MANUAL OF THE NILAOIRI DISTRICT. 207 



folding hung with cloth and erected before the house of the CHAP. IX, 

 deceased is similar to the one used by the Badagas. Under this PART il. 

 the body is placed on a cot, face upwards, as is the custom among ethnology. 



the Badagas and Kdrumbas. It is then removed to a Due or 



burning ground and burnt with the implements of the deceased. 

 The skull-bones are collected next day aiid burned. This answers 

 to the green funeral ; the dry funeral rites are performed later. 

 Then one or more skulls are placed on cots and burned with a bow 

 and arrows and various other implements. The ashes are not 

 buried. 



Their language is a vulgar dialect of Kanarese and helps to Language, 

 strengthen the notion that the Kotas are a low-caste people of the 

 plains. 



There is a ti'adition among them that they once lived on a Traditions, 

 mountain in Mysore called Kollemale, after which they named the 

 first village they built on the Nilagiris. The Todas say that they 

 were brought from the plains to work for them. It is certain 

 that the Kotas were dwellers in the Hills long before the Badagas 

 came there, otherwise one would be inclined to think that as artizans 

 their services would hardly be required by the Todas, who are 

 purely a race of herdsmen, whilst the Badagas, as agriculturists, are 

 daily in need of their handicraft for making and repairing their 

 ploughs and hoes. This anomaly is more apparent than real. It is 

 probable that close intercourse with the plains has always existed, 

 so that the Kotas, though living with the Todas, would have 

 found a market for their manufactures in the low country, 

 to which they would naturally have to resort for the purchase of 

 metal, &c. Meanwhile, their position could secure them from 

 the oppression to which workers in metal would be sure to be 

 subjected in troublous times, especially at the hands of the high 

 caste artizans. 1 This tribe may yet prove very usefulin the develop- 

 ment of the Hills. They are intelligent and hardworking, and their 

 monogamous customs seem likely to ensui-e their rapid increase 

 in numbers. 



^ Can the existence of these metal workers on the hills have any connection 

 with the gold-digging referred to in the following chapter ? 



