from the first occasion. The Toda name for this second funeral ceremony is marvainolkedr, the second day funeral, or 'again which day funeral.' The funeral ceremonies are open to all, and visitors are often invited by the Todas. In consequence, the funeral rites are better known, and have been more frequently described than any other features of Toda ceremonial. Like nearly every institution of the Todas, however, they have become known to Europeans under their Badaga names. The first funeral is called by the Badagas hase kedu, the fresh or green funeral, and the term 'green funeral' has not only become the generally recognised name among the European inhabitants of the Nilgiri hills, but has been widely adopted in anthropological literature. The second funeral is called by the Badagas bara kedu, the 'dry funeral,' and this term also has been generally adopted." The various forms of the funeral ceremonies are discussed in detail by Dr. Rivers, and it must suffice to describe those at which we have been present as eye-witnesses.

I had the opportunity of witnessing the second funeral of a woman who had died from smallpox two months previously. On arrival at a mand on the open downs about five miles from Ootacamund, we were conducted by a Toda guide to the margin of a dense shola, where we found two groups seated apart, consisting of (1) women, girls, and brown-haired female babies, round a camp fire; (2) men, boys, and male babies, carried, with marked sings of paternal affection, by their fathers. In a few minutes a murmuring sound commenced in the centre of the female group.

Working themselves up to the necessary pitch, some of the women (near relatives of the deceased) commenced to cry freely, and the wailing and lachrymation gradually spread round the circle until all, except little girls and babies who were too young to be affected, were weeping and mourning, some for fashion, others from genuine grief.

[1] Ellis. History of Madagascar.

[2] Tribes inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, By a German missionary, 1856.

[3] Proc. Cambridge Philosoph Soc, XII, 1904.

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In carrying out the orthodox form of mourning, the women first had a good cry to themselves, and then, as their emotions became more intense, went-round the circle, selecting partners with whom to share companionship in grief. Gradually the group resolved itself into couplets of mourners, each pair with their heads in contact, and giving expression to their emotions in unison. Before separation to select a new partner, each couple saluted by bowing the head, and raising thereto the feet of the other, covered by the putkîl. [I have seen women rapidly recover from the outward manifestations of grief, and clamour for money.] From time to time the company of mourners was reinforced by late arrivals from distant mands, and, as each detachment, now of men and now of women, came in view across the open downs, one could not fail to be reminded of the gathering of the clans on some Highland moor. The resemblance was heightened by the distant sound as of pipers, produced by the Kota band (with two police constables in attendance), composed of four Kotas, who made a weird noise with drums and flutes as they drew near the scene of action. The band, on arrival, took up a position close to the mourning women. As each detachment arrived, the women, recognising their relatives, came forward and saluted them in the manner customary among Todas by falling at their feet, and placing first the right and then the left foot on their head. Shortly after the arrival of the band, signals were exchanged, by waving of putkîlis, between the assembled throng and a small detachment of men some distance off. A general move was made, and an impromptu procession formed, with men in front, the band in the middle, and women bringing up the rear. A halt was made opposite a narrow gap leading into the shola; men and women sat apart as before; and the band walked round, discoursing unsweet music. A party of girls went off to bring fire from the spot just vacated for use in the coming ceremonial, but recourse was finally had to a box of matches lent by one of our party. At this stage we noticed a woman go up to the eldest son of the deceased, who was seated apart from the other men, and would not be comforted in spite of the efforts to console him. An elderly Toda produced a piece of the skull of the dead woman, wrapped round with long tresses of her hair. It now became the men's turn to exhibit active signs of grief, and all of one accord commenced to weep and mourn. Amid the scene of lamentation, the hair was slowly unwrapped from the skull, and burned in an ladle, from which a smell as of incense arose. A bamboo pot of ghí was produced, with which the skull was reverently anointed, and placed in a cloth spread on the ground. To this relic of the deceased the throng of men, amid a scene of wild excitement, made obeisance by kneeling down before it, and touching it with their foreheads. The females were not permitted to witness his stage of the proceedings, with the exception of one or two near relatives of the departed one, who supported themselves sobbing against the tree. The ceremonial concluded, the fragment of skull, wrapt in the cloth, was carried into the open, where, as men and boys had previously done, women and girls made obeisance to it. A procession was then again formed, and marched on until a place was reached, where were two stone-walled kraals, large and small. Around the former the men, and within the latter the women, took up their position, the men engaging in chit-chat, and the women in mourning, which after a time ceased, and they too engaged in conversation. A party of men, carrying the skull, still in the cloth, set out for a neighbouring shola, where a kédu of several other dead Todas was being celebrated; and a long pause ensued, broken eventually by the arrival of the other funeral party, the men advancing in several lines, with arms linked, and crying out 'U, hah! U, hah, hah!' in regular time. This party brought with it pieces of the skulls of a woman and two men, which were placed, wrapt in cloths, on the ground, saluted, and mourned over by the assembled multitude. At this stage a small party of Kotas arrived, and took up their position on a neighbouring hill, waiting, vulture-like, for the carcase of the buffalo which was shortly to be slain. Several young men now went off across the hill in search of buffaloes, and speedily re-appeared, driving five buffaloes before them with sticks. As soon as the beasts approached a swampy marsh at the foot of the hill on which the expectant crowd of men was gathered together, two young men of athletic build, throwing off their putkîlis, made at rush down the hill, and tried to seize one of the buffaloes by the horns, with the result that one of them was promptly thrown.

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The buffalo escaping, one of the remaining four was quickly caught by the horns, and, with arms interlocked, the men brought it down on its knees, amid a general scuffle. In spite of the animal -- a barren cow-- it was, by means of sticks freely applied, slowly dragged up the hill, preceded by the Kota band, and with a Toda youth pulling at its tail. Arrived at the open space between the kraals, the buffalo, by this time thoroughly exasperated, and with blood pouring from its nostrils, had a cloth put on its back and was despatched by a blow on the poll with an axe deftly wielded by a young and muscular man. On this occasion no one was badly hurt by the sacrificial cow, though one man was seen washing his legs in the swamp after the preliminary struggle with the beast. But Colonel Ross-King narrates how he saw a man receive a dangerous would in the neck from a thrust of the horn, which ripped open a wide gash from the collar-bone to the ear. With the death of the buffalo, the last scene, which terminated the strange rites, commenced; men, and children pressing forward and jostling now another in their eagerness to salute the dead beast by placing their hands between its horns, and weeping and mourning in pairs; the facial expression of grief being mimicked when tears refused to flow spontaneously The ceremonial connected with the final burning of the relics and burial of the ashes a the stone circle (azaram) are described in detail by Dr. Rivers.

A few days after the ceremony just described, I was invited to be present at the funeral of a young girl who had died of smallpox five days previously. I proceeded accordingly to the scene of the recent ceremony, and there, in company with a small gathering to Todas from the neighbouring mands, awaited the arrival of the funeral corte`ge, the approach of which was announced by the advancing strains of Kota music. Slowly the procession came over the brow of the hill; the corpse, covered by a cloth, on a rude ladder-like bier, borne on the shoulders of four men, followed by two Kota musicians; the mother carried hidden within a sack; relatives and men carrying bags of rice and jaggery, and bundles of wood of the kiaz tree (Eugenia Arnottiana) for the funeral pyre. Arrived opposite a small hut, which had been specially built for the ceremonial, the corpse was removed from the bier, laid on the ground, face upwards, outside the hut, and saluted by men, women, and children, with the same manifestations of grief as on the previous occasion. Soon the men moved away to a short distance, and engaged in quiet conversation, leaving the females to continue mourning round the corpse, interrupted from time to time by the arrival of detachments from distant mands, whose first duty was to salute the dead body. Meanwhile a near female relative of the dead child was busily engaged inside the hut, collecting together in a basket small measures of rice, jaggery, sago, honey-comb, and the girl's simple toys, which were subsequently to be burned with the corpse. The mourning ceasing after a time, the corpse was placed inside the hut, and followed by the near relatives, who there continued to weep over it. A detachment of men and boys, who had set out in search of the buffaloes which were to be sacrificed, now returned driving before them three cows, which escaped from their pursuers to rejoin the main herd. A long pause ensued, and, after a very prolonged drive, three more cows were guided into a marshy swamp, where one of them was caught by the horns, and dragged reluctantly, but with little show of fight, to the strains of Kota drum and flute, in front of the hut, where it was promptly despatched by a blow on the poll. The corpse was now brought from within the hut, and placed, face upwards, with its feet resting on the forehead of the buffalo, whose neck was decorated with a silver chain, such as is worn by Todas round the loins, as no bell was available, and the horns were smeared with butter. Then followed frantic manifestations of grief, amid which the unhappy mother fainted. Mourning over, the corpse was made to go through a form of ceremony, resembling that which is performed during pregnancy with the first child. A small boy, three years old, was selected from among the relatives of the dead girl, and taken by his father in search of a certain grass (Andropogon Schaenanthus) and a twig of a shrub (Sophora glauca), which were brought to the spot where the corpse was lying. The mother of the dead child then withdrew one of its hands from the putkîli, and the boy placed the grass and twig in the hand, and limes, plantains, rice, jaggery, honey-comb, and butter in the pocket of the putikîli, which was then stitched with needle and thread in a circular pattern. The boy's father then took off his son's putkîli, and replaced it so as to cover him from head to foot.

