OF THE NiLAGIRI DISTKICT. Ixxiii 



very little, if any, enters their faro, excepting at a marriage, or some 

 grand day of feasting. Milk, tyre, and rancid ghee may be considered 

 among their luxuries. 



In all the duties of husbandry women partake more of the labors Lab 

 than the men — the holding the plough is perhaps one exception, being 

 the sole duty of the men ; performing all the duties of the field, beside 

 their internal household affairs, to which in a great measure wc may 

 attribute their strong, harsh, masculine features and deportment. The 

 dairy, it must be remarked, is, however, the exclusive duty of the men, 

 the milk kept iu an inner apartment, and there churned ; the females 

 are scrupulously prohibited from entering it, Tthe poorer class make 

 good porters. 



TODUWARS. 



The remarkable dissimilarity of these people in their persons and 

 features from the other mountaineers is very striking ; they arc 

 evidently a distinct race, and are iu fact the aborigines of these aerial 

 regions ; their origin it is impossible to trace. When interrogated on 

 this point we could only learn that they have some idea that they were 

 originally self borne, and they have also a notion that their ancestors 

 in primitive times were the palanquin-bearers to the giant Rawan, 

 and were expelled from Lunka on his being slain by Rama. This 

 migratory ti'ibe confine themselves and herds of buffaloes to the 

 Mullanaad, Taranaad and Kulanum Hills, which afford excellent 

 pastures ; this tract, consisting of the western portion denominated 

 Todanadd, is marked by several of their kralls or munds, with a 

 circular roof of thatch and door scarce high enough to admit a dog, into 

 which they crawl on all fours ; their site in general retired, near a tuft 

 of forest trees in delightful situations, with extensive circles fenced 

 with wood and stone for their buffaloes ; those towards the west arc 

 occupied during summer. On the approach of the Malabar monsoons 

 they retire with their cattle to the east, on the skirts of the Badager 

 villages ; a few families, however, continually reside in Perunganaad 

 and Maiknaad, and tend with their own the cattle of the Badagers. 

 Their chief occupation is the care of their buffaloes and the dairy, for 

 which purpose a house of large dimensions at each mund is reserved 

 apart, is by them considered sacred, women not being permitted to 

 enter ; in it they also perform such ceremonies in use on the anniver- 

 sary of their deceased relatives, having no temples or other places of 

 worship. Each clan being in possession of from one to two hundred 

 buffaloes, pays a tax annually for each cow half a rupee ; this they are 

 well enabled to do from the sale of raggy and poultry. Leading 

 a pastoral life and abstracted from all agricultural pursuits, they are 

 indebted to the Badagers for grain given them gratis at the annual 

 harvest — a custom from time immemorial in consideration of their 

 being the hereditary claimants of the soil. On the celebration of any 

 marriage among the more wealthy Badagers they receive from quarter 

 to half a rupee as a present ; they also subsist in a great measure on a 



