182 Analysis of the Mackenzie Manuscripts, [March, 



bundle of straw and the large serpent, I am of opinion that this is an 

 enigma, and covers some more recondite meaning. Having in , the 

 Mackenzie papers sometimes met with a fact plainly narrated, and in 

 others veiled by fable, metaphor, and symbols, I have learned not hastily 

 to dismiss such seemingly crude orientalisms, but to try to look through 

 them ; and in this instance, without pretending to solve, what I am tole- 

 rably sure is a symbolical statement, I would throw out the conjecture, 

 whether it do not allude to the Meria-pujai, or human sacrifice, which 

 may possibly be the charm on which these C6ya people relied, and 

 which they may have practised, as well as the savage inhabitants of the 

 mountains of Goomsoor. 



The locality of Sri-hari-cotta is about twenty miles northward of 



Pulicat: the country about Gooty stretches thence northwestward; but 



Sri Sailam is farther to the north. These savages are found in the 



Goomsoor wilds and mountains, and from personal information received 



by me, there is a very similar kind of people dwelling in the woody 



mountains of the Dindigul province, to the south. In the persons of 



the Bheels they dwell on the Vindya (or BhindJ mountains ; and I 



have, in the paper before alluded to, shewn it to be probable that they 



inhabit the Baramahl hills to the north of Behar. The account of this 



people as carrying bows and arrows, living on roots, honey, or reptiles, 



agrees with intimations throughout the more local papers of the Mackenzie 



collection, and with current fables as to the Vedurs who seem to have 



been wild savage people, aboriginal when the Hindus first began to 



colonize it from the north. Thus we have a somewhat wide range of 



data for inductive evidence, in favor of this particular kind of people, 



under various subdivisions, having been the primary dwellers in the 



peninsula. The conclusion need not for the present be drawn ; but it is 



clearly indicated : to be followed, possibly, by other equally plain steps 



of historical deduction, arising out of the Mackenzie papers, by the aid 



of patience end perseverance. The point once established, that the 



Hindus are riot the aboriginal native inhabitants of the peninsula, does 



not seem to me of trifling magnitude-; and this point, I expect, will be 



fully proved, in the process of the present investigation. 



C:— MALAYALAM. 



Manuscript Book, No. 3, Countermark 896. 

 Section 5. — Kerala Upatti. An account of the Kerala, or Mala- 



yalam country* 

 This manuscript is stated to be copied from one then in the possession 

 of Dr. Leyden : the following is a brief abstract of the contents. 



