The Ethnology of India, 137 
eountry by the classes who considered them too low for this decent 
practice. Al] the Teer and Shanar people are said to be by caste 
or profession palm-growers or toddy-drawers, in allusion to the prin- 
cipal product of their native regions. ‘ Teer’ it seems means ‘ Island’ 
and the Teermen are generally understood to be Islanders or immi- 
grants by sea. Their relationship to the Maldivians is spoken of, 
but that is a petty group, and the only people to whom it is clear 
that they are related are the Singhalese. Iam not acquainted with 
Singhalese ethnology, but the Singhalese whom I have seen seemed, 
I think, to be a fine-featured straight-haired people with no dash of 
the Indian Aborigines and like the Teers, only somewhat darker and 
somewhat different in dress, &c. Caldwell speaks of the Teers as 
being a reflex of the previous Hindoo emigration to Ceylon. Yet if 
all the accounts be correct, it is difficult to suppose all the congeners 
ef the Teers to have come from Ceylon. Not only are the Teers 
very numerous in Malabar, where they form a great proportion of the 
population, but all the Shanars farther south are stated to be of the 
same race, as are the Billiaru (said to mean~‘ Bow men’), the lower 
race in Canara, and a considerable number of people related to the 
latter who are found in Mysore, and there called Halaya Paika or old 
Paiks. Some of these people are, however, I believe much darker and 
less good looking than the proper Teers. The latter are also said to 
have contributed to form the Moplahs. If so large a population has 
immigrated, it must have been a long time ago. I said I think that 
there can be little doubt of their relationship to the Singhalese. It 
would seem from the published accounts, that the Singhalese are not 
Dravidian in language and manners, but derive the main portions of 
their language and religion, and perhaps of their civilisation, from 
Bengal and Magadha. That they received their present Buddhism 
from Magadha, and much of their language from a Sanscritic source, 
there can, I believe, be no doubt. But here also Western elements 
may be mixed with the other, and very careful inquiry is necessary. 
It would be curious if it proved that, as it were in the three 
extremities of India, in Cashmere in the north protected by moun- 
tains, Bengal in the east protected by the marshes of the Ganges 
and Berhampootra, and parts of Ceylon and Malabar on the south. 
protected by distance and water, there remain three remnants of the 
