APPENDIX. Ixvii 



are little more than three feet in height. The whole building is about 

 twelve feet in length, eight in breadth, and seven in height, from the 

 ground to the ridge of the roof. At one end is a little door, two feet 

 and half in height, by two feet broad, and this completes the whole 

 external appearance of each dwelling. At a short distance is an area, of 

 about forty or fifty yards in diameter, enclosed with a wall of rude 

 stones, piled one upon another without cement, and in which the herd 

 is secured during the night. 



Each is prettily situated on a gentle slope, occupying a beautiful 

 green on the borders of a wood, and with which, in most instances, they 

 are partially surrounded. But, migrating from one morrt to another, 

 or from one mountain side to that of another, as the seasons change, or 

 as the pastures in their immediate vicinity begin to fail, and cultivating 

 no grain or vegetables of any description, their morrts have none of 

 those appearances which denote the long-estabhshed and settled resi- 

 dence ; or which bespeak, on the part of the settler, pecuhar attachment 

 for the spot on which he lives. 



They do not breed poultry, pigs, sheep, goats, or animals of any de- 

 scription, except the buffaloe ; nor is the cow or ox (the creatures so 

 highly valued, and even venerated by the people of the low country), 

 held in any estimation, or considered worth keeping. 



The only articles which the Todas produce are butter and ghee ; 

 such of the latter as they do not require for their own consumption, 

 they dispose of to some of the neighbouring tribes, or barter for grain 

 and cloth, and these transport it to the low country. 



Evidently of a peaceful character, having no weapon of defence, no 

 fastening to their dwellings further than the little door previously 

 mentioned, (for, situated as their morrts are, they cannot be said to 

 have sought it either from the forest or morass :) no protection against 

 the wild beasts of the field, not even the nightly guardian or common 

 watch dog, hving rather in families than in societies, without any of 

 those bonds of union which man in general is induced to form, from a 

 sense of common danger, or to guard against the oppression of his 

 neighbours, and, as previously mentioned, migrating from one part of 

 the hills to another, the Todas pass their days in a manner quite pe- 

 cuhar to themselves, and apparently in all the silence, quiet, and rural 

 simphcity, characteristic of a patriarchal government and a pastoral 

 life. 



Few in number, as before observed, not exceeding six hundred, and 

 apparently a remnant of some tribe driven by religious persecution to 

 i 2 



