1837.] 



and Kunnundaven Mountains. 



293 



and rings, are their only decorations ; they wear a white cloth, not 

 very clean, from above the shoulders, knotted in front, and made fast, 

 round the waist with a bandage, those to the east wear theirs simi- 

 lar to the females of the low country. The men are very simple in 

 their attire, having a couple of cloths, one worn round the head and 

 the other about the waist, seldom or never wearing sandals, and by way 

 of ornament, display a few golden trinkets pendant from their ears. 

 Their dialect is the Tamul, which they speak fluently, but they are 

 illiterate. The Kunnuvers burn their dead, but barren women, as also 

 those who die of the small pox, are buried. 



The Karakat Vellalers. — These people are the primitive inhabitants 

 of Unjeenad, or five counties or portions into which this division 

 appears to have been divided on their first settlement in these regions. 

 They are considered a people of superior caste, their customs and man- 

 ners affording indications of it, though they are not in any manner 

 esteemed above those of the same caste in the low country. A bramin 

 us ually performs the duties at their temple, and the other ceremonies, 

 marriages, &c. are performed by a pundarum, or priest of their own 

 sect, speaking the low Tamul ; most of them are illiterate, but a 

 Tamul school has of late been established at Murraoor. They 

 are a very abstemious race, and rice constitutes their princi- 

 pal food, as also tire, milk and butter, nor have they any 

 aversion to fowl and animal food, and use ghee, (butter clarified), 

 as a substitute for oil ; with it they also anoint themselves pre- 

 vious to bathing ; they are not addicted to spirituous or fermented 

 liquors, but opium is in use among them in moderation, and they 

 chew and smoke tobacco. The apparel worn by both sexes does not 

 differ in the least from that of the inhabitants of the plains, consisting 

 chiefly of coarse white cloths ; the women, besides the small ornaments 

 worn in the nose and ears, decorate their arms with silver bracelets, 

 and those whose circumstances will not admit of its being of silver 

 have them made of brass ; a few of the men have one of the exterior 

 membranes of the nose bored, and all invariably decorate their ears 

 with rings ; sandals for the feet are prohibited among them—they are 

 known to associate with the Kunnuvers to the east , though their cus- 

 toms and manners greatly differ ; both castes make no scruple of eating 

 what is cooked by the other, but a Kunnuver when invited to an enter- 

 tainment by a Karakat, is not admitted to that part of the house 

 where the meals are dressed, nor is he allowed to touch any of the 

 cooking implements. This class by the laws of their sect are contract- 