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Thus covered, the boy remained outside the hut till the morning of the morrow, watched through the night by near relatives of himself and his dead bride. [On the occasion of the funeral of an unmarried lad, a girl is in like manner selected, covered with her putkîli from head to foot, and a metal vessel filled with jaggery, rice, etc., to be subsequently burnt on the funeral pyre, placed for a short time within the folds of the putkîli. Thus covered, the girl remains till next morning, watched through the dreary hours of the night by relatives. The same ceremony is performed over the husband acting as such for the last time, in the vain hope that the woman may produce issue in heaven]. The corpse was borne away to the burning-ground within the shola, and after removal of some of the hair by the mother of the newly wedded boy, burned, with face upwards, amid the music of the Kota band, the groans of the assembled crowd squatting on the ground, and the genuine grief, a portion of the skull was removed from the ashes, and handed over to the recently made mother-in-law of the dead girl, and wrapped up with the hair in the bark of the tîd tree (Meliosma pungens). A second buffalo, which, properly speaking, should have been slain before the corpse was burnt, was then sacrificed, and rice and jaggery were distributed among the crowd, which dispersed, leaving behind the youthful widower and his custodians, who, after daybreak, partook of a meal of rice, and returned to their mands; the boy's mother taking with her the skull and hair to her mand, where it would remain until the celebration of the second funeral. No attention is paid to the ashes after cremation, and they are left to be scattered by the winds.

A further opportunity offered itself to be present at the funeral of an elderly woman on the open downs not far from Paikâra, in connection with which certain details possess some interest. The corpse was, at the time of our arrival, laid out on a rude bier within am improvised arbour covered with leaves and open at each end, and tended by some of the female relatives. At some little distance, a conclave of Toda men, who rose of one accord to greet us, was squatting in a circle, among whom were many venerable white-turbaned elders of the tribe, protected from the scorching sun by palm-leaf umbrellas. Amid much joking, and speech-making by the veterans, it was decided that, as the eldest son of the deceased woman was dead, leaving a widow, this daughter-in-law should be united to the second son, and that they should live together as man and wife. On the announcement of the decision, the bridegroom-elect saluted the principal Todas present by placing his head on their feet, which were sometimes concealed within the ample folds of the putkîli. At the funeral of a married woman, three ceremonies must, I was told, be performed, if possible, by a daughter or daughter-in-law, viz:

(1) Tying a leafy branch of the tiviri shrub (Atylosia Candolleana) in the putkîli of the corpse;

(2) Tying balls of thread and cowry shells on the arm of the corpse, just above the elbow;

(3) Setting fire to the funeral pyre, which was, on the present occasion, done by lighting a rag fed with ghí with a match.

The buffalo capture took place amid the usual excitement, and with freedom from accident; and, later in the day the stalwart buffalo catchers turned up at the travellers' bungalow for a pourboire in return, as they said, for treating us to a good sight. The beasts selected for sacrifice were a full-grown cow and a young calf. As they were dragged near to the corpse, now removed from the arbour, butter was smeared over the horns, and a bell tied round the neck. The bell was subsequently removed by Kotas, in whose custody, it was said, it was to remain till the next day funeral. The death-blow, or rather series of blows, having been delivered with the butt end of an axe, the feet of the corpse were placed at the mouth of the buffalo. In the case of a male corpse, the right hand is made to clasp the horns. [It is recorded by Dr. Rivers that, at the funeral of a male, men dance after the buffalo is killed. In the dancing a tall pole, called tadri or tadrsi, decorated with cowry shells, is used.] The customary mourning in couples concluded, the corpse, clad in four cloths, was carried on the stretcher to a clear space in the neighbouring shola, and placed by the side of the funeral pyre, which had been rapidly piled up. The innermost cloth was black in colour, and similar to that worn by a palol.

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Next to it came a putkîli decorated with blue and red embroidery, outside which again was a plain white cloth covered over by a red cotton cloth of European manufacture . Seated by the side of the pyre, near to which I was courteously invited to take a seat on the stump of a rhododendron, was an elderly relative of the dead woman, who, while watching the ceremonial, was placidly in the manufacture of a holly walking-stick with the aid of a glass scraper. The proceedings were watched on behalf of Government by a forest guard, and a police constable who, with marked affectation, held his handkerchief to his nose throughout the ceremonial. The corpse was decorated with brass rings, and within the putkîli were stowed jaggery, a scroll of paper adorned with cowry shells, snuff and tobacco, cocoanuts, biscuits, various kinds of grain, ghí, honey, and a tin-framed looking-glass. A long purse, containing a silver Japanese yen and an Arcot rupee of the East India Company, was tied up in the putkîli close to the feet. These preliminaries concluded, the corpse was hoisted up, and swung three times over the now burning pure, above which a mimic bier, made of slender twigs, was held. The body was then stripped of its jewelry, and a lock of hair cut off by the daughter-in-law for preservation, together with a fragment of the skull. I was told that, when the corpse is swung over the pyre, the dead person goes to amnodr (the world of the dead). In this connection, Dr. Rivers writes that "it would seem as if this ceremony of swinging the body over the fire was directly connected with the removal of the objects of value. The swinging over the fire would be symbolic of its destruction by fire; and this symbolic burning has the great advantage that the objects of value are not consumed, and are available for use another time. This is probably the real explanation of the ceremony, but it is not the explanation given by the Todas themselves. They say that long ago, about 400 years, a man supposed to be dead was put on the funeral pyre, and, revived by the heat, he was found to be alive, and was able to walk away from the funeral place. In consequence of this, the rule was made that the body should always be swung three times over the fire before it is finally placed thereon." [Colonel Marshall narrates the story that a Toda who had revived from what was thought his deathbed, has been observed parading about, very proud and distinguished looking, wearing the finery with which he had been bedecked for his own funeral, and which he would be permitted to carry till he really departed this life.] As soon as the pyre was fairly ablaze, the mourners, with the exception of some of the female relatives, left the shóla, and the men, congregation on the summit of a neighbouring hill, invoked their god. Four men, seized, apparently in imitation of the Kota Dévâdi, with divine frenzy, began to shiver and gesticulate wildly, while running blindly to and fro with closed eyes and shaking fists. They then began to talk in Malayâlam, and offer an explanation of an extraordinary phenomenon, which had appeared in the form of a gigantic figure, which disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. At the annual ceremony of walking through fire (hot ashes) in that year, two factions arose owing to some dissension, and two sets of ashes were used. This seems to have annoyed the gods, and those concerned were threatened with speedy ruin. But the whole story was very vague. The possession by some Todas of a smattering of Malayâlam is explained by the fact that, when grazing their buffaloes on the northern and western slops of the Nílgiris, they come in contact with Malayâlam-speaking people from the neighbouring Malabar district.

At the funeral of a man (a leper), the corpse was placed in front of the entrance to a circle of loose stones about a yard and a half in diameter, which had been specially constructed for the occasion. Just before the buffalo sacrifice, a man of the Paiki clan standing near the head of the corpse, dug a hole in the ground with a cane, and asked a Kenna who was standing on the other side, "Puzhut, Kenna?" [1] -- "shall I throw the earth?"-- three times. To which the Kenna, answering, replied "Puzhut"-- "throw the earth"-- thrice. The Paiki then threw some earth three times over the corpse, and three times into the miniature kraal. It is suggested by Dr. Rivers that the circle was made to do duty for a buffalo pen, as the funeral was held at a place where there was no tu (pen), from the entrance of which earth could be dug up.

[1] "Puzhutkina-Shall I throw earth?" Rivers.

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Several examples of laments relating to the virtues and life of the deceased, which are sung or recited in the course of the funeral ceremonies, are given by Dr. Rivers. On the occasion of the reproduction of a lament in my phonograph, two young women were seen to be crying bitterly. The selection of the particular lament was unfortunate, as it had been sung at their father's funeral. The reproduction of the recitation of a dead person's sins at a Badaga funeral quickly restored them to a state of cheerfulness.

A Whit Monday at Paikâra was given up to an exhibition of sports and games, whereof the most exciting and interesting was a burlesque representation of Toda funeral by boys and girls. A Toda, who was fond of his little joke, applied the term pacchai kédu (green funeral) to the corpses of the flies entrapped by a viscous "catch'em-alive-oh" on the bungalow table. To the mock funeral rites arrived a party of youths, as from a distant mand, and crying out U, hah, in shrill mimicry of their elders. The lad who was to play the leading part of sacrificial buffalo, stripping off his putkîli, disappeared from sight over the brow of a low hillock. Above this eminence his bent and uplifted upper extremities shortly appeared as representatives of the buffalo horns. At sight thereof, there was a wild rush of small boys to catch him, and a mimic struggle took place, while the buffalo was dragged, amid good-tempered scuffling, kicks, and shouting, to the spot where the corpse should have been. This spot was, in the absence of a pseudo-dead body or stage dummy, indicated by a group of little girls, who had sat chatting together till the boy-beast arrived, when they touched foreheads, and went, with due solemnity, through the orthodox observance of mourning in couples. The buffalo was slain by a smart tap on the back of the head with a cloth, which did duty for an axe. As soon as the convulsive movements and twitchings of the death struggle were over, the buffalo, without waiting for an encore, retired behind the hillock once more, in order that the rough and tumble fight, which was evidently the chief charm of the game, might be repeated. The buffalo boy later on came in second in a flat race, and he was last seen protecting us from a mischievous-looking member of his herd, which was grazing on the main-road. Toda buffaloes, it may be noted, are not at all popular with members of the Ootacamund Hunt, as both horses and riders from time to time receive injuries from their horns, when they come in collision. While the funeral game was in progress, the men showed off their prowess at a game (eln),[1] corresponding to the English tip-cat, which is epidemic at a certain season in the London bye-streets. It is played with a bat like a broomstick, and a cylindrical piece of wood pointed at both ends. The latter is propped up against a stone, and struck with the bat. At it flies off the stone, it is hit to a distance with the bat, and caught (or missed) by the out fields. At the Muttanâd mand, we were treated to a further exhibition of games. In one of these, called narthpimi, a flat slab to stone is supported horizontally on two other slabs fixed perpendicularly in the ground so as to form a narrow tunnel, through which a man can just manage to wriggle his body with difficulty. Two men take part in the game, one stationing himself at a distance of about thirty yards, the other about sixty yards from the tunnel. The front man, throwing off his mantle, runs as hard as he can to the tunnel, pursued by the 'scratch' man, whose object is to touch the other man's feet before he has squeezed himself through the tunnel. Another sport, which we witnessed, consists of a trial of strength with a heavy globular stone, the object being to raise it up to the shoulder; but a strong, well-built man-- he who was entrusted with slaying the funeral buffalo-- failed to raise it higher than the pit of the stomach, though straining his muscles in the attempt. A splendidly made veteran assured me that, when young and lusty, he was able to accomplish the feat, and spoke sadly of degeneration in the physique of the younger members of the tribe. Mr. Breeks mentions that the Todas play a game resembling puss-in-the corner, called kâriâlapimi, which was not included in the programme of sports got up for our benefit. Dr. Rivers writes that "the Todas, and especially the children, often play with mimic representations of objects from practical life.

