﻿FROM CHUNARGHUR TO YERTNAGOODU^. 153 



in many inflances, been made good fabje£ls; but the 

 Coaiids are inferior in ftature, and Co wild, that every 

 attempt which had been made to civilize them had 

 proved ineifcftual. I never indeed met with a people 

 who fliewed lefs inclination to hold converfe of any 

 kind with ftrangers, than thefe mountaineers in gene- 

 ral. This difpofition in a great meafure fruftrated 

 every attempt I made to acquire information of their 

 manners and cuftoms; among which the facrifice of 

 birds, by fufpending them by the tips of their wings 

 to the trees and bufhes, on each fide of the road, and 

 leaving them to perifh by degrees, was almofl: the only 

 peculiar one I could difcover. The caufe of this 

 cruel pradice I never could learn ; yet I frequently 

 obferved, thgt although the birds were fufpened at a 

 convenient height for travellers to pafs under them, 

 the Goands would never do fo; but always took a cir- 

 cuit to avoid them. I once obferved a ram extended 

 by the feet in the fame manner. Their food appeared 

 to be the moft fimple imaginable, confnling chiefly 

 of the roots and produce of their woods. They go 

 for the mod part naked; and when pinched by cold, 

 they alleviate it by making fires, for which their forefls 

 fupply them with abundance of fuel ; and when the 

 heat of the fun becomes opprefl^ve, they feek (helter, 

 and recline under the fhade of large trees. 



May 14th. Having met with no moleflation durin"- 

 the three preceding marches, we arrived this day at 

 Nainpour ; where we encamped in a tope of Palmyra* 

 trees, clofe to the weft bank of the Godavery river, 

 and oppofite to the town of Badrachill. At this place, 

 the Rajah of PaloonJJiah collects taxes upon all goods 

 paffing through his country by this road; and there 

 were at this time about two hundred Hackerys^t and 

 a prodigious number of bullocks, detained, until the 



duties 



* Borajfus FiabcUiJormis ; + Country carts. 



