202 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITAMS 
Kiirumbas live particularly on the eastern side of the hills 
in their middle belts, while the Ndya or Ndyaka Kurumhas 
inhabit generally the lower slopes of this range as well as of 
the Wynaad. It appears that the latter are identical with 
those who are elsewhere called Jenu Kurumhas, or Honey 
Kurumbas, because they gather honey for their o^mi use as 
well as for sale. These Jenu Kurumbas are also found in 
Kurg. 
About the Kurumbas of the Nilagiri-Mountain-range, 
we are favoured with various pretty accurate accounts. 
Among these deserve special mention the writings of the late 
E-ev. Ferdinand Metz of the Basel Lutheran Mission, who 
as will pacify his resentment. The dead bodies of good men are burned, but 
those of bad men, in order to confine their spirits, are buried ; for, if they 
escape, they are supposed to occasion great trouble. It is not customary, 
however, to make any offerings to these e\Tl spirits. This caste has no 
hereditary chiefs ; but disputes are settled by the elders who never inflict a 
severer punishment than a mulct of some Bi tcl-Uaf. . . The tradition here 
is, that Cheruman Permal divided the whole of Mahyala among four families, 
who were called Rajas, but whose dominions were afterwards subdivided 
amongst innumerable petty chiefs, and younger branches of the original 
families. These four families, however, always maintained a superiority 
of rank, which they at this day retain. Thej are, the Coluta-nada Sdjd, 
commonly called Cherical ; the Venatra, or Raja, oj Travaiicore ; the Feriini- 
burupa, or Cochi Raja, and the Ernada, or Tamuri. The dominions of the 
latter were originally very small. The same story concerning them is told 
here {Pynr or Eivurmalay) that was related at Calicut. In process of time 
the Curumhara famUj', who seem to have been a branch descended from the 
Cochi Rajas, seized on a part of Coluta-nada, which included all the northern 
parts of Slalayalt. Amongothcr usurpations, this family seized on Eiritrmalay, 
of which they were afterwards stript by the ancestoi-s of the three Wau- 
namar. Another Kshatrij-a family called Co^ny/(«i')'!/ (Co<io<«), who seem to 
have been descended from a yoimger sister of the Curumhara Jidjiis, seized 
on another portion of Coluta-nada lying between Tcllic/un-ff and the Ghats. 
The Curumhara Nuda Rajas hecAme extinct in the Malabar ye;ir 954 (177S- 
1779), five years after Hydi r invaded the country." 
About the Kurumbas of Southern India consult also Abbe Dubois' De- 
scription of till- People of India, second edition, p. 312, and the Manual of 
Madura by Mr. J. H. Nelson, Part II, pp. 0-t, 65. 
Compare Rov. F. Jletz The Tribes iiihahitiny the Neilgherry Hilh, 
pp. 115-126: "The Todas divide the Kurumbas into tlu-oe classes — The 
Mullu Kurumbas, the Naya Kiu-umbas, and the Panias. The two latter live 
in the Wynaad. The Panias are not looked upon as sorcerers, as ;ue the other 
two classes, and are chiefly employed as the laboi-ei-s of the Badagas who 
