506 Aborigines of the Nilgiris. [No. 6. 



ha3c, hoc. But these forms are very imperfectly reproduced in the 

 verb, iDdeed can hardly be traced except in Badaga and Kurumba 

 where the following is unmistakeable evidence of them. 





Badaga. 



Kurumba. 



He strikes. 



Hui-d-an. 



Hui-t-an. 



She strikes. 



Hui-d-al. 



Huiyu-t-al. 



It strikes. 



Hui-d-ad. 



Huiyu-t-ad. 



The major and minor of gender in beings, not things, seem to bo 

 denoted by al and pe suffixes — 'words having still the independent 

 signification of man and woman. In Toda, moreover, adum marks 

 the common gender, as a separate pronoun, and tan, as a conjunct 

 prefix. I am not sure as to the major and minor of gender, because 

 the verb does not exhibit them in the peculiar manner of the culti- 

 vated Dravirian tongues, or otherwise. 



Noun. 



The papers furnish no sample of declension, but it may be safely 

 inferred that it is simply postpositional with cases ad libitum, or 

 none at all, according to the view taken of declension. Grender is 

 marked either by separate words, such as man, ivoman ; code, Tien ; 

 or, by sexual prefixes like our Tie-goat and she-goat ; or, lastly, the 

 generic word bears also a male or female sense, when the feminine 

 or masculine gender, as the case may be, is distinguished by the 

 fitting sign prefixed. So Burmese sa means child and boy, and 

 mi-sa, or female child, means girl. I know not whether the suffixes 

 van, val and du, or al and pe (pen, pern — the latter equal major 

 and minor of gender) are added to substantives as well as to quali- 

 ties, but I think not. Instances occur in Telegu but not gener- 

 ally in the Dravirian tongues, nor in the northern. 



The major and minor of gender (quasi, hie et hsec facilis ; hoc, 

 facile) are common in the Himalaya, Indo-China and Tibet, but I have 

 no where in the north found the fully developed masculine, feminine, 

 and neuter of the south. 



In regard to number, the Nilgirian nouns are very defective, having 

 no distinct and uniformly employed dual or plural inflexion or sign 

 But they seem to follow the cultivated Dravirian in so far as having 

 no dual, but having the double, or exclusive and inclusive, plural, at 



