!838.] 



Topographical Report on the Neilgherries. 



101 



usually six feet high, and six feet wide, being curious oblong huts, 

 formed of bamboos, bent into long, narrow gothic arches, covered 

 neatly with ihick thatch, and closed at both ends with wicker work 

 of bamboo, and plastered over with mud ; in one end there is a small 

 opening, close to the ground, not quite two feet high, and fifteen 

 inches wide, through which the inhabitants creep ; three or four huts 

 form the little hamlet or mund as it is called, usually placed in a highly 

 picturesque and luxuriant spot, affording shelter to themselves, and 

 food for their cattle. In each mund there is a separate hut of a better 

 structure and materials, and larger size, than the others, devoted to 

 their religious rites ; but in none of them is there any idol or symbol 

 which they worship. In some of the munds these temples (if for want 

 of a better epithet they may be so called), are not in form of a gothic 

 arch, but are conical, rising to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and 

 are like other temples insulated by a strong stone wall, three or four 

 feet high. These conical buildings differ in no wise in their interior 

 from the others. What the nature of their religion or superstition is, 

 as yet has not been satisfactorily ascertained ; the only ceremony I 

 have ever witnessed is a funeral, or sacrifice to the manes of their 

 deceased relatives. This ceremony is observed during four or five 

 days after the death of a person. The corpse is kept in the house, and 

 all the Todars, men and women, who are invited, assemble from all 

 quarters in the morning, at the temple of the mund where the family of 

 the defunct resides, bringing with them sawmay rice, jaggery, ghee, 

 and buffaloes ; the latter are only brought by near relations, and are 

 killed, with six or eight buffaloes of the deceased, round his body — the 

 carcasses are afterwards divided between the Koters and Currumbers. 

 During the whole time the corpse is kept, much dancing with music 

 takes place, and continual lamentation is kept up by the women rela- 

 tives, who moan and sob, but do not express their sorrow in articulate 

 words. To all a liberal allowance of boiled rice and ghee is distribut- 

 ed ; the people sit in groups, and the young men carry the provisions to 

 them. Sometimes a patriarchal old man is seen to go round the as- 

 sembly, where he is warmly received, and the women being seated bow 

 their heads to him, and he places a foot on their foreheads, as a friend- 

 ly recognition. 



In the afternoon, several active young men select and seize six to a 

 dozen buffaloes, from the herds grazing around, and drive them into a 

 circular inclosure, with repeated blows of huge clubs, made for the pur- 

 pose J and when they are in they beat them uniil they die, after which 

 the Koters, who are always in attendance on such occasions, cut up the 



