228 



MANUAL OP THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. IX, round the bier, carrying food in their hands and weeping whilst 

 P ART V. they enumerate the good qualities of their relative. After this 

 Ethnology, the corpse is carried outside the village and then begins the 



strange ceremony which the Todas seem to have copied, and 



which 80 vividly recalls the scape-goat of the Jews. Instead of 

 a goatj a calf is chosen to bear the sins of the dead. A long Htany 

 is chanted and as each sin is mentioned, the people join in the 

 refrain, shouting " It is a sin ! " 



Traditions. 



Language. 



He killed the crawling snake." 



Chorus — ' 

 The creeping lizard slew." 



It 



Chorus — " It is a sin." 



When the last sentence with its response " Let all his sins be 

 forgiven, and may it be well with him, yea all be well/^ has died 

 away, earth is thrown on the body, and it is cari'ied away to be 

 burnt with the car on the banks of the nearest stream. The 

 ashes are afterwards collected and thrown into the water. It is 

 customary with the Badagas to give occasional feasts in honor of 

 all the dead who have died during the eight or ten previous 

 years. 



Although some of the castes can point to the villages in 

 Mysore from whence they came, and can tell some stories of the 

 ill-usage which they received from Tippu's troops and the 

 followers of neighbouring chiefs, they know but little about their 

 ancestors in a more remote degree. According to Mr. Metz, 

 scraps of their history are to be found interwoven in the 

 lengthy ballads which they delight to recite, and it is much to be 

 regretted that that laborious and patient observer of the habits of 

 the hill people has not given to the public the large collection of 

 their poetry which he has already translated into German. 



Dr. Caldwell thinks that their language approaches most 

 nearly to old Kanarese. 



