242 Notices of Books. (April, 
The Todas live in very small village communities of from 
20 to 30 persons. Their houses, or huts, two or three together, 
and sometimes all under one roof, are low and somewhat of an 
inverted boat-shape, with very low doors (only about three feet 
high), and no windows. Attached to every village is a cattle- 
pen, and a separate building, which comprises the dairy and the 
dairyman’s abode. They live a purely pastoral life, and, perhaps 
more than any other people in the world, are absolutely dependent 
for their existence on one animal,—the buffalo. Though they 
live in a fertile land and a delightful climate, they grow no crops, 
and have no kind of cultivation whatever. Though their woods 
and hills abound in game, they neither hunt nor trap any living 
thing. They keep no domestic animals but the buffalo and the 
cat, although the populations around them possess .goats, pigs, 
and poultry. They eat no flesh, not even that of the buffalo, of 
which they often have a superabundance, but live wholly on milk 
and butter, with rice and such other vegetable food as they 
obtain in exchange for their surplus dairy produce and for the 
young male buffalos for which they have no use. Although 
surrounded by strong and often quarrelsome tribes, they possess 
no single weapon of offence or defence,—no bow, or spear, or 
sword, or club. They never fight among themselves or with 
their neighbours. They have no sports of activity or skill. 
They have no manufactures, even of the simplest kind. Two 
men in every village are set apart for the dairy-work, leaving all 
the rest to lead an almost absolutely idle life! Yet they are by 
no means savages of a very low type. They are quiet and 
dignified in their manners, amiable in disposition, and very good- 
looking, the excellent photographs with which the book is 
copiously illustrated showing us intelligent and often handsome 
faces, in no way distinguishable from those of many of our own 
country people. They are courteous to strangers and to each 
other, and have an elaborate system of salutations and cere- 
monies. Their absolute dependence on the buffalo has led them 
to a form of religion in which this animal is the central figure. 
They have a sacred breed of cattle, which are distinguished by 
carrying bells; and hence ancient bells are sacred. The dairy is 
sacred. No one except the dairyman and his assistant may 
enter it. During the term of their office, these two men have to 
pass absolutely solitary and celibate lives, they and their imple- 
ments being touched by no human being. ‘The dairymen who 
have charge of the sacred herds are for the time being looked 
upon as gods. They keep in the dairy certain relics,—old cow- 
bells, knives, and axes,—which are in the highest degree holy, 
and which the dairyman, also priest, salutes with certain ceremonies 
every morning. The people in general also salute the rising and 
setting sun, and have certain vague notions of a future state. 
Our author has minutely studied this curious people, and gives 
us interesting details of their every custom and ceremony, habit 
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