3G6 



HILL tribes- 



Chap. XXiI. 



said of these Neilgherry caims is that they are probably the 

 work of an unknown extinct race, who practised Druidical 

 rites.^ 



We visited several of these remains of an ancient people. 

 On the summit of the peak of Kalhutty, on the left hand of 

 the road leading down the Seegoor ghaut to the Mysore 

 plains, whence there is a grand view of mountain scenery, 

 forest-clad slopes, and a wide expanse of country stretching 

 away to the horizon, we found several old cairns. They were 

 of great size, built of immense stones, and hollow in the 

 centre. On another peak, called Ibex Hill, one side of which 

 is a scarped cliff many hundreds of feet in height, over- 

 hanging the Seegoor ghaut, we also found two huge cau-ns, 

 forming a circle about eight feet in diameter. There are 

 many others in different parts of the hills, generally on the 

 highest peaks, and iron spear-heads, bells, sepulchral urns 

 with figures of coiled snakes, tigers, elephants, dogs, and 

 birds on them, sickles and gold rings have been found bui'ied 

 under the piles of stones. 



The Todars, as has been said, are the " lords of the hills," 

 and not only all the otlier hill tribes pay them tribute, but 

 the English Govermnent also pays rent to them for the land 

 on which the stations are situated.^ But the agricultural 

 tribe of Burghers or Badagas, who came to the hills several 

 centuries after the Todars, and are subject to them, are by 

 far the most numerous, numbering 15,000 souls, and occu- 

 pying 300 villages. They are divided into eighteen classes 

 or castes, the members of one of which, called the Wodearu 

 Badagas, wear the Brahminical string, are proud and lazy, 

 and inhabit five villages apart from the rest. The villages 



** Antiquities of the Neilgherry Hills, 

 by Ciiptaiu H. Congi-eve, 1847. Also, 

 Caldwell's Comparative Dravidian 

 Grammar. The Geiiuan missionaries 

 believe that these cairns were the 



work of the Kurumbers, another ^viId 

 hill tiibe. 



9 Todars pay two taxes to Government 

 in return, on female buifaloes and on 

 grazing land, lx)th small in amount. 



