156 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITAXTS 
tioned, also Corawar. The Koravas or Koramas, moun- 
taineers, are indeed a tribe widely spread in Soutliern India. 
They are identical with the Kuruvas, of whom I shall speak 
later on. To the mountain climbing Malaca, whom I 
noticed in Part I on p. 49, correspond the terms Koraca, Korea 
and Korsa unless they are taken as modifications of Korava. 
We find these people especially in the Kanarese districts. 
They are well known as basket-makers.^^ 
The Todas. 
The Todas or Tudas, as these pastoral rulers of the 
Blue Mountains, or Nllaqiri of South India, are generally 
called, have to a certain extent baffled all inquiries con- 
cerning their origin. But there is no doubt that they belong 
to the Gaudian branch of the Gauda-Dravidian group. The 
supposition that the Todas are connected with the African 
Ethiopian has, I think, no foundation whatever.^^ 
The question whether they are aborigines of, or immi- 
grants into, the country they at present inhabit, has been 
much discussed. The probability is that, according to their 
traditions, they left their original abodes and settled on the 
Nilagiri moimtain range ; but the time when this migration 
actually took place is shrouded in mystery. Tet, even if 
they ascended from the plains to the Nilagiri hills, this 
circumstance does not militate against the fact that originally 
in their old homes they were mountaineers. At all events 
very many centuries must have elapsed since their settlement 
on the Nilagiri. They possess, so far as we can ascertain, 
no trustworthy traditions, no inscriptions, nor any literature 
concerning their ancient history. 
68 See p. 73. 
69 See Lieutoniint- Colonel W. E. Marshall's A Fhrenoloffkt amongst the 
Todas, p. 4: "There is much of the ' blameless Ethiopian ' about, them: 
something of the Jew and of the Chaldaean in their appeai"ance." " On 
the eve of sending this work to the press, I would beg again to urge my 
belief in the connection Wtween the Dravidian Tcdi and the Elhiop." 
