32

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[JANUARY, 1873.

ashes. They are worshippers of Siva. The Bram hacharis live as recluses apart from their families,

posed to minister to the wants of their owners in the happy land of departed Todahs. Formerly all the buffaloes

and at death their bodies are burnt.

a man had were despatched after him. Government has now put a restriction on the number, and the Todahs

The word Bramhachari is also applied to a reli gious student, to persons learned in the Vedas, and in various other ways. THE HILL TRIBES OF THE NEILGHERRIES.

(Madras Standard, Oct. 18.)

are

not allowed to

kill

them

without notice

being

given to, And permission obtained from, the authorities. The Todah I greatly object to this restriction; but I know they are really very glad, because the greater number of cattle they have, the more ghee, and consequently the more rupees, are procured. They do not like to have many women amongst them, and it used to be a custom among them to kill all the female children but one which a woman

Next to the Badagas, in importance and numbers, are the Kotahs. They live in seven Kotagherries or villages, situated far apart on the hills, so that each Kotah village has its own set of Badagas, for whom they make tools, ropes, baskets, jewels, and whose funerals they attend with their musical instruments. The Kotahs are of very low caste, they will eat from any one, and do not object to devouring carrion of all sorts ; they are not particular how an animal dies, and during a murrain the Kotahs feast and fatten. They cultivate the soil with a little more care than the Badagas, but grow the same grains, &c., and in the same style. They keep cattle, which they sometimes kill for food, but strange

might bear.

In former times these murders were perpe

trated with much ceremony and feasting ; latterly they were more quietly performed, till Government put a stop to them altogether. The Todahs do not, however, seem any better for it. Three and four men are supposed to have

only one wife in common. Any children she may bear are common to all.

Like the Badagas and Kotahs, they are

very immoral. The women do nothing but lounge about the munds, butter their hair and cook.

The Todahs eat a

variety of greens, the heart of the thistle, fungi, tender shoots of bamboo, and meat, when they can get it.

They

than the Badagas, and do not care to work for Europeans.

kill young bull calves and eat the flesh, but will not touch that of grown cattle ; they will do anything for sambur or ibex, though they never shoot or capture game themselves. They are terrible thieves, and many sportsmen have lost game through the tricks of their Todah shikaries.

Their iron-work is of, the coarsest description. They, however, make hatchets, adzes, and bill-hooks pretty well, and their neighbours like them better than Eng

Last come the Kurumbas: they are not very numerous about the Neilgherries; they live in horrible dirty villages at the foot of the hills, amongst the thickest forest teeming

lish tools. They are very keen after game. A few can shoot, and if any one they know to be a good shot gives

with jungle fever; they are of the sect known in Wynaad

to say they do not milk them. Their Shukars (funeral cere monies) and marriage ceremonies are much the same as those of the Badagas, though they do not spend as much

money on those occasions. They are far more independent

notice at a village, the inhabitants will all turn out, yelling and shrieking after sambur.

They make a strong durable

rope out of buffaloe hide, much sought after by Badagas for fastening their cattle, &c. Their women work up a sort of black clay, found in swamps, out of which they make pots for themselves and neighbours ; but of a very inferior kind. One most remarkable circumstance amongst these people is that they actually court venereal disease; a young man who has not suffered from this before he is of a certain age

is looked upon as a disgrace It is hardly necessary for me to say that they are vilely dirty in their habits, and most immoral. Their language is a most discordant jargon, en

tirely different from that spoken by any other of the hill tribes, and I have heard them boast of the fact that no one

as “Jaan" or “honey” Kurumbas. They get this name from their chief employment, which is seeking honey. They used to live almost entirely on roots, but of late years they have found it remunerative to cultivate their soil, and

their clearings are much larger than they used to be. They never take more than three or four crops off the same piece. They burn their dead with very little tamasha. Besides supplying the Badagas with the elephant pole

required at their Shukars, the Kurumbas have to sow the first handful of grain for the Badagas every season, for

which service they receive a small quantity of the crop. Unlike their neighbours, the Kurumbas are a very small, emaciated lot; nevertheless they are very active and will out-walk any other natives. They have incredibly keen eye-sight, gained from constantly watching the bee to its

but themselves can understand it.

hive.

Next to these gentry come the Todahs : their men are generally fine handsome fellows, and I have heard some of their women spoken of as beauties. They are,however, a lazy, good-for-nothing lot; they do no work at all beyond tending

place a couple of sticks in a certain position; this sign will prevent any other Kurumba from taking the honey (“a rule of their own”), and no Badaga or other hill man would med dle with it on any account, for fear of being killed by sorcery, for they dread the Kurumba more than any wild beast; indeed their fear of them is so great that a simple threat of vengeance has in some cases proved fatal. This, I be lieve, has originated from Kurumbas having at different times poisoned Badagas in a secret underhand way, so as to make their deaths appear as if caused by super natural agency. In times gone by, when the Kurumbas of a village became very notorious, Todahs, Badagas, and

their buffaloes, cutting sticks, seeking honey and building their munds or villages, for which they certainly choose

very pretty sites. They get all their grain from the Bada

gas and Kotahs; a good part of it is paid to them as a sort of black-mail, which they used to levy with much rigour and authority; but since their neighbours have got more inde pendent, and know that Government will protect them from injustice, this levy is paid more from custom than fear, and I dare say before long the Todahs will have to buy all the grain they require. The Todahs formerly would not allow the Badagas to graze their cattle in the neighbourhood of their munds: now, however, the latter tribe build kraals far out amongst, and even beyond, the Todah munds, and feed

When they find one not quite ready to take, they

Kotahs would combine, surround the village at night, and murder all the inhabitants. For following elephants and bison they are invaluable assistants, as they will never lose or mistake a track. They, however, dread the charge

their buffaloes with those of their would-be masters with

of an elephant, and though they will put you near the game very well, they scamper up trees the instant any danger

impunity. They burn their dead without much ceremony at the time, except that the corpse must be burned only at certain phases of the moon. Should a man die on what they consider a bad day, his body is kept in the hut over smoke for 10 or 15 days till a “good day” comes | They after wards hold a “Kerd” or killing of buffaloes, which are sup

iously when a rogue elephant was in question before a shot was fired. They have a jargon of their own, apparently a mixture of Canarese, Malayalam, and Tamil.

appears; indeed I have known them vanish almost myster

RIFLE.