180 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
neck of tlie woman ; according to others this is not the case. 
This discrepancy may be explained by some having adopted the 
usual Hindu customs, while others still keep aloof from them. 
With respect to their religious worship the same observation 
may hold good. There is no doubt that originally they did 
not worship any Hindu deities, nor did they in consequence 
perform any religious ceremonies at any Hindu shrine, nor 
revere the Brahmans as their religious superiors. In fact the 
and they act as carriers of salt and grain ; they cut firewood in the jungles 
and sell it in the villages ; they also gather and sell a leaf called karepaku 
(the black margosa) ; they eat game, flesh of all sorts, and jungle roots. 
They all, both women and men, pretend to tell fortunes ; these people, 
like all the wandering tribes of the district, are basket-makers. . . They 
are stout men and very hardy in constitution. Like the Yanadies they tie 
their hair in a knot over the forehead. Lieutenant Balmer, in his letter 
to the Collector, dated 22nd May 1865, No. 317, writes the following as to 
the Yerukalas : ' The crimes they are addicted to are dacoity, highway 
robbery, and robbery ; they are the most troublesome of our wanderers.' . . 
The gods whom they chiefly worship are Mahalakshmi and Venkatesvara (to 
whom the Trippati temple is sacred), and they also sacrifice to the pitris, or 
manes of their ancestors. They state generallj' that all gods worshipped by 
Hindus are worshipped by them. The old men of the tribe are priests. 
Each tribe or family has a god, which is carried about with the encampment. 
One, which I have seen, was a piece of wicker-work, about five inch square, 
cased in black canvas, one side being covered with white sea-shells imbedded 
in a red paste. It was called Polaperamma. Polj-gamy is practised among 
the Yerukalas, and the number of wives is only limited by the means of the 
husband. There is no polyandria, nor is there any trace of the custom, 
which sometimes is found among rude tribes, of the brothers of a family 
having their wives in common. The marriage string is always tied round 
the neck of the wife. The females are said not to marry till they are full 
grown. The ceremony usually takes place on a Sunday, puja having been 
made on the Saturday. Kice mixed with turmeric is poured on the heads 
of the married couple ; the marriage string is tied on, and the ceremony 
is complete. During the lifetime of her husband a wife may not marry 
another man, but after his death she may if she wishes. . . A man supports 
all his children by all his wives. If he h;is a great number, the brothers 
will take some of them ; but when they are grown up they return to their 
father's family. Sons so reared will, throiigh gratitude, support their uncles 
in old age. . . I have collected a number of words and phnises of the 
Yerukalas among themselves — a language which is unintelligible to the 
Telugu pLiople. The most cursory glance at these is sufficient to produce 
the conviction that it is a Tamil dialect. It has been considerably mixed, 
as is to be expected, with Telugu and Canarese, but in it« structiire it is 
plainly Tamil. The Yerukalas undcrst^and Tamil when spoken, and it is 
superfluous to state analogies between their dialect and Tamil, inasmuch as 