[1] Called by Breeks ilata, which, Dr. Rivers suggests, is a Badaga name.

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Near the villages I have seen small artificial buffalo-pens and fireplaces made by the children in sport." I have, on several occasions, come across young children playing with long and short pieces of twigs representing buffaloes and their calves, and going solemnly through the various incidents in the daily life of these animals. Todas, both old and young, may constantly be seen twisting flexible twigs into representations of buffaloes.

Of Toda songs, the following have been collected:

Sunshine is increasing. Mist is fast gathering.

Rain may come. Thunder roars. Clouds are gathering.

Rain is pouring. Wind and rain have combined.

Oh, powerful god, may everything prosper!

May charity increase!

May the buffaloes become pregnant!

See that the buffaloes have calves.

See that the barren women have children.

Go and tell this to the god of the land.

Keygamor, Eygamor (names of buffaloes).

Evening is approaching. The buffaloes are coming.

The calves also have returned.

The buffaloes are saluted.

The dairy-man beats the calves with his stick.

Milk has been offered to the bell.

It is growing dark.

This is a buffalo with beautiful horns.

A buffalo stupidly given away by the Badaga.

A buffalo brought to the Kândal mand.

Innerovya (name of buffalo).

Like this buffalo there is no other.

Parkur (name of a Toda).

Like him there is no man.

The sun is shining. The wind is blowing.

Rain is coming. the tress are in flower.

Tears are falling. The nose is burning.

He is coming, holding up his umbrella.

He is coming, wearing a good body-cloth.

He is coming, wearing a good under-cloth.

He (the palol) is coming, wearing a black cloth.

He is coming, holding his walking-stick of palai wood.

I have a god. What is to become of me?

I am inclined to cry, my heart being heavy.

Oh, my child! Do not cry. It is still crying.

Thuree. Thuree. See. Be quiet.

A robust bull buffalo. Ach! Ach!

A big buffalo not intended for killing. Ach! Ach!

Is leading the cow buffalo. Ah! Ah!

Two or three men are driving it. Ah! Ah!

Song in honour of the arrival of the Maharâni-Regent of Mysore at Ootacamund.

All we Todas go to her house, and dance before her.

She gives us fifteen rupees.

She comes near our women, and talks to them.

She give cloths to us.

Next day we take milk, eight bottles in the morning, four in the evening.

Month by month she pays us for our milk.

She goes back to Mysore, and, when she goes, we stand in a row before her.

She gives us presents; cloths can three rupees.

The women cut their hair, and stand before her.

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Marriage Song.

Boys and girls are singing.

Much money are they spending.

To the girl her father is giving five buffaloes.

The husband tells his wife that she must curl her hair.

If her hair is curled, all the people will rejoice.

The buffalo is slain, and now we must all dance.

Why are not more people here? More should come.

My buffalo is big, very big.

Go quickly and catch it.

The Todas are all there. They are standing in a row.

Who will run, and catch the buffalo first?

To him will a present of five rupees be given.

I will go and catch it first.

The Todas are all fighting.

The Todas are all fighting.

People give them rice.

The buffalo is coming. Two men run to catch it by the neck.

Ten men collect the buffaloes. They pen them in a kraal.

At one o'clock we take our food.

The buffalo is running, and I hit it on the back with a stick.

It swerves aside, but I drive it back to the path.

Night comes, and we all dance.

Next morning at ten o'clock we bring out the buffalo, and slay it.

At four in the morning we wrap rice and grain in a white cloth, and burn it.

At eleven we cut the hair of the boys and girls.

At four in the morning the priest goes to the temple (dairy).

He lights the lamp.

At eight he milks his buffaloes.

He puts on no cloth.

He places butter and ghí before the god.

Then he graze his buffaloes, and eats his food.

Then he puts on his cloth.

At three in the afternoon he goes again to the temple.

He kindles a fire, and lights the lamp.

He puts milk in a chatty, and churns it into butter with a cane.

He mixes water with the butter-milk, and gives it to the women to drink.

He alone may sleep in the temple.

At four in the morning he lets out the buffaloes to graze.

At seven he milks them.

The woman's house is down the hill.

The priest must not go in unto the woman.

He may not marry.

When he is twenty, he may not enter the temple.

Another is made priest in his stead.

The religious institutions of the Todas, including the elaborate dairy ritual, and their religion, are described in full detail by Dr. rivers. The Todas have been to some extent influenced by Hinduism, and some visit the temples at Nanjengód in Mysore, Karamadai in the Coimbatore district, and other shrines, where they worship, present votive offerings, and pray for offspring, etc. Writing in 1872, Mr. Breeks remarked that "about Ootacamund, a few Todas have latterly begun to imitate the religious practices of their native neighbours.

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Occasionally children's foreheads are marked with the Siva spot, and my particular friend Kinniaven, after an absence of some days, returned with a shaven head from a visit to the temple of Siva at Nanjengudi." A man who came to my laboratory had his hair hanging down in long tails reaching below his shoulders. He had, he said, let in grow long because his wife, though married five years, had borne no child. A child had however, recently been born, and, as soon as he was going funeral of a relation had been performed, he was going to sacrifice his locks as a thank-offering at the Nanjengód temple. The following extracts from my notes will serve to illustrate the practice of marking (in some instances apparently for beauty's sake) and shaving as carried out at the present day.

(1) Man, aged 28. Has just performed a ceremony at the ti mand. White curved line painted across forehead, and dots below outer ends thereof, on glabella, and outside orbits. Smeared with white across chest, over outer side of upper arms and left nipple, across knuckles and lower end of left ulna, and lobes of ears. (2) Man, aged 21. Painted on forehead as above. Smeared over chest and upper eye lids.

(3) Man, aged 35. White spot painted on forehead.

(4) Man aged, 30. Hair of head and beard cut short owing to death of grandfather.

(5) Boy, aged 12. Shock head of hair, cut very short all over owing to death of grandfather.

(6) Girl, aged 8. Hair shaved on top, back and sides of head, and in median strip from vertex to forehead.

(7) Boy, aged 6. White spot painted between eyebrows. Hair shaved on top and sides of head, and in median strip from vertex to forehead. Hair brought forward in fringe over forehead on either side of median strip, and hanging down back of neck.

(8) Male child, aged 18 months. White spot painted between eyebrows. Shaved on top and sides of head.

The Toda have been returned from the state of Karnataka also, where their population is 131 (1981 census).

Tottivans.: -or Tottiyans. A nomadic group which breed pigs, beg and they are also snake charmers. They say that they were shepherds in the past. In the past the Tottiyans boys were married to elderly women. The father of the boy cohabited with his daughter in law and raised children for his son. They live specially in Tamil Nadu.

Tottiyan.:-In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis writes that the Tottiyans are "Telugu cultivators . [1] The Tottiyans or Kambalattâns of the Tanjore district are, however, said to be vagrants, and to live by pig-breeding, snake-charming, and begging. So are the sub­division called Kâttu Tottiyans in Tinnevelly. The headman among the Tinnevelly Tottiyans is called Mandai Periadanakkâran or Sérvaikâran. Their marriages are not celebrated in their houses, but in pandals(booths) of green leaves erected for the purpose on the village common. However wealthy the couple may be, the only grain which they may eat at the wedding festivities is either cumbu(Pennisetum typhoideum) or house-gram(Dolichos biflorus). The patron deities of the caste are Jakkamma and Bommakka, two women who committed sati. The morality of their women is loose. The custom of marrying boys to their paternal aunt's or maternal uncle's daughter, however old she may be, also prevails, and in such cases as the bride is considerably older than the boy, the bridegroom's father is said to take upon himself the duty of begetting children to his own son. Divorce is easy, and remarriage is freely allowed. They offer rice and arrack(alcoholic liquor) to their ancestors. The Kâttu Tottiyans will eat jackals, rats and the leavings of other people. Tottiya women will not eat in the houses of Brâhmans, but no explanation of this is forthcoming. The men wear silver anklets on both legs, and also a bracelet upon one of the upper arms, both of which practices are uncommon, while the women wear bangles only on the left arm, instead of on both usual.

