﻿IS6 ACCOUNT OF THE 



The Rookies are armed with bows and arrows, 

 spears, clubs, and dazvs, an instrument in common 

 use among' the natives of this province, as a hand 

 liatchet, and exactly resembling the knife of the 

 Nyars on the Malabar Coast, which is a most de- 

 structive \veapon in close combat. They use shields, 

 made of the hide of the Gyal, (a species of cow pe- 

 culiar to their hills;) and the inside of their shields 

 they ornament with sm.all pendulous plates of brass, 

 which make a tingling- noise, as the warriors toss 

 about tbcir arms, either in the fight or in the dance. 

 They also wear round their necks large strings, of a 

 particular kind of shell found in their hills; about 

 their loins, and on their thighs, immediately above 

 the knee, they tie large bunclies of long goat's hair, 

 of a red colour ; and on their arms the}^ have broad 

 rings of ivory, in order to make them appear the more 

 terriiick to their enemies. 



The Kookies chooit the steepest and most inacces- 

 sible hills to build their villages upon, Arhich, from 

 being thus situated, are called Paraks, or, in the 

 Kook'ie language, K'hooah. Every Parah consists 

 of a tribe, and has seldom fewer than four or five 

 hundred inhabitants, and sometimes contains one or 

 two thousand. Towards our frontiers, however, 

 where there is little apprehension of danger, a tribe 

 frequently separates into several smalL parties, which 

 forin so many different Parahs on the adjoining hills, 

 as may b^st suit their convenience. To give further 

 security to the Parc^hSy in addition to their naturally 

 strong situation, the Kookies surround them with a 

 thick bamboo pallisade ; and the passages leading 

 into them, of which there are commonly tour or fwe 

 in different quarters, they strictly guard, day and 

 night, especially if there is any suspicion of danger ; 

 but whether there is, or is not, they are at all times 

 extremely jealous of admitting strangers within the 

 Parah : they build their houses as close to each other 

 as possible, and make them spacious enough to ac- 

 commodate 



