1856.] Aborigines of the Nilqiris. 499 



tion to the point, desiring him to procure me, if he could, some 

 sculls* and photographic portraits. Of the latter he obtained for me 

 two, which are herewith transmitted, and which Sir James sent me 

 with the following remarks. " I am not much versed in these 

 matters, and I confess I was at first insensible (like others) of the 

 Tartaric traits you speak of, the roman nose and long beard of the 

 Todas more especially making me fancy there was something 

 Semitic in their lineage. But when I showed the passage in your 

 letter to Dr. McOosh, he said you were right, and that in spite of 

 the high nose, there were strong Tartaric marks, particularly in the 

 women. The Badagas who are considered to be of as old date in 

 the hills as the Todas, have a very uniform cast of countenance, not 

 easily distinguishable from the ordinary inhabitants of the plains 

 below the hills." These last are of course Dravirian or Tamulian, 

 and the comparison drawn is therefore instructive, and doubly so 

 when we advert to the indubitable evidence of language, which 

 leaves no doubt as to the common origin of the highland and low- 

 land, the uncultivated and the cultivated, races of Southern India, 

 as we shall presently see. 



Upon the origin and affinity of the highlanders Sir James observes, 

 " People who know a good deal of the Todas say, that wherever 

 they may have originally come from, they have less claim to be 

 considered aborigines of these hills than the Kotas, not more than the 

 Badagas, and are thought not to date higher than some 400 years 

 in their present abode." Mr. Metz, the resident Missionary, who 

 furnished the vocabularies, observes on this head, " The Kotas have 

 so much intercourse with the Badagas that they are often not con- 

 scious whether they speak Badaga or their own language. Their 

 original home was Kollimale, a mountainous tract in Mysore. The 

 Kotas understand the Todas perfectly, when they speak in the Toda 

 tongue, but answer them always in the Kota dialect, which the 

 Todas perfectly understand. 



A Toda tradition states that the Todas, Kotas and Kurumbas 

 had lived a long time together on the hills before the Badagas came. 

 I know places on the hills where formerly Kurumba villages existed 



* Neither Sir James nor any of the other parties, I applied to, could obtain 

 for me any sculls. 



3 t 2 



