?66 



NATURE 



[SErTEMBER 22, IQIO 



by the Kotas. Mr. Thurston's account of these people 

 forms one of tlie best articles hi his worlc. Tliev 

 hve in dread of the more savage Kurumbas, Ijv origin 



Negritos, wlio, lilce many other secluded races, are 

 supposed to possess the power of necromancy. Every 

 Badaga family pays them a sort of retaining fee in 

 the shape of an annual tax and special dues :it funeral 

 and pregnancy rites, in return for 

 which the Kurumba is bound to 

 treat cases of diabolical possession or 

 of the evil eye by means of appro- 

 priate spells. But the Kurumba 

 needs to be cautious in exercising 

 these uncanny powers, for instances 

 are quoted of cases in which he has 

 been suspected of unfair dealing, and 

 "his hut is surrounded at night, and 

 the entire household massacred in 

 cold blood and their houses set on 

 fire." 



At the head of the social system 

 stand the Brahman and the Toda. 

 The entry of both into the social 

 system of south India is compara- 

 tively modern. Mr. Lewis Rice, in 

 his recent summary of the epi- 

 sjraphical evidence from Mysore and 

 Coorg, finds that there is no record 

 of Brahinans in those regions before 

 the second century of our era ; and 

 other authorities, like that great 

 scholar, the late Dr. Burnell, fix 

 their migration from the north at 

 even a later date. This fact ac- 

 counts for two interesting character- 

 istics of religious and social life. 

 The Brahman being a newcomer, 

 and not, as in northern India, Fi.;. 



evolved from the family- priests of 

 the invading tribes from Central .\sia, reached the 

 south with all his tabus and restrictions well estab- 

 lished, and these were intensified by contact with the 

 NO. 2134, VOL. 84] 



non-Aryan tribes, who were regarded as Quite outside 



the p.-iic of orthodoxy. The result was twofold. In 



the first place, the line of distinction between the 

 Brahman and the outcast was 

 more clearly marked than in 

 the north ; and, secondlv. south 

 Indian Brahmanism, affected bv 

 its environment, and saved 

 from the disturbing influences 

 of cataclvsms to which it was 

 exposed in north India from the 

 successive invasions of foreign 

 tribes like .Scythians, Huns, and 

 Mongols, W'as permitted to 

 develop on lines peculiar to it- 

 self, and thus assumed a char- 

 acter very different from that 

 \\ hich it displays in the Panjab, 

 I he Gangetic Valley, and the 

 Drita of Bengal. 



The special characteristics of 

 ^(luth Indian Brahmanism are 

 ninst effectively illustrated by 

 Mr. Fawcett's excellent account 

 111 the Xambutiris of Malabar, 

 with their intense craving after 

 w hat they deem personal purity, 

 I heir elaborate system of tabus, 

 ind their placid, reflective life 

 ^pent in an endless round of 

 iKiborate ceremonial and devo- 

 ii(in to the study of the Sanskrit 

 ^^•riptures. In these respects 

 they hold a position uniaue 



uthcrri l.idia." among the Brahmans of India, 



and the remarkable phase of 



religious and social life illustrated by them deserves 



attentive study. 



Even more interesting is that remarkable race, the 



TchI.iv. Mi. I huiston has wisely referred his re.-iders 





to the exhaustive monograph on this tribe by Dr. 

 W. H. R. Rivers, an excellent example of the success- 

 ful application of the intensive methods of study 



