1839] Report on the Mackenzie Manuscripts, 



21 



Note. — This section, concerning this wild and indomitable people, to 

 me seems a curiosity. 



Section 6. Account of the Conda Savaraln, or people of the hills of 

 the J ayapur district, in the province of Rajamahendri. 



The women of this tribe get wood from the forest, which they after- 

 wards sell, and exclusive of this small commerce, they also labour in the 

 cultivation of grain in the fields. After child-birth the women are under 

 regimen for three days only ; and, on the fourth, they go out to work in 

 the fields. There is no washerman-caste among them ; hence the wo- 

 men w ash the clothes of their households. In the hair lock, on the 

 crown of the head, and other circumstances, they have peculiarities. 

 They pay some small tribute ; assist the chiefs in times of trouble ; and 

 dwell, rot in thick forests, or mountain-fastnesses ; but on the edge of 

 the former, and near to the villages of the low country people, or Hindus, 

 Hence they are a degree more civilized ; and have acquired the distinc- 

 tive name of Conda Savaralu. They hold however with the Maliua sava- 

 raln that kind of intercourse which consists in mutually giving to each 

 other daughters in marriage ; marking affinity of tribe. When they go 

 to war they stick the feathers of a fighting cock, or of a stork, in their 

 hair; and then wear garments hanging downwards to their knees. They 

 wear a dirk or knife ; carry bows and arrows ; and use the horn of a kind 

 of deer, for a trumpet. They tight only in bushes ; but decline any 

 combat in the open plain. They make night attacks ; and they burn 

 down houses. It is said that they do not regard the tvound of a musket 

 ball, as they have a remedy for it : they are afraid only of a cannon ball • 

 for which, of course they have no remedy. They have no inlernal dis- 

 tinctions of tribes, or castes. Both men and women labour in the fields. 

 The writer here says that since they have the Janivaiidlu, as hiero- 

 phants, and are accustomed to eat flesh, and drink ardent spirits, at their 

 sacrifices, they appear to him to be of the Sacti-c\RS^ (an opprobrious 

 sect among the Hindus). The Janis allow no one to approach, or to 

 hear, while repeating their mantras, or formularies. 



Note. This I apprehend to be the class described by Mr. Stevenson's 



paper, translated by me, and printed in No. 16 of the Madras Journal 

 of Literature and Science. Discussion and difference of opinion having 

 arisen on the subject, I am happy to meet, in the Mackenzie papers, 

 with documents to elucidate, and I think set the question at rest. The 

 derivdition of the word Savaraln, seems to be the Sanscrit word Savara, -a, 

 barbarian or savage, with the addition of the Telugu plural lu. 