[1] See Thurston

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Some of the Zamindars in Madura belong to this caste. The caste title is Nâyakkan." At the census, 1901, Kudulukkâran was returned as a sub-caste of the Tottiyans in Madura and Tinnevelly. The Urumikkâran, meaning those who play on the drum called urumi, are said to be Tottiyans in Madura and Paraiyans elsewhere.

"The Tottiyans or Kambalattâns," Mr. H.A. Stuart writes, [1] "are a caste of Telugu cultivators settled in the districts of Madura, Tinnevelly, Coimbatore and Salem. They are probably the descendants of poligars and soldiers of the Nâyakkan kings of Vijayanagar, who conquered the Madura country about the beginning of the sixteenth century. As regards the origin of their caste, the Tottiyans say with pride that they are the descendants of the eight thousand gópastris(milkmaids) of Krishna-- a tradition which seems to indicate that their original occupation was connected with the rearing and keeping of cattle. The most important sub­divisions are Kollar and Erkollar, the Tamil form of the Telugu Golla and Yerragolla, which are now shepherd castes, though probably they formerly had as much to do with cattle as sheep. Another large sub-division is Kille or Killavar, which I take to be a corruption of the Telugu kilâri, a herdman. The bride and bridegroom, too, are always seated on bullock saddles. They do not wear the sacred thread. Most of them are Vaishnavites, some of whom employ Brâhman priests, but the majority of them are guided by gurus of their own, called Kodângi Nâyakkan. [It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that caste matters used to be settled by the Méttu Nâyakkan or headman, and a Kodângi Nâyakkan, or priest, so called because he carried a drum.] Each family has its own household deity, which appears to be a sort of representation of departed relations, chiefly women who have burned themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands, or have led a chaste and continent life, or died vestals. Their girls are married after they have attained maturity. Adultery is no crime when committed within the family circle, but a liaison with an outsider involves expulsion from the caste. It is said that their newly married girls are even compelled to cohabit with their husband's near relatives. [It is further said to be believed that ill-luck will attend any refusal to do so, and that, so far from any disgrace attaching to them in consequence, their priests compel them to keep up the custom, if by any chance they are unwilling ] [2] The pongu tree (Pongamia glabra) is the sacred tree of the caste. Sati was formerly very common, and the remarriage of widows is discouraged, if not actually forbidden. The dead are generally burned. Both men and women are supposed to practice magic, and are on that account much dreaded by the people generally. They are especially noted for their power of curing snake­bites by means of mystical incantations, and the original inventor of this mode of treatment has been deified under the name Pâmbalamman. They are allowed to eat flesh. The majority speak Telugu in their houses."

The traditional story of the migration of the Tottiyans to the Madura district is given in several of the Mackenzie manuscripts, and is still repeated by the people of the caste. "Centuries ago, says this legend, the Tottiyans lived to the north of the Tungabhadra river. The Muhammadans there tried to marry their women, and make them eat beef. So one fine night they fled southwards in a body. The Muhammadans pursued them, and their path was blocked by a deep and rapid river. They had just given themselves up for lost when a pongu (Pongamia glabra) tree on either side of the stream leant forward, and, meeting in the middle, made a bridge across it. Over this they hurried, and, as soon as they had passed, the trees stood erect once more, before the Mussulmans could similarly cross by them. The Tottiyans in consequence still reverence the pongu tree, and their marriage pandals (booths) are always made from its wood. They travelled on until they came to the city of Vijayanagar, under whose king they took service, and it was in the train of the Vijayanagar armies that they came to Madura."[3]

[1] Madras Census Report, 1891.

[2] Manual of the Madura district.

[3] Gazetteer of the Madura district.

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The Tottiyans are most numerous in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts, and include two grades in the social scale. Of these, one consists of those who are engaged in cultivation, and petty Zamindars. The other is made up of those who wander about begging, and doing menial work. Between the two classes there is neither interdining nor intermarriage. In districts other than Madura and Tinnevelly, the name Tottiyan is applied by Tamil-speaking castes to the Jógis, who are beggars and pig breeders, and, like the Tottiyans, speak Telugu. The following legend is current, to account for the division of the Tottiyans into two sections. They once gave a girl in marriage to a Muhammadan ruler, and all the Tottiyans followed him. A large number went to sleep on one side of a river, while the rest crossed, and went away. The latter are represented today by the respectable section, and the begging class is descended from the former. To this day the Muhammadans and Tottiyans of the Trichinopoly district are said to address each other as if they were relations, and to be on terms of unusual intimacy.

In the Madura district, the Tottiyans are apparently divided into three endogamous sections, viz., Vékkili, Thokala, and Yerrakolla, of which the last is considered inferior to the other two. Other names for the Vékkili section are Kambalattar, or Râja Kambalattar. In some places, e.g., in Tinnevelly, there seem to be six divisions, Thokala, Chilla or Silla, Kolla, Narasilla, Kânthikolla and Pâla. Of these, Pâla may intermarry with Chilla, but the other four are endogamous. As examples of exogamous septs occurring among the Yerrakollas may be noted Chíkala (broom), and Udama (lizard, Varanus), of which the latter also occurs as an exogamous sept of the Kâpus.

In the neighbourhood of Nellakota in the Madura district, the Yerrakollas have a group of seven septs called Révala, Gollavírappa, Kambli-nayudi, Karadi (bear), Uduma, Chila, and Gelipithi. Intermarriage between these is forbidden, as they are all considered as blood-relations, and they must marry into a group of seven other septs called Gundagala, Bîsala, Manni, Sukka, Alivírappa, Sikka, and Mâdha. The names of these septs are remembered by a system of mnemonics.

In a note on the Tottiyans of the Trichinopoly district, Mr. F.R. Hemingway writes as follows. "Three endogamous sub-divisions exist in the caste, namely, the Erra (red) Gollas or Pedda Inti (big family), the Nalla (black) Gollas or Chinna Inti (small family), and Vâlus, who are also called Kudukuduppai Tottiyans. The Vâlus are said to be a restless class of beggars and sorcerers. The red Gollas are, as a rule, fairer than the blacks (whence perhaps the names). The women of the former wear white cloths, while those of the latter do not. Again, they tie their hair in different ways, and their ornaments differ a good deal. The red women carry no emblem of marriage at all, while the black women wear the pottu. The reds allow their widows to remarry, but the blacks do not. Both sections have exogamous sections, called Kambalams-the reds fourteen, and the blacks nine. The reds are divided, for purposes of caste discipline, into nine nâdus and the blacks into fourteen mandais. Each village is under a headman called the Œr-Nâyakan, and each nâdu or mandai under a Pattakâran. The former decide petty disputes, and the latter the more serious cases. The Pattakâran is treated with great deference. He is always saluted with clasped hands, ought never to look on a corpse, and is said to be allowed to consort with any married woman of the caste."

The Tottiyans are supposed to be one of the nine Kambalam (blanket) castes, which, according to one version, are made up of Kâppiliyans, Anappans, Tottiyans, Kurubas, Kummaras, Parivârams, Urumikkârans, Mangalas, and Chakkiliyans. According to another version, the nine castes are Kâppiliyan, Anappan, Tottiyan, Kolla Tottiyan, Kuruba, Kummara, Médara, Oddé, and Chakkiliyan. At tribal council-meetings, representatives of each of the nine Kambalams should be present. But, for the nine castes, some have substituted nine septs. The Vekkiliyans seem to have three headmen, called Mettu Nâyakan, Kodia Nâyakan, and Kambli Nâyakan, of whom the first mentioned is the most important, and acts as priest on various ceremonial occasions, such as puberty and marriage rites, and the worship of Jakkamma and Bommakka.

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The Kambli Nâyakan attends to the purification of peccant or erring members of the community, in connection with which the head of a sheep or goat is taken into the house by the Kambli Nâyakan. It is noted, in the Gazetter of the Madura district, that "persons charged with offences are invited to prove their innocence by undergoing ordeals. These are now harmless enough such as attempting to cook rice in a pot which has not been fired, but Turnbull says that he saw the boiling oil ordeal in 1813 in Pudukkóttai territory. Perhaps the most serious caste offence is adultery with a man of another community. Turnbull says that women convicted of this used to be sentenced to be killed by Chakkiliyans, but nowadays rigid excommunication is the penalty." The Kambalam caste is so called because, at caste council meetings, a kambli (blanket) is spread, on which is placed a kalasam (brass vessel) filled with water, and containing margosa (Melia Azadirachla) leaves, and decorated with flowers. Its mouth is closed by mango leaves and a coconut.

A correspondent writes to me that "the Zamindars in the western parts of Madura, and parts of Tinnevelly, are known as Kambala Palayapat. If a man belongs to a Zamindar's family, he is said to be of the Râja Kambala caste. The marriage ceremony is carried out in two temporary huts erected outside the village, one for the bridegroom, the other for the bride. The tâli is tied round the bride's neck by an elderly female or male belonging to the family. If the marriage is contracted with a woman of an inferior class, the bridegroom's hut is not made use of and he does not personally take part in the ceremony. A dagger(kattar), or rude sword, is sent to represent him, and the tâli is tied in the presence thereof."

