40 



Report on the Mackenzie Manuscripts, 



Jcurnal of Literature and Science No. IG) termed Codalii, in the Telu- 

 gu paper therein translated, it appears to assume more importance 

 than otherwise I should have attrihuted to it : for it seems that the 

 proper term is neither A7/o^ nor Codalu, hut Coya-jati (in the ordinary 

 X)ronunciation to the ear very similar to the enunciation of Khoi-jati) 

 and that they are a suhdivision of a much larger body of people. I am 

 contirmed in my supposition that the so-termed IV heels the north in 

 Guzerat, Szc. are of the same kind of people, though apparently more 

 closely analogous to the Chenju, or Irala, class. As regards the seem- 

 ing absurdity of the bundle of straw and tlie large serpent, I am of 

 opinion that this is an enigma, and covers some more recondite mean- 

 ing. 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 orien- 

 talisms, hut to try to look through them ; and, in this instance, without 

 pretending to solve what I am tolerably sure is a symbolical state- 

 ment, I would thrown out the conjecture, whether it do not allude to 

 the Meria pujai, or human sacrifice, which may possibly be the charm 

 on w hich these Coya people relied, and which they may have prac- 

 tised as well as the savage inhabitants of the mountains of Goomsoor. 



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

 Pulicat; the country about Gooty stretches thence N. westward ; 

 but Sri-sailam is further to the north. These savages are found in the 

 Goomsoor w'ilds 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 heels they dwell on ihe Vindya (or -fiAmc^) 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 the Behar. The account of 

 tliis people as carrying bow^s 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 Vedars, 

 who seem to have been wild savage people, aboriginal w^hen 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 and perseverance. The 



