NEILGHERRIES. 
207 
beards. Their deportment is remarkably frank and 
easy, their dispositions generous, and their manners 
altogether peculiarly agreeable to Europeans, be- 
cause free from the fulsome sycophancy of the 
Hindoos. Their costume somewhat resembles the 
Roman toga, and consists of one piece of cotton 
cloth wound round the body, leaving the right arm 
at liberty, and thrown over the left shoulder. In- 
deed, altogether there is a striking resemblance to 
the ancient Romans about these singular people ; 
quite sufficient, certainly, to encourage the research of 
the curious. True it is that they believe themselves 
to be aboriginal inhabitants of these mountains ; 
but they have no history of their forefathers, no sort 
of records, no remnants even of tradition, and scarcely 
any religion, except a few vague notions which have 
evidently been borrowed from the Hindoos. They 
possess no knowledge of writing, and their language 
is said to have no affinity, either in root or inflec- 
tion, to any other Oriental tongue. When, to all 
these circumstances, we add that, in several parts of 
Southern India, Roman* and Byzantine coins, and 
other relics, have been discovered, I cannot but think 
that their Roman origin may be fairly suspected ; 
at all events, the speculation must be well worthy 
of scientific investigation. 
* In a. d. 1800, a Roman urn was discovered below the foun- 
dation of an ancient building at Palasi, in Koimbatoor, containing 
a great many coins of Augustus and Tiberius, which are, I believe, 
now in the possession of the East India Company. This is one 
instance only among many such discoveries. 
