ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 201 



In other respects besides their distinguished appear- 

 ance the Todas differ from their neighbours. Far from 

 demanding pice (money) at the mere sight of Europeans, 

 they would have been mortally offended at any immediate 

 payment for their hospitality to us. Our making them some 

 return later was mere courtesy, and as such accepted. 



When we were taking leave they told us that their great 

 annual festival was about to begin, and that no strangers 

 might be present ; but I imagine that none who knew any- 

 thing about it would wish to be, at any rate at near quarters. 

 Just then the first screeching notes of that discordant music 

 reached our ears, setting our teeth on edge, and we were only 

 in haste to be gone far enough out of eye and earshot, 

 wishing we had chosen any day but this for our visit. We 

 knew only too well the sort of thing it would be towards 

 nightfall : men and women working themselves up to a pitch 

 of madness by their frenzied dancing to wild music, and 

 buffaloes by dozens being driven into the circle to be 

 slaughtered — not speedily and done with, but with long- 

 protracted agonies — while the songs and chantings, dances 

 and orgies constituting the sacrificial rites dragged on into 

 the dawn. If over then it would be an unusually short 

 affair ; three days of it was more likely. 



Neither do they spare their own bodies and blood ; it 

 is the priests of Baal over again, or rather such rites have 

 always been : ' For they cried aloud, and cut themselves 

 after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood 

 gushed out upon them/ The ' manner ' of the Todas is 

 precisely the same to-day. In spite of their lofty air and 

 high-mindedness they are true savages after all. 



It is said that the wild human cries and the lowing of the 

 miserable buffaloes can be heard for miles. The sound of 

 them carries far, echo answering echo across the valleys and 

 along the hilltops. And for all their jealousy of observa- 

 tion they cannot prevent the eyes of strangers being on 



