APPENDIX. Ixiii 



endeavoured to build up, upon the evidence of these cairns, a theory to 

 the effect, that their constructors must have been a tribe of the ancient 

 Scythians, who having wandered into this remote part of Asia, prefer- 

 red a settlement on the Hills they had discovered, to the hopeless 

 imdertaking of a return ; and pursuing their hypothesis, and discover- 

 ing instances in tlie customs and habits of the present Todars, which 

 assimilate them to the race which liistory describes under the name of 

 ScythianSjthey pass on to the conclusion that their ancestors were found- 

 ers of these tombs, and the descendants of the ancient Scythians. But 

 this assumption is in my opinion erroneous. So prejudiced and bigoted 

 a race as the Todars would naturally cherish, with the utmost veneration 

 and soKcitude, any vestiges of mortality, which their most vague tradi- 

 tion should point to as monuments of their ancestors ; and therefore, 

 when we find them offering not the slightest objection to the cairns 

 being broken open and their contents rifled, and even voluntarily guid- 

 ing strangers to unexplored ones, aiding them in the work of destruction, 

 it is reasonable to conclude that they form no link of communication 

 between the present race of Todars, and any tribe of people by whom 

 these singular monuments may have been raised. 



AU clue being thus lost, it would be idle to follow out further any 

 Bpeculation as to the history of the Neilgherries prior to the first 

 coming to them of the Todars, for, as no coins or inscriptions or even 

 hieroglyphics have been found in any of the cairns, or on their con- 

 tents, there exists no evidence whatever by which inquiry could be 

 guided into the right course. 



With the Todars then, commences the only (partially) known history 

 of the Neilgherries. 



At the time of their immigrating, they probably found no aboriginal 

 inhabitants settled on them, and seeing, in the solitary and inaccessible 

 character of the mountain region which they had discovered, a fitting 

 spot for the undisturbed exercise of their singular religion, and pecu- 

 liar pastoral habits — for the former of which they had possibly en- 

 dured persecution amongst the tinbes of the plains — they determined 

 on permanently occupying it. Ages, according to their belief, must 

 have passed while they remained in undisturbed possession of the Hills, 

 extending over such a space of time, that they express their belief that 

 the founders of their tribe were created on them ; until at length a 

 small band of Kothers found their way up from the plains, and be- 

 sought permission to tiU certain tracts of land which they indicated. 

 From this era may be said to have commenced, the self-arrogated 