In a zamindari suit, details of which are published in the Madras Law Reports, Vol. XVII, 1894, the Judge found that the plaintiff's mother was married to the plaintiff's father in the dagger from: that a dagger is used by the Saptîr Zamindars, who are called Kattari Kamaya, in the case of inequality in the caste or social position of the bride: that, though the customary rites of the Kambala caste were also performed, yet the use of the dagger was an essential addition: and that, though she was of a different and inferior caste to that of the plaintiff's father, yet that did not invalidate the marriage. The defendant's argument was that the dagger was used to represent the Zamindar bridegroom as he did not attend in person, and that, by his non-attendance, there could have been no joining of hands, or other essential for constituting a valid marriage. The plaintiff argued that the nuptial rites were duly performed, the Zamindar being present: that the dagger was there merely as an ornament: and that it was customary for people of the Zamindar's caste to have a dagger paraded on the occasion of marriages. The Judge found that the dagger was there for the purpose of indicating that the two ladies, whom the Zamindar married, were of an inferior caste and rank.

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that, when a Tottiyan girl attains maturity, "she is kept in a separate hut, which is watched by a Chakkiliyan. Marriage is either infant or adult. A man has the usual claim to his paternal aunt's daughter, and so rigorously is this rule followed that boys of tender years are frequently married to grown women. These latter are allowed to consort with their husband's near relations, and the boy is held to be the father of any children which may be born. Weddings last three days, and involve very numerous ceremonies. They take place in a special pandal erected in the village, on either side of which are smaller pandals for the bride and bridegroom. Two uncommon rites are the slaughtering of a red ram without blemish, and marking the foreheads of the couple with its blood, and the pursuit by the bridegroom, with a bow and arrow, of a man who pretends to flee, but is at length captured and bound. The ram is first sprinkled with water, and, if it shivers, this, as usual, is held to be a good omen. The bride-price is seven kalams of kumbu (Pennisetum typhoideum), and the couple may eat only this grain and horse-gram until the wedding is over. A bottu (marriage badge) is tied round the bride's neck by the bridegroom's sister."

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Concerning the marriage ceremonies of the Yerrakollas, I gather that, on the betrothal day, kumbu must be cooked. Food is given to seven people belonging to seven different septs. They are then presented with betel leaves and areca nuts and four annas tied in a cloth, and the approaching marriage is announced. On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom are seated on planks on the marriage dais, and milk is sprinkled over them by people of their own sex. A few hours later, the bridegroom takes his seat in the pandal, whither the bride is brought in the arms of her maternal uncle. She sits by the side of the bridegroom, and the Mettu Nâyakan links together the little fingers of the contracting couple, and tells them to exchange rings. This is the binding portion of the ceremony, and no bottu is tied round the bride's neck. At a marriage among the Vekkiliyans, two huts are constructed in an open space outside the village, in front of which a pandal is erected, supported by twelve posts, and roofed with leafy twigs of the pongu tree and Mimusops hexandra. On the following day, the bride being sometimes carried in the arms of her maternal uncle, they worship the ancestral heroes, who are represented by new cloths folded and placed on a tray. The bridegroom's sister ties the bottu on the bride's neck inside her hut, in front of which kumbu grain is scattered. Betel and a fanam (coin) are placed in the bride's lap. On the third day the bridegroom is dressed up, and, mounting a horse, goes, accompanied by the marriage pots, three times round the huts. He then enters the bride's hut, and she is carried in the arms of the cousins of the bridegroom thrice round the huts. The contracting couple then sit on planks, and the cousins, by order of the Mettu Nâyakan, link their little fingers together. They then enter the bridegroom's hut, and a mock ploughing ceremony is performed. Coming out from the hut, they take up a child, and carry it three times round the huts. This is, it is said, done because, in former days, the Tottiyan bride and bridegroom had to remain in the marriage huts till a child was born, because the Mettu nâyakan was so busy that he had no time to complete the marriage ceremony until nearly a year had elapsed.

At wedding among the nomad Tottiyans, a fowl is killed near the marriage (aravéni) pots, and with its blood a mark is made on the foreheads of the bride and bridegroom on their entry into the booths. The Vekkiliyans sacrifice a goat or sheep instead of a fowl, and the more advanced among them substitute the breaking of a cocoanut for the animal sacrifice.

In connection with marriage, Mr. Hemingway writes that " the Tottiyans very commonly marry a young boy to a grown woman, and, as among the Konga Vellâlas, the boy's father takes the duties of a husband upon himself until the boy is grown up. Married women are allowed to bestow their favours upon their husband's relations, and it is said to be an understood thing that a man should not enter his dwelling, if he sees another's slippers placed outside as a sign that the owner of them is with the mistress of the house. Intercourse with men of another caste is, however, punished by expulsion, and widows and unmarried girls who go astray are severely dealt with. Formerly, it is said, they were killed."

At a Tottiyan funeral, fire is carried to the burning gound by a Chakkiliyan, and the pure is lighted, not by the sons, but by the sammandhis (relations by marriage).

The Tottiyans of the Madura district observe the worship of ancestors, who are represented by a number of stones set up somewhere within the village boundaries. Such places are called mâle. According to Mr. Hemingway, when a member of the caste dies, some of the bones are buried in this shed, along with a coin, and a stone is planted on the spot. The stones are arranged in an irregular circle. The circles of the Yerrakollas are exceedingly simple, and recall to mind those of the Nâyâdis of Malabar, but without the tree. The stones are set up in an open space close to the burning-ground. When a death occurs, a stone is erected among the ashes of the deceased on the last day of the funeral ceremonies (karmândhiram), and worshipped. It is immediately transferred to the ancestral circle. The mâlé of the Vekkiliyan section of the Tottiyans consists of a massive central wooden pillar, carved with male and female human figures, set up in a cavity in a round boulder, and covered over by a conical canopy supported on pillars.

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When this canopy is set in motion, the central pillar, which is about ten feet high, a number of stones of different sizes are set up. The central pillar represents Jakkamma and other remote ancestors. The surrounding stones are the representatives of those who have died in recent times. Like the Yerrakollas, the Vekkiliyans erect a stone on the Karmândhiram day at the spot where the body was cremated, but, instead of transferring it at once to the ancestral circle, they wait till the day of periodical mâlé worship, which, being an expensive ceremonial, may take place only once in twelve years. If the interval is long, the number of stones representing those who have died meanwhile may be very large. News of the approaching mâlé worship is sent to the neighbouring villages, and on the appointed day, people of all castes pour in, bringing with them several hundred bulls. The hosts supply their guests with fodder, pots, and a liberal allowance of sugar-cane. Refusal to bestow sugar-cane freely would involve failure of the object of the ceremonial. After the completion of the worship, the bulls are let loose, and the animal which reaches the mâlé first is decorated, and held in reverence. Its owner is presented with cloths, money, etc. The ceremony may be compared with that of selecting the king bull among the Kâppiliyans.

Self-cremation is said [1] to have been "habitually practised by Tottiya widows in the times anterior to British domination: and great respect was always shown to the memory of such as observed the custom. Small tombs termed thipanjankóvil (fire-torch temple) were erected in their honour on the high-roads, and at these oblations were once a year offered to the names of the deceased heroines. Sati was not, however, compulsory among them, and, if a widow lived at all times a perfectly chaste and religious life, she was honoured equally with such as performed the rite." It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that "sati was formerly very common in the caste, and the two caste goddesses Jakkamma and Bommayya, are deifications of women who thus sacrificed themselves. Every four years a festival is held in their honour, one of the chief events in which is a bullock race. The owner of the winning animal receives a prize, and gets the first betel and nut during the feast. The caste god is Perumâl, who is worshipped in the form of a curry grinding stone. The story goes that, when the Tottiyans were fleeing to the south, one of their women found her grinding-stone so intolerably heavy that she threw it away. It, however, re-appeared in her basket. Thrown away again, it once more re-appeared, and she then realised that the caste god must be accompanying them."

"The Tottiyans," Mr. Hemingway writes, "do not recognise the superiority of Brâhmans, or employ them as priests at marriages or funerals. They are deeply devoted to their own caste deities. Some of these are Bommaka and Mallamma (the spirits of women who committed sati long ago), Vírakâran or Víramâti (a bridegroom who was killed in a fight with a tiger), Pattâlamma (who helped them in their flight from the north), and Mâlai Tambirân, the god of ancestors. Muttalamma and Jakkamma are also found. Mâlai Tambirân is worshipped in the mâlé. The Tottiyans are known for their uncanny devotion to sorcery and witchcraft. All of them are supposed to possess unholy powers, especially the Nalla Gollas, and they are much dreaded by their neighbours. They do not allow any stranger to enter their villages with shoes on, or on horseback, or holding up an umbrella, lest their god should be offended. It is generally believed that, if any one breaks this rule, he will be visited with illness or some other punishment."

The Tottiyans have attached to them a class of beggars called Pichiga vâdu, concerning whose origin the following legend is narrated. There were, once upon a time, seven brothers and a sister belonging to the Irrivâru exogamous sept. The brothers went on a pilgrimage to Benares, leaving their sister behind. One day, while she was bathing, a sacred bull(Nandi) left its sperm on her cloth, and she conceived. Her condition was noticed by her brothers on their return, and, suspecting her of immorality, they were about to excommunicate her. But they discovered some cows in calf as the result of parthenogenesis, and six of the brothers were satisfied as to the girl's innocence. The seventh, however, required further proof. After Manual of the Madura district. the child was born, it was tied to a branch of a dead chilla tree (Stuychnos potatorum), which at once burst into leaf and flower. The doubting brother became a cripple, and his descendants are called Pichiga vâru, and those of the baby Chilla vâru.

