OF BHARATAVARSA OR INDIA. 
161 
dian race, of whom Ravana was an ancient representative. 
This report is more likely to be true than that which des- 
cribes them as Eama's followers who eventually settled in 
the south."^ 
of value were in old times actually buried by the Todas, instead of being, 
as now, only offered to the flames and taken away. 2nd. ThesCj objects 
include iron spears, chisels, and styles ? at present unused by the Todas, 
but common in the cairns. The spears were of rather different shape 
from most of those figured. An old Toda, who had had possession of the 
spear of KotSn, but professed to have lost it, told me that it was something 
like these, but longer. The style is very like some used in Malabar, hol- 
low at the top ; one cannot, however, imagine that writing was ever a 
Toda accomplishment ; it may have been used for marking pottery. 3rd. 
The receptacle for the ashes and remains, instead of being indifferently 
placed at any side of the circle, was, in three cases out of four, at the 
north-east edge... (On p. 99.) Against the theory that the cairns belong to the 
Todas, it has been urged that they do not claim them. This is not strictly 
correct ; they do, as has been shewn, claim some. But even if the statement 
were entirely true, it is not of much consequence with a people like Todas. 
I have known a Toda, while pointing out the Azdram in which a funeral 
ceremony then going forward was to terminate, profess entire ignorance of 
the object of some other stone circles close at hand, obviously old Azdrams 
belonging to the same mand ; so that their disclaimer of the cairns carries 
little weight. It has been further stated that the cairns contain agricul- 
tural implements, and must therefore have belonged to a comparatively 
civilized people. Except the curious shears, which may have been used for 
various purposes, the only agricultural implements which have appeared in 
these investigations are sickles. These may have been used for cutting 
grass and bushes, and it is singular that, although the Todas do not now 
use any tool of the kind, they bum with the dead the Kafkatti, a large 
curved knife, apparently intended for some such purpose, although, except 
in one instance , the cairn sickles are of different shape. The Kafkatti, 
when committed to the flames, is bound round with cotton cloth, traces of 
which are often found on the razors in the cairns. On the whole, I think 
it is more satisfactory to assign the cairns to the Todas than to an unknown 
race." Read also Mr. H. B. Grigg's Manual of the Ntlagiri District, pp. 229- 
247 ; about the origin of the remains, see p. 241 ; and about the sculptured 
cromlechs consult this passage : " As regards the third class of monuments, 
none of the present hill inhabitants of the HUlsare capable of executing sculp- 
tures of even so elementary a degree of art as those on the cromlechs." Mr. 
M. J . Walhouse has in the third and fifth volumes of the Indian Antiquary 
written some articles on the funerals, &c., of the Todas, and in vol. VI., 
p. 41, he says : " At any rate it is clear that these circles (Azarams) are 
claimed and formed by the Todas." 
" See Captain A. Harkness's Description of a singular Aboriginal Race 
inhabiting the Summit of the Neilgherrg Hills, pp. 24, 25 : " They have 
some tradition bearing reference to a period about the time of Kavan, 
