NATURE 



[Dec. II, 1873 



An aged Toda gave his account of the practice : — " I 

 don't know whether it was wrong or not to kill them, but 

 we were very poor, and could not support our children. 

 Now every one has a mantle (' putkuli '), but formerly 

 there was only one for the whole family, and he who had 

 to go out took the mantle, the rest remaining naked at 

 home, naked all but the loin-cloth (' kuvn '). We did not 

 kill them to please any god, but because it was our cus- 

 tom. The mother never nursed the child — no, never ! 

 and the parents did not kill it. How could we do so? 

 Do you think we could kill it ourselves ? . . . Boys 

 were never killed, only girls ; not those who were sickly 

 and deformed — that would be a sin (' papum ') ; but when 

 we had one girl, or in some families two girls, those that 

 followed were killed." 



Perhaps the ablest part of Colonel Marshall's work is 

 his tracing out of the social forces which brought about 

 this condition of society, the enforced equilibrium between 

 population and means of subsistence, leading a tender- 

 hearted people to systematic female infanticide, and then 

 causing a huddling together of the endogamous polyan- 

 drous clans to keep themselves aUve. It is no doubt true 

 that the entrance of new conditions, such as a state of 

 war or an advance in the arts, would have altered not 

 only the relation of the sexes but also the moral laws of 

 the people. Colonel Marshall's researches were especially 

 suggested and guided by Mr. M'Lennan's " Primitive 

 Marriage," and if a new edition is brought out of that 

 important treatise (now out of print and scarce), the 

 Todas will supply some items of valuable evidence to it, 

 bearing on ancient social conditions of mankind. 



Care must be taken, however, to interpret with proper 

 reservation the word "primitive," as used in these inquiries. 

 Colonel Marshall calls the Todas a " primitive tribe," and 

 argues from their customs to the condition of " primitive 

 races," nor is this objectionable if the word be meant only 

 to signify a comparatively early stage of society. But 

 the Todas are by no means primitive as representing 

 the earliest known grades of civilisation : they are not 

 savages, but a pastoral tribe in a condition much above 

 savagery, belonging to the great Dravidian race of South 

 India. Among them, moreover, may be noticed certain 

 curious customs, to be accounted for on the principle of 

 " survival in culture," and being apparently rehcs of a 

 former condition of the race difterent from the present. 

 The Todas are not now hunters, nor do they use bows 

 and arrows. But, at a certain time after marriage, the Toda 

 husband and wife go into the village wood, and kneel- 

 ing before a lamp at the foot of a tree, the wife receives 

 from the husband a bow and arrow made by him, which 

 she salutes by lowering her forehead to them. Taking 

 up the weapons, she asks, " What is the name of your 

 bow ?" each clan apparently having a different name for 

 its bow ; he tells her the name, and afterwards she depo- 

 sits the bow and arrow at the foot of the tree. Colonel 

 Marshall can hardly be wrong in his supposition that this 

 custom has come down from a former period when the Todas 

 actually carried such weapons. This is also confirmed by 

 their funeral rites, where among the articles burnt for the 

 dead man are a flute (an instrument they never use), 

 and a toy bow and arrows, which they get made for the 

 purpose by their neighbours the Kotas. When the author 

 got a man to buy him one, the Kota who made it asked 



"Who is dead.'" The inference is obvious, that the 

 Todas were hunters before they took to their absolutely 

 pastoral life. Nowadays, their cattle are all in all to them ; 

 not only their life but their religion turns on buffalo ; the 

 milkman is a divine personage too holy to be touched ; 

 the most sacred objects are certain ancient cow-bells, 

 and the dignity of the sacred bell-cows is handed down 

 from mother-cow to daughter-cow. The keeping up of 

 this sacred heritage in the female line leads Col. Marshall 

 to infer, at any rate ingeniously, that he has found here a 

 relic of ancient days when the rule of kinship on the 

 mother's side (which he considers with Mr. M'Lennan to 

 characterise primitive society) still prevailed ; it only now 

 holds good of bulls and cows, while among men and 

 women relationship is on the male side, thus following the 

 rule which is considered to belong to a higher stage of 

 society. It is not a new idea that the worship of the cow in 

 Egypt and India had its origin not in myth but in prac- 

 tical expediency, being craftily devised to prevent the 

 lives of such valuable creatures being wasted. But no- 

 where does this argument look so complete and rational 

 as among those thoroughgoing devotees of the milk-can, 

 the Todas. 



It is to be feared that the title of Col. Marshall's volume 

 may prevent its having all the popularity it deserves. Not 

 that this title is misleading, for he accepts and uses con- 

 fidently the now discredited phrenological system of 

 bumps and organs, and tabulates his series of Toda 

 skulls according to their Concentrativeness, Amativeness, 

 Veneration, &c. On this classification by phrenological 

 organs he founds a theory as to the relation between 

 civilisation and the shape of the skull. It appears, from 

 his description, that the Todas are a uniformly long- 

 skulled race, though, among his dimensions, I fail to find 

 anywhere the actual measurements of cranial length and 

 breadth, and canonlyguess from the portraits (which,bythe 

 way, are beautiful autotypes), that the proportions of these 

 two diameters may perhaps be something like 100 : 72 or 75 . 

 Now these dolichocephalic Todas being a kindly, harm- 

 less, indolent, unprogressive race. Col. Marshall proceeds 

 to connect their narrowness of skull with their want of 

 active energetic qualities, the phrenological organs of 

 which are placed at the side of the head. Thus he comes 

 to the conclusion that it is the brachycephalic tribes, with 

 their skulls broadened by the fierce conquering and pro- 

 gressive organs, which come to the front in the march of 

 civilisation. Well, no doubt there are various dolichoce- 

 phalic tribes who have remained at low stages of culture, 

 but how is it in the northern half of Asia, the abode of the 

 broadest-headed tribes of man, whom nevertheless the 

 comparatively long-headed Russians have for ages been 

 beating with one hand and civilising with the other. 

 Prof. Carl Vogt's treatment of the question is on a far 

 broader basis, where in a few lines of one of his lectures 

 he shows that both the extreme dolichocephalic and 

 brachycephalic tribes are savages or barbarians, while 

 the main work of civilisation has been done by people 

 who are neither the one nor the other, the mesaticephalic 

 or intermediate- headed races, such as ourselves. This is 

 one of the pomts which make the reader regret that Col. 

 Marshall did not keep his book waiting till he could 

 bring his opinions under discussion at the Anthropolo- 

 gical Institute or the Asiatic Society, which might have 



