170 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
number at 1,122 souls, 55 Kotas are assigned to the Bombay 
Presidency.^' 
It seems probable that the Todas and Kotas lived near 
each other before the settlement of the latter on theNilagiri. 
Their dialects too betray a great resemblance, and, if my 
conjecture concerning the original name of the Todas is 
confirmed, their names at first were also much alike.^* The 
Kotas are the only hill people who are not afraid of the 
Todas, and they treat them occasionally even with bare 
courtesy, though, as a rule, a Kota, when meeting a Toda 
and Badaga, lifts both his hands to his face and makes his 
obeisance from a distance. They do also not, like the other 
hill-tribes, stand in awe of the mysterious power of witch- 
craft, with which the Todas are credited. 
According to a tradition of theirs they lived formerly 
on Kollimalai, a mountain in Mysore.^^ They possess, like 
most Hindus, a tradition concerning their special creation. 
Their god, Kamataraya, perspired once profusely and "he 
" wiped from his forehead three drops of perspiration, and 
*' out of them formed the most ancient of the hill-tribes, viz., 
*' the Todas, Kurumbas, and Kotas. The Todas were told to 
" live principally upon mUk ; the Kurumbas were permitted 
liglit-skinned, having a copper color, and some of them are the fairest- 
skinned among the Hill tribes. They have well formed heads, covered 
with long black hair, grown long and let loose, or tied up carelessly at 
the back of the head. . . The women are of moderate height, of fair huild 
of body, and not nearly so good-looking as the men." E&id also Breeks' 
Primitive Tribes of the If'ita^iris, pp. 40-47 : and Metz. pp. 127-i;5'2. 
S3 The Census mentions 3,232 KotaimiH in the North-Western Provinces, 
1,112 Kotakas, 572 Eotayas and 1,076 Kottharas in Madras. 
8« See Rev. F. Metz, loco citato, p. 127 : " The close affinity existing 
between the language of the Todas and that of the Kotas leads me to believe 
that both these tribes came from the same quarter, and that they probably 
settled on the Neilgherries at about the same period." 
8* See Metz, ibidem, p. 127 : " According to one of their traditions, the 
Kotas formerly lived on a mountain in Mysoi-e, called Kollimale, after which 
they named tho fir.st village they built on the Neilgherries. They now 
occupy seven tolei-ably largo villages, all of which are known by the general 
nams of Kotagiri, or Cow-killers' hill." 
