MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 189 



" Each hut or dwelling is surrounded by an enclosure ' or wall CHAP. IX, 

 formed of loose stones piled up from 2 to 3 feet high and includes a PART I. 

 space or yard measuring 13 by 10 feet." Etiinologt. 



A cluster of five or six of these houses, with a cattle kraal, 



forms a mand ^ or village, from mane, (Kan.) a house (Tam. 

 manei.) One hut is always used as a dairy, ^ and one or two 

 give shelter to the calves. The rest are simply dwelling-houses. 

 Though the Todas can hardly be said to possess any love for the 

 beautiful, the picturesqueness of their mands, and the beauty of 

 the sites which they choose for them, have probably helped to 

 heighten their attractions as a people, and to add to the mystery 

 which surrounds them. 



One or two of these villages are perched on the extreme edge Situation of 

 of the plateau, commanding glorious views of the plains and of ™°^° 

 the rich woods from which the mountains rise. Others nestle on 

 the edge of a shola, or are at least backed by some beautiful 

 single trees. The presence of their buffaloes, seldom driven far 

 away when pasture can be found near at hand, ensures a patch 

 of short green velvet sward, sloping down to the stream which 

 supplies the mand with water, or terminating in a marsh where 

 their favourite animals wallow. 



One remarkable feature in the Nilagiri sh61as lends an addi- 

 tional, though perhaps a fictitious charm, to these villages, for it 

 gives them, from a little distance, the one characteristic in which 

 they are often wanting on a nearer view — a look of neatness and 

 order. There is occasionally a strange resemblance in these 

 sh61as to carefully planted shrubberies, and some glades about 

 Ootacamand might almost belong to the grounds of a well kept 

 country place. The trees in the depth of the wood are often not 

 high and of no great size, but their branches are gnarled and 

 moss-grown, and nature has selected and placed them, as if with 

 a view to variety of growth, foliage and colour. Shrubs, wreathed 

 with jasmines and dog-roses, fringe the edges of these copses ; and 

 ferns and flowering plants, among which are the violet and a 

 variety of the forget-me-not, make a border where they meet the 

 sward. Periodical fires and the grazing of the buffaloes help to 

 keep this line distinct; and if the trees are torn or cut for firewood, 



1 A cluster of huts always is, but not, as a rule, each hut. 



* The Europeans who first ascended the hills probably confounded the word 

 iniott or mortt, which they used instead of mand with the latter. The former 

 is the name used for the Irula villages on the slopes, with which the officers of 

 the Coimbatore District were familiar ; the words however may be of identical 

 derivation. Mott or mortt is derived from mar am, a tree, a word common to all 

 Dravidian dialects. Dr. Pope derives mand from mande, a herd (Kanarese). 



' P&ltchi. P&l, milk + tchi ? tchi ^ erthchi, it is. This suffix seems to be the 

 third person of er, to be, and probably is equal to — milk is here, i.e., the place 

 where milk is kept. 