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Turaihas.: -They are ceremonial drummers and musicians in Uttar Pradesh,

Turi.: -A non-Aryan caste of cultivators [1], basket makers and bamboo-workers of Chota Nagpur, numbering at the recent Census 45,000, being distributed over several districts in small numbers, but fully half of the caste reside in Hazaribagh. They are divided into four subcastes, which again are split up into a large number of septs of clearly totemistic origin. The septs closely resemble those of the Mundas, and it is probable that the caste consists of infusions of members of various races who have adopted the profession of workers in bamboo. They are usually indistinguishable physically and in their speech from the people among whom they have made their homes, and there can be no doubt but that many pose as Mundas, Uraons and Kharias when tendering themselves as recruits for Assam. Their religion is closely akin to that of the Mundas which has been discussed at length in the article on that tribe.

Turi.: -a non-Aryan caste of cultivators, workers in bamboo, and basket-makers in Chota Nagpur .[2] The physical type of the Turi, their language, and their religion, place it beyond doubt that they are a Hinduised offshoot of the Mundas In Lohardaga, where the caste is most numerous, it is divided into four sub-castes-- Turi or Kisan-Turi, Or, Dom, and Domra-- distinguished by the particular modes of basket and bamboo-work which they practise. Thus the Turi or Kisan-Turi, who are also cultivators and hold bhuinhari land make the sup, a winnowing sieve made of sirkl, the upper joint of Saccharum procerum; the tokri or tokiya, a large open basket of split bamboo twigs woven up with the fibre of the leaves of the tal palm; the sair and nadua, used for catching fish. The Ors are said to take their name from the oriya basket used by the sower, and made of split bamboo sometimes helped out with tal fibre. They also make umbrellas, and the chhotka dali or dala, a flat basket with vertical sides used for handling grain in small quantities. Doms make the harka and scale-pans (taraju). Domars make the peli and fans. Turis frequently reckon in as a fifth sub-caste the Birhors, who cut bamboos and make the sikas used for carrying loads slung on a shoulder-yoke (bahangi), and a kind of basket called phanda. Doms and Domras speak Hindu; Turis, Ors, and Birhors use among themselves a dialect of Mundari. All these sub-castes profess to be strictly endogamous; but a Turi can marry the daughter of an Or provided that she is formally admitted into the Turi sub-caste. This is effected by her lover giving a feast to the leading men of the local caste community. Members of other castes who have taken to themselves Turi women and have been ejected from their own group may be admitted on similar terms.

Marriage.

The sections of the Turis are for the most part totemistic, and correspond closely with those in force among the Mundas. The rule of exogamy extends only to a man's own section, and is supplemented by the standard table of prohibited degrees. Except in Hinduised and comparatively wealthy families, whose tendency is to affect infant-marriage, girls usually marry as adults. Free courtship is recognized, and sexual license before marriage tolerated.

[1] See Hand Book.

[2] Risley

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Both youths and maidens are said, however, to lead purer lives than the Oraons, owing, it is suggested, to the fact that they do not frequent the dancing ground (akhra), and are thus less exposed to the temptations of the flesh. Before a marriage can be celebrated the consent of the heads of the Madalwar and Surinwar sections, who are known respectively as Raja and Thakur, is obtained, and a bride price of Rs. 2-8 is paid. The village pahan attends, and the head of the Charchagiya section officiates as priest. Sindurdan is the binding portion of the ceremony. Polygamy is permitted, the only limit to the number of wives a man may have being his ability to maintain them. A widow may marry again by the sagai form, and it is usual for her to marry her husband's younger brother if there is one. Sindur is not used in the sagai ceremony as practised by the Turis. The essential points are the consent of the chief relatives and the presentation to the bride of a new cloth and a lac armlet. Divorce is allowed, and divorced women may marry again.

Religion.

The original religion of the Turis is beyond doubt closely akin to the form of animism current among the Mundas and described at length in the article on that tribe. In many villages, indeed, they hold the office of pahan. Baranda Bhut and Bura-Buri are held in special reverence. Of late years large numbers of Turis have embraced the tenets of the deistic sect, known to its members as Sri-Narayani, from the name of God, and to outsiders as Siva-Narayani, from the name of its founder, a Rajput of Ghazipur, who lived early in the eighteenth century. These however, who call themselves Sri-Narayan Panthis, have by no means broken with the animistic faith of their ancestors, and in cases of illness have recourse to the regular aboriginal methods on propitiating the spirit who is believed to be afflicting them.

Social status.

Turis will eat cooked food with Mundas and Oraons, take sweetmeats from Ahirs and Telis, and water from the Or sub-caste. They will smoke only with members of their own sub-caste. For the rest they are as lax in matters of diet as the Mundas and Oraons. Sri-Narayanis abstain from the flesh of animals which have died a natural death, and from spirituous liquors.

Turi.:-A non-Aryan caste [1] of cultivators, workers in bamboo, and basket-markers, to the Chota Nagpur plateau. They number about 4000 persons in Raigarh, Sarangarh and the States recently transferred from Bengal. The physical type of the Turis, Sir H. Risley states, their religion place it beyond doubt that they are a Hinduised offshoot of the Munda tribe. They still speak a dialect from Mundari, and their principal deity is Singbonga or the sun, the great god of the Mundas: "In Lohardaga where the caste is most numerous, it is divided into four subcastes-- Turi or Kisan-Turi, Or, Dom, and Domra-- distinguished by the particular modes of basket and bamboo-work which they practise. Thus the Turi or Kisan-Turi, who are also cultivators and hold bhuinhari land, make the sup, a winnowing sieve made of sirki, the upper joint of Saccharum procerum; the tokri or tokiya, a large open basket of split bamboo twigs woven up with the fibre of the leaves of the tal palm; the sair and nadua, used for catching fish. The Ors are said to take their name from the Oriya basket used by the sower, and made of split bamboo, sometimes helped out with tal fibre. They also make umbrellas, and the chhota dali or dala, a flat basket with vertical sides used for handling grain in small quantities. Doms make the harka and scale-pans (taraju) . Domras make the peti and fans. Turis frequently reckon in as a fifth subcaste the Birhors, who cut bamboos and make the sikas used for carrying loads slung on a shoulder-yoke (Bhangi), and a kind of basket called phanda. Doms and Domras speak Hindi; Turis, Ors and Birhors use among themselves a dialect of Mundari."[2]

[1] See Russell.

[2] Tribes and castes of Bengal, art. Turi.

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Subdivisions.

In Raigarh and Sarangarh of the central Provinces the above subcastes are not found, and there are no distinct endogamous groups; but the more Hinduised members of the caste have begun to marry among themselves and call themselves Turia, while they look down on the others to whom they restrict the designation Turi. The names of subcastes given by Sir. H. Risley appear to indicate that the Turis are an offshoot from the Mundas, with an admixture of Doms and other low Uriya castes. Among themselves the caste is also known as Husil, a term which signifies a worker in bamboo. The caste say that their original ancestor was created by Singbonga, the sun, and had five sons, one of whom found a wooden image of their deity in the Baranda forest, near the Barpahari hill in Chota Nagpur. This image was adopted as their family deity, and is revered to the present day as Barpahari Deo. The deity is thus called after the hill, of which it is clear that he is the personified representative. From the five sons are descended the five main septs of the Turis. The eldest was called Mailuar, and his descendants are the leaders or headmen of the caste. The group sprung from the second son are known as Chardhagia, and it is their business to purify and readmit offenders to caste intercourse. The descendants of the third son conduct the ceremonial shaving of such offenders, and are known as Surennar, while those of the fourth son bring water for the ceremony and are called Tirkuar. The fifth group is known as Hasdagia, and it is said that they are the offspring of the youngest brother, who committed some offence, and the four other brothers took the parts which are still played by their descendants in his ceremony of purification. Traces of similar divisions appear to be found in Bengal, as Sir. H. Risley states that before a marriage can be celebrated the consent of the heads of the Madalwar and Surinwar sections, who are known respectively as Raja and Thakur is obtained, while the head of the Charchagiya section officiates as priest. The above names are clearly only variants of those found in the Central Provinces. But besides the above groups the Turis have a large number of exogamous septs of a totemistic nature, some of which are identical with those of the Mundas.

Marriage.

Marriage is adult and the bride and bridegroom are usually about the same age; but girls are scarce in the caste, and betrothals are usually effected at an early age, so that the fathers of boys may obtain brides for their sons. A contract of betrothal, once made, cannot be broken without incurring social disgrace, and compensation in money is also exacted. A small bride-price of three or four rupees and a piece of cloth is payable to the girl's father. As in the case of some other Uriya castes the proposal for a marriage is couched in poetic phraseology, the Turi bridegroom's ambassador announcing his business with the phrase: "I hear that a sweet-scented flower has blossomed in your house and I have come to gather it"; to which the bride's father, if the match be acceptable, replies: "You may take away my flower if you will not throw it away when its sweet scent has gone." The girl then appears, and the boy's father gives her a piece of cloth and throws a little liquor over her feet. He then takes her on his lap and gives her an anna to buy a ring for herself, and sometimes kisses her and says, 'You will preserve my lineage.' He washes the feet of her relatives, and the contract of betrothal is thus completed, and its violation by either party is a serious matter. The wedding is performed according to the ritual commonly practised by the Uriya caste. The binding portion of it consists in the perambulation of the sacred pole five or seven times. After each circle the bridegroom takes hold of the bride's toe and makes her kick away a small heap of rice on which a nut and a piece coin are placed. After this a cloth is held over the couple and each rubs vermilion on the other's forehead. At this moment the bride's brother appears, and gives the bridegroom a blow in the back. This is probably in token of his wrath at being deprived of his sister. A meal of rice and fowls is set before the bridegroom, but he feigns displeasure, and refuses to eat them.

