Ixxiv APPENDIX TO THE MANUAL 



variety of bulbous fruits procured by digging, largo quantities being 

 ohtaiiicd on all the hills in the Todawanadd. The Todawars are in 

 general well made and robust, in stature tall — some of them exceed six 

 feet in height, and approach nearer to the European in feature, with 

 Roman noses ; they evince a friendly propensity to strangers, and 

 appear to display more candour than their eastern neighbours, but it 

 must, however, be remarked from personal observation they arc not 

 now behind the Burghers in criminal deceit and falsehood. The 

 women arc reputed beauties ; some of the younger ones are possessed 

 of handsome lineaments and exceedingly fair, with some vivacity, but 

 like all other native women are old and wrinkled before they attain 

 their thirtieth year ; the men are very much attached to them, and carry 

 their affection for the sex to a most voluptuous degree. Their colloquial 

 language is the Canarese as spoken by the Badagers, but they have a 

 most difficult and intricate one of their own, perfectly distinct from all 

 the languages in India, and only known to themselves (they are 

 illiterate). The same neglect of cleanliness in their apparel is observed 

 here. Both men and women wear a large white sheet with colored 

 borders ; the only difference observed is the manner of wrapping it about 

 the person ; with the female the habit is the perfect dishabille ; the right 

 hand, which is exposed, serves to keep the wrapper from disrobing or 

 being blown away. The men wear a scanty piece of cloth round their 

 middle in addition to the sheet thrown round the shoulder and 

 hanging to the knees, wearing their hair thick and full six inches in 

 length, with bushy beards, having recourse only to shears when either 

 become troublesome to the wearer, and never by any chance are 

 known to shave or cover the head. The women have flowing tresses 

 waving down to the shoulders, and often curled up with short sticks ; 

 on the whole pay much attention to their hair, anointing it with rancid 

 ghee in lieu of jewels, which all arc unable to afford, with the excep- 

 tion of a couple of brass bangles on the right arm, and silver or brass 

 rings on the fingers ; they puncture with an indelible black dye their 

 necks, hands, and legs in imitation of jewellery. A singular custom 

 among them is wearing a brass chain or girdle next to the skin round 

 the waist, an appendage that no grown up woman or girl should 

 bo without. They have no formal rites of mai-riage, concluding 

 alliances by reciprocal choice, the present on the jiart of the man to 

 the connections of the bride being from six to eight buffaloes. When 

 arrived at the house of her husband, she is obliged, in case he has 

 brothers, to acknowledge them as husbands, and to render them the 

 services and submission due from a wife. Independent of her 

 husbands, she is by their laws allowed to choose an individual from a 

 separate family as a gallant, styled coombhal, who is as eligible to her 

 embraces as any of the former ; in short the coombhal has a discre- 

 tionary power over her, for in case the young woman should be at 

 the house of one of her husbands, and the coombhal comes in, the 

 husband iramediately retires, and leaves her to his alliance ; the legal 

 husbands contribute towards her maintenance, and the coombhal 

 provides her with a cloth yearly, with tobacco and other small presents. 



