412 Analysis of the Mackenzie Manuscripts, [Ma*, 



the fort, many of the Camdlar lost their lives ; some took to ships, be- 

 longing to them, and escaped by sea. In consequence there were no 

 artificers in that country. Those taken in the act of endeavouring to 

 escape, were beheaded. One woman of the tribe, being pregnant, took 

 refuge in the house of a chetty and escaped, passing for his daughter. 

 From a want of artificers, who made implements for weavers, husband- 

 men, and the like, manufactures and agriculture ceased, and great dis- 

 content arose in the country. The king, being of clever wit resorted 

 to a device to discover if any of the tribe remained, to remedy the evils 

 complained of. This was to send a piece of coral, having a fine tor- 

 tuous aperture running through it, with a piece of thread, to all parts of 

 the country ; with a promise of great reward to any one who should 

 succeed in passing the thread through the coral. None could accom- 

 plish it. At length the child that had been born in the chetty's 

 house undertook to do it ; and to effect it, he placed the coral over the 

 mouth of an ant-hole ; and, having steeped the thread in sugar, placed 

 it at some little distance. The ants took the thread, and drew it through 

 the coral. The king, seeing the difficulty overcome, gave great pre- 

 sents, and sent much work to be done ; whieh that child, under the 

 counsel and guidance of its mother, performed. The king sent for the 

 chetty, and demanded an account of this young man, which the chetty 

 detailed. The king had him plentifully supplied with the means es- 

 pecially of making ploughshares ; and having him married to the 

 daughter of a chetty, gave him grants of land for his maintenance. He 

 had five sons, who followed the five different branches of work of the 

 Camdlar tribe. The king gave them the title Panchayet ; down to the 

 present day there is an intimate relation between these five branches, and 

 they intermarry with each other ; while as descendants of the chetty tribe, 

 they wear thepunnul, or caste thread, of that tribe. Those of the Camdlar 

 that escaped by sea, are said to have gone to China. It is added that 

 the details of their destruction are contained in the Calingatu Bharani. 



Remark. Here is no doubt historical truth covered under the veil 

 of fiction and metaphor : it is particularly desirable to know if artificers 

 really emigrated from India to the eastward. The ruins of Manda, or 

 Mandu, remain without any records concerning that place, I believe, in 

 any known history. The Calingatu Bharani, a poem, is in the Macken- 

 zie collection ; and will come under notice hereafter. 



Section 10. — Account of the Curumbars, and a Massacre of them by 



treachery. 

 Under the rayer's government the Curumbars ruled in many districts. 

 They constructed forts in various places. They tried to make the 