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The bride's parents then presents him with a pickaxe and a crooked knife, saying that these are the implements of their trade, and will suffice him for a livelihood. The bridegroom, however, continues obdurate until they promise him a cow or a bullock, when he consents to eat. The bride's family usually spend twenty or more rupees on her wedding, and the bridegroom's family about fifty rupees. A window is expected to marry her Dewar or deceased husband's younger brother, and if she takes somebody else he must repay to the Dewar the expenditure incurred by the latter's family on her first marriage. Divorce is permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife or for incompatibility of temper.

Funeral Rites.

The caste bury the dead, placing the head to the north. They make libations to the spirits of their ancestors on the last day of Phagun (February), and not during the fortnight of Pitripaksh in Kunwar (September) like other Hindu castes. They believe that the spirits of ancestors are reborn in children, and when a baby is born they put a grain if rice into a pot of water and then five other grains in, each one representing a particular ancestor. When one of these meets the grain representing the child they hold that the ancestor in question had been born again. The principal deity of the caste is Singbonga, the sun, and according to one of their stories the sun is female. They say that the sun and moon were two sisters, both of whom had children, but when the sun gave out great heat the moon was afraid that her children would be burnt up, so she hid them in a handi or earthen pot. When the sun messed her sister's children she asked her where they were, and the moon replied that she had eaten them up; on which the sun also ate her own children. But when night came the moon took her children out of the earthen pot and they spread out in the sky and became the stars. And when the sun saw this she was greatly angered and vowed that she would never look on the moon's face again. And it is on this account that the moon is not seen in the daytime, and as the sun ate up all her children there are no stars during the day.

Occupation.

The caste make and sell all kinds of articles manufactured from the wood of the bamboo, and the following list of their wares will give an idea of the variety of purposes for which this product is utilised: " Tukna, an ordinary basket; dauri, a basket for washing rice in a stream; lodhar, a large basket for carrying grain on carts; chuki, a small basket for measuring grain; grani and sikosi, a small basket for holding betel-leaf and a box for carrying it in the pocket; dhitori, a fish-basket; Dholi, a large bamboo shed for storing grain; ghurki and paili, grain measures; chhanni, a sieve; taji, a balance; pankha and bijna, fans; pelna, a triangular frame for a fishing-net; choniya, a cage for catching fish; chatai, matting; chhata, an umbrella; chhitori, a leaf hat for protecting the body from rain; pinjra a cage; khunkhuna, a rattle; and guna, a muzzle for bullocks. Most of them are very poor, and they say that when Singbonga made their ancestors he told them to fetch something in which to carry away the grain which he would give them for their support; but the Turis brought a bamboo sieve, and when Singbonga poured the grain into the sieve nearly the whole of it ran out. So he reproved them for their foolishness, and said, 'Khasar, tin pasar,' which meant that, however hard they should works, they would never earn more than three handfuls of grain a day.

Social Status.

The social status of the Turis is very low, and their touch is regarded as impure. They must live outside the village and may not draw water from the common well; the village barber will not shave them nor the washerman wash their clothes. They will eat all kinds of food, including the flesh of rats and other vermin, but not beef. The rules regarding social impurity are more strictly observed in the Uriya country than elsewhere, owing to the predominant influence of the Brahmans, and this is probably the reason why the Turis are so severely ostracised. Their code of social morality is not strict, and a girl who is seduced by a man of the caste is simply made over to him as his wife, the ordinary bride-price being exacted from him. He must also feed the caste-fellows, and any money which is received by the girl's father is expended in the same manner. Members of Hindu caste and Gonds may be admitted into the community, but not the Munda tribes, such as the Mundas themselves and the Kharias and Korwas; and this, though the Turis, as has been seen, are themselves an offshoot of the Munda tribe. The fact indicates that in Chota Nagpur the tribes of the Munda family occupy a lower social position than the Gonds and others belonging to the Dravidian family. When an offender of either sex is to be readmitted into caste after having been temporarily expelled for some offence he or she is given water to drink and has a lock of hair cut off. Their women are tattooed on the arms, breast and feet, and say that this is the only ornament which they can carry to the grave.

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Turí.: -According to Mr. Risley, the Tîrís are "a non-Aryan caste of cultivators, workers in bamboo, and basket-makers in Chota Nagpur . [1] The physical type of the Tîrís, their language and their religion, place it beyond doubt that they are a Hinduised off-shoot of the Mundâs. In Lohardaga, where the caste is most numerous, it is divided into four sub-castes-- Tîrí or Kisân -Tîrí, Or, Dom, and Domrâ -- distinguished by the particular modes of basket and bamboo-work which they practise. Tîrís frequently reckon in as a fifth sub-caste the Birhârs, who cut bamboos and make the sikâs used for carrying loads slung on a shoulder yoke (bahangi), and a kind of basket called phanda . Doms and Domrâs speak Hindi; Tîrís, Ors, and Birhârs use among themselves a dialect of Mundârí." The Birhâr dialect is closely related to Mundârí, and the speech of the Tîrís also agrees with that language in most essential points. In a few characteristics, however, it follows Santâlí, as against Mundârí. According to information collected for the purposes of this Survey, Tîrí is spoken in Ranchi, the Jashpur State, Sambalpur, and Sarangarh. The following are the revised figures returned for the purposes of this Survey:

Ranchi

456

Jashpur State

2,000

Sambalpur

1,000

Sarangarh

271

-------

Total

3,727

The corresponding figures at the Census of 190

Burdwan

38

24-Parganas

384

Jessore

94

Dinajpur

258

Jalpaiguri

547

Darjeeling

209

Bogra

546

Sontal Parganas

1

Ranchi

450

Palamau

24

Singbhum

39

Chota Nagpur Tributary States

630

Sambalpur

660

-----

Total

3,880

In Sambalpur the Tîrí dialect is almost pure Mundârí. 'A man' is, however, hor. Compare Santâlí: forms such as péâ, three; pîniâ, four, in Tîrí agree with Santâlí, as does the phonology of the dialect in most points. Thus we find ñel, to see, in Jashpur, but lel in Ranchi.

[1] Linguistic Survey of India.

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The inflexion of nouns and pronouns is mainly regular. The dative-accusative adds the Aryan ke, and the two genders are occasionally confounded. Thus, ap -tai -ke, to his father; sukri -ren jojomak', the swine's food. In Sarangarh we find forms such as apan, is, and the singular and plural forms of the pronouns are often confounded in the specimen from that State; thus, yem-âd- i -y -â -e, he gave him, i .e . them; âm, thou, instead of âpé, you and so forth. The inflexion of verbs agrees with Santâlí But replaces the k of kan by t in the same way as in Mundârí. The distinction between the various suffixes which are used to denote past time is rather loose. On the whole, however, the conjugation is regular. Compare senok '-a -ing, I shall go; katha -i -a -in g, I shall say to him; bigur -jun -â -pe, you will become at variance with yourselves; goch '-tan -â -in g, I die; sap '-ked -â, seized; lâték'- lid -i -â, struck him; hoi -en -â, became, and so forth.

Uppalingas.: -See Upparas.

Upparas.: -They used to be salt workers and earth diggers. Now they earn a living as farmers and agricultural casual labour. They live in Karnataka. They are like the Uppalingas.

Vada.: -They are specialists in wooden handicraft work. They move around in Kashmir and West India.

Vaddar.: -See Od and Beldar

Vadi.: -They are snake-charmers of Rajasthan

Vaghe.: -See Nandiwalas.

Vagiri.: -A Nomadic group of South India. They speak Marathi. Men catch birds and jackals, women beg and sing songs. They wander in the jungle and from village to village with their pack bullocks. They worship Kali.

Vaidu.: -They are specially concentrated in Maharashtra, where they arrived around the year 1700. %Vaidiya‘ means village doctor or charlatan. They prepare medicines with herbs and roots. Their remedies are appreciated by local villagers. See Baydda.

Vaidu.: -See Baidya,

Vajantris.: -See Hallir.

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Varli.: -They live in Maharashtra. They live in small groups with their headman. They have four endogamic divisions: Suddha, Murde, Davar and Nihir, and 40 exogamous divisions: Bautria, Bhanjara, Bhavar, Korbat, Kondaria etc.,

Vendan.: -The vedans [1] are described by Mr. H.A. Stuart, in the North Arcot Manual, as having been "formerly hunters and soldiers, and it is this caste which furnished a considerable and valuable contingent to the early Hindu kings, and later to the armies of Hyder and Tippoo. They are supposed by some to be the remnants of the earliest inhabitants of the peninsula, and identical with the Veddahs of Ceylon. They are also called Valmikulu, which means those who live on the products of anthills (valmikum)." It is noted, in the Census Report, 1891, that the two castes Bedar (or Boya) and Vedan were, "through a misapprehension of instructions, treated as identical in the tabulation papers. The two words are, no doubt, etymologically identical, the one being Canarese and the other Tamil, but the castes are quite distinct." It may be noted that the name Valmika or Valmiki is assumed by the Boyas, who claim descent from Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, who did penance for so long in one spot that a white-ant hill grew up round him.

