xlviii APPENDIX TO THE MANUAL 



No. 17. — A Topographical Bcscriplion of the Ncelaghery Mountains. 



From a letter by WiLLiAM Keys, Assistant Ecvcnue Syrvc>/or, to W. Garrows, 

 Collector of Cuimhatore, 1812. 



This tract of the country, forming the elevated division of the 



Danaikeucota Taluk, is situated on the extensive range of the Neelaghery 



or Blue Mountains, which stretches westward, and is separated by an 



adjoining high and lofty ridge called the Coonda and Neddimullay 



bills, terminating the eastern limits of the Wynaud country. 



Extent and 1. It extends in length from east to west 30 miles, and in breadth 



boundary. -^qi miles, containing a superficies of 495 square miles, and is bounded 



on the north by the lands of Davaroyputnum and the Mysore 



Province ; west by the Wynaud country in Malabar ; and south and 



cast by the lowlands of Sattimungalum and Danaikeucota. 



Divisions and 2. Porunganaud, Maicanaud (Mokandd), and Kothanaud are three 



Sub-divisiona, ^jyigiQ^s or mootahs on the hills, containing in the whole 41 principal 



and 119 sulx)rdinate villages. These villages are chiefly small, 



consisting of hardly more than five to ten houses, built quite low and 



confined, and generally placed in one or two rows, presenting the 



appearance of a few straggling huts rather than a village. 



Climate and 3. The climate is extremely cold and unhcalthful, from continual 



population, covering of mist and clouds. The population, male and female, in 



the three nauds amounts to 2,516 individuals, of which number l,G47 



are Buddagurs, 292 Lingbund or Shevaacharas, 268 Thoraycrs, 179 



Thothavurs, and 130 Cothurs. 



The Buddagurs, so called from their having settled on the mountains 

 from the northward,* speak the Cannady language, and are the 

 principal inhabitants as well as cultivators of the land. The Lingbund 

 and Thorayers likewise speak the same language and cultivate the 

 land. The Thothavurs, said to be the first that peopled this moun- 

 tainous tract, have a distinct dialect, which is unknown even to their 

 neighbour sects. They cultivate no land, but only attend their flocks 

 of bufialoes, with which they live about the most retired parts of the 

 mountains by some spring or stream of water, on a part of the country 

 in the Thothanaud Division, appropriated as pasture-lands, being f I'om 

 its sterile quality unsusceptible of cultivation. This space is distin- 

 guished by the appellation of Keelaurum and Mallanaud, signifying a 

 barren mountainous tract, and consists of 70 square miles. Although 

 the Thothavurs cultivate no land, they however have a small interest 

 in the produce, allowed them by the Buddagurs and others, being 

 considered as the aboriginal inhabitants. Their chief subsistence is 

 the milk of their eattlo- i^ Lastly the Cothurs, or the lowest class of 



* From Woomutoor in the MyBoic rroviuce. 



