APPENDIX. Ixix 



and the Ukh,* which are of constant occurrence in the Toda, and which 

 in respect to the vernacular languages of the plain are peculiar to the 

 Ta.Tnilj and its sister dialect, the Malayal'ma. Besides these, the pro- 

 nouns, the plural, the honorary termination of verbs, and the negative 

 verb, come nearer to the Tamil than to any of the other dialects. 



With these exceptions, however, it diifers widely, and bears so little 

 affinity in genus, either to it or to any of the dialects of the present 

 day, that although these lulls have now been the seat of the principal 

 coUeotor's cutcherry for the last ten years, there is no instance of its 

 having been acquired by any one of the native servants, sufficiently for 

 them to understand the expression of the simplest occiurence. 



They have no written character, nor any visible symbol by which to 

 communicate their thoughts ; and the language being merely oral, it is 

 of com'se the more difficult to acquire. 



At the foot of these mountains, and for a short distance within the 

 forests, extending from their base into the plains, hve a race of people, 

 commonly known by the name of Erulars. They are divided into two 

 classes, one called TTrah, the other Ciu^tah. 



Above these, at a height varying from one to two thousand feet, in 

 the clefts of the mountains, and little openings in the woods, with 

 which at this elevation they are girt, hve another race, calling them- 

 selves Curumbars. This race are all one class. 



People, answering to the general description of both "these tribes, are 

 to be met with in many of the mountainous parts of the Peninsula, but 

 the Erulars of this vicinity dififer from them in many particulars ; and 

 the Curumbars, from their connexion with the tribes who inhabit the 

 more elevated parts of mountains, and particularly with the Todas, are 

 now quite distinct from the people bearing this name in other parts of 

 the country. 



Neither of these tribes know the use of the plough, or at least they 

 do not use it to till any part of the lands which they occupy ; and 

 being quite unskilled in all the arts of Kfe, their state of being is but 

 little removed from that of utter uncivilization. 



Their languages are jargons, formed from a mixture of those of the 

 nations nearest to them, such as the Tamil, the Carnataca, or the Ma- 

 layal'ma ; that of the Curumbar having a considerable intermixture of 



* At the present day, however, these two sounds are very imperfectly 

 expressed in either the Tamil or the Malayal'ma, and it is not uncom- 

 mon for other sounds to be substituted for them. 