In the Madras Report, 1901, the Vedans are described as "a Tamil-speaking labouring and hunting caste, the members of which were formerly soldiers, and subsequently dacoits. The name means a hunter, and is loosely applied to the Irulas in some places (e. g., Chingleput). There is some connection between the Vedans and Tamil Vettuvans, but its precise nature is not clear. The Vettuvans now consider themselves superior to the Vedans, and are even taking to calling themselves Vettuva Vellalas. Marriage (among the Vedans) is either infant or adult. Widows may marry their late husband's brother or agnates. Some employ Brahmans as priests. They either burn or bury their dead. They claim descent from Kannappa Nayanar, one of the sixty-three Saivits saints. Ambalakarans also claim to be descended from Kannappa Nayanar. In Tanjore, the Valaiyans declare themselves to have a similar origin. The title of the Vedans is Nayakkan." In the Madura Manual, the Vedans are described as a very low caste, who get their living in the jungles. They are not numerous now. They appear to have been naked savages not very long ago, and their civilisation is far from complete. They are held in the greatest contempt by men of all classes. They are described further, in the Coimbatore Manual, as "a very degraded, poor tribe, living by basket-making, small game, and so on. They speak a low Canarese, and are as simple as savage. The delight of a party at the gift of a rupee is something curious." In the Salem district some Vedans are said [2] to be "known by the caste name Tiruvalar, who are dintinguished as the Kattukudugirajati, a name derived from a custom among them which authorises temporary matrimonial arrangements."

The following story in connection with bears and Vedans is worthy of being placed on record. The bears are said to collect ripe wood-apples (Feronia elephantum) during the season, and store them in the forest. After a small quantity has been collected, they remove the rind of the fruits, and heap together all the pulp. They then bring honey and petals of sweet-smelling flowers, put them on the heap of pulp, and thresh them with their feet and with sticks in their hands. When the whole has become a consistent mass, they feed on it. The Vedan, who knows the season, is said to drive off the bears by shooting at them, and rob them of their feast, which is sold as karadi panchamritham, or bear delicacy made of five ingredients. The Vedars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer [3] as "living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves.

[1] Se Thurston.

[2] Manual of the Salem district.

[3] Native Life in Travancore.

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They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence."

For the following note in the Mala (hill) Vedans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J.W. Evans :[1] "They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile's fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvatiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vedar fashion, he grinned, and said 'What beauty I was born with is enough for me.' Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or maybe he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and area nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied it was to distinguish their caste, and the good Chattan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kadirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. one woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys - these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sambar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vedars find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vedans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chattan, or Sattan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vedans are, there he is in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vedans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kanakars), and, like the Kanakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc."

The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vedans examined by myself were as follows:

Max

Min

Average

cm

cm

cm

Stature

163.8

140.8

154.2

Cephalic index

80.9

68.8

73.4

Nasla index

102.6

71.1

85.0

The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes is Southern India, the Mala Vedans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrrhine.

The following menstrual ceremony has been described [2] as occurring among the Vedans of Travancore. "The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, halfway between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil.

[1] Madras Museum, Bull. 111, 1, 1900.

[2] Crawley. The Mystic Rose. Fide Jagor. Zeitsch : Ethnol. X1, 164.

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On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the woman, her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife. "

Wâghya.:-Vâghe, Murli [1] .- An order of mendicant devotees of the god Khandoba, an incarnation of Siva; they belong to the Marâtha Districts and Bombay where Khandoba is worshipped. The term Wâghya is derived from vâgh, a tiger, and had been given to the order on account of the small bag of tiger-skin, containing bhandâr, or powdered turmeric, which they carry round their necks. This has been consecrated to Khandoba and they apply a pinch of it to the foreheads of those who give them alms. Murli, signifying 'a flute' is the name given to female devotees. Wâghya is a somewhat indefinite term and in the Central Provinces does not strictly denote a caste. The order originated in the practice followed by childless mothers of vowing to Khandoba that if they should bear a child, their first-born should be devoted to his service. Such a child became a Wâghya or Murli according as it was a boy or a girl. But they were not necessarily severed from their own caste and might remain members of it and marry in it. Thus there are Wâghya Telis in Wardha, who marry with other Telis. The child might also be kept in the temple for a period and then withdrawn, and nowadays this is always done. The children of rich parents sometimes simply remain at home and worship Khandoba there. But they must beg on every Sunday from at least five persons all their lives. Another practice, formerly existing, was for the father and mother to vow that if a child was born they would be swung. They were then suspended from a wooden post on a rope by an iron hook inserted in the back and swung round four or five times. The sacred turmeric was applied to the wound and it quickly healed up. Others would take a Wâghya child to Mahâdeo's cave in Pachmarhi and let it fall from the top of a high tree. If it lived it was considered to be a Râja of Mahâdeo, and if it died happiness might confidently be anticipated for it in the next birth. Besides the children who are dedicated to Khandoba, a man may become a Wâghya either for life or for a certain period in fulfilment of a vow, and in the latter case will be an ordinary member of his own caste again on its termination. The Wâghyas and Murlis who are permanent members of the order sometimes also live together and have children who are brought up it. The constitution of the order is therefore in several respects indefinite, and it has not become a self-contained caste, though there are Wâghyas who have no other caste.

The following description of the dedication of children to Khandoba is taken from the Bombay Gazetteer. [2] When parents have to dedicate boy to Khandoba they go to his temple at Jejuri in Poona on any day in the month of Chaitra (March-April). They stay at a Gurao's house and tell him the object of their visit. The boy's father brings offerings and they go in procession to Khandoba's temple. There the Gurao marks the boy's brow with turmeric, throws turmeric over his head, fastens round his neck a deer or tiger-skin wallet hung from a black woollen string, and throws turmeric over the god, asking him to take the boy. The Murlis or girls dedicated to the god are married to him between one and twelve years of age. The girl is taken to the temple by her parents accompanied by the Gurao priest and other Murlis. At the temple she is bathed and her body rubbed with turmeric, with which the feet of the idol are also anointed. She is dressed in a new robe and bodice, and green glass bangles are put on the wrists. A turban and sash are presented to the god, and the guru taking a necklace of nine cowries (shells) fastens it round the girl's neck. She then stands before the god, a cloth being held between them as at a proper wedding, and the priest repeats the marriage verses. Powdered turmeric is thrown on the heads of the girl and of the idol, and from that day she is considered to be the wife of Khandoba and cannot marry any other man.

[1] See Russell.

[2] This article is partly based on a paper by Pandit Pyâre Lâl Misra, ethnographic clerk. Vol. xx. pp. 19-190.

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When a Murli comes of age she sits by herself for four days. Then she looks about for a patron, and when she succeeds in getting one she calls a meeting of her brethren, the Wâghyas, and in their presence the patron says, 'I will fill the Murli's lap.' The Wâghyas ask him what he will pay and after some haggling a sum is agreed on, which thirty years ago varied between twenty-five and a hundred rupees. If it is more than Rs. 50 a half of the money goes to the community, who spend it on a feast. With the balance the girl buys clothes for herself. She lives with her patron for as long as he wishes to keep her, and is then either attached to the temple or travels about as a female mendicant. Sometimes a married woman will leave her home and become a Murli, with the object as a rule of leading a vicious life.

A man who takes a vow to become a Wâghya must be initiated by a guru, who is some elder member of the order. The initiation takes place early on a Sunday morning, and after the disciple is shaved, bathed and newly clad, the guru places a string of cowries round his neck and gives him the tiger-skin bag in which the turmeric is kept. He always retains much reverence for his guru , and invokes him with the exclamation, 'Jai Guru,' before starting out to beg in the morning. The following articles are carried by the Wâghyas when begging. The dapdi is a circular single drum of wood, covered with goat-skin, and suspended to the shoulder. The chouka consists of a single wire suspended from a bar and passing inside a hollow wooden conical frame. The wire is struck with a stick to produce the sound. The ghâti is an ordinary temple bell; and the kutumba is a metal saucer which serves for a begging-bowl. This is considered sacred, and sandalwood is applied to it before starting out in the morning. The Wâghyas usually beg in parties of four, each man carrying one of these articles. Two of them walk in front and two behind, and they sing songs in praise of Khandoba and play on the instruments. Every Wâghya has also the bag made of tiger-skin, or, if this cannot be had, of deer-hair round the neck. Alms, after being received in the kutumba or saucer, are carried in a bag, and before setting out in the morning they put a little grain in this bag, as they think that it would unlucky to start with it empty. At they end of the day they set out their takings on the ground and make a little offering of fire to them, throwing a pinch of turmeric in the air in the name of Khandoba. The four men then divide the takings and go home. Marâthas, Murlis and Telis are the castes who revere Khandoba, and they invite the Wâghyas to sing on the Dasahra and also at their marriages. In Bombay the Wâghyas force iron bars through their calves and pierce the palms of their hands with needles. To the needle a strip of wood is attached, and on this five lighted torches are set out, and the Wâghya waves them about on his hand before the god. [1] Once in three years each Wâghya makes a pilgrimage to Khandoba's chief temple at Jejuri near Poona, and there are also local temples to this deity at Hinganghât and Nâgpur. The Wâghyas eat flesh and drink liquor, and their social and religious customs resemble those of the Marâthas and Kunbis.

Wagri.: -Wandering Tribe from Rajasthan. They make statues.

[1] Bombay Gazetteer , vol. xxii. p. 212.

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