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APRIL, 1874.]
ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES.
93
ARCHÆOLOGICAL NOTES. BY M. J. WALHOUSE, late M.C.S.
I.-A Toda "Dry Funeral." THOUGH much has been written about the groves and patches of wood, or wherever they
1 Todas of the Nilgiri Hills of late years, could escape, and a long time was spent in chas. and their remarkable funeral ceremonies have ing and heading them. At last they were caught been carefully and vividly described by Lieut-Col. and dragged towards the kraal, seven or eight T. Marshall in his handsome volume, "A Preno- Todas clinging to the horns, neck, and head logist amongst the Todds;" and by Lieut.-Col. of each, weighing them down, whilst others W. Ross King (Journal of Anthropology, No. I.) pushed behind, amid a great shouting and howl. and others, yet such is the antiquarian and ing. Two buffaloes were thus dragged into ethnological interest of the subject, that another the kraal through the entrance, across which account of their most striking observance, "a strong bars were immediately put; the other dry funeral," may not be altogether super- buffaloes were dragged up to the wall, pushed till fluous, especially as each account may contain their forefeet rested on it, and then shoved head some point that slipped the others, and the one over heels into the kraal. All this time the now submitted records an instance earlier in | Tod â women were sitting in clusters by the date than any already described. In December hut and near the kraal, wailing and weeping 1854 I went to assist' at the "dry funeral” incessantly. They reminded one exactly of of two Todas, one of whom had died some the Keeners at an Irish wake, and their cry months before ; but it is the convenient and was like the keen. Like the poorer Irish, too, economical custom of the tribe not to hold a they could command tears at will, and as the grand solemnity till two or three have died, and former, when gathered at a wake, may at one then make it serve for all. The following notes moment be seen laughing and chatting, and were written after each day of the ceremonial. then, on a neighbour or kinsman arriving and The spot was seven miles from Ootacamund,'out raising the lamentation, begin to clap their along the Paikara road leading from the former hands together and shed torrents of tears with place to the Wynâd, where less than a mile to him, so these Tod â women were now talking the east of it there was a large circular cattle- unconcernedly, and then all at once sobbing, kraal, and near it a solitary Tod â hut with itswailing, and streaming with tears. They were peculiar waggon-headed thatched roof. The kraal loaded with ornaments-massive armlets, mostly was enclosed by a stone wall sinking on the brass, but some silver, of curious shapes, said inner side below the level of the ground, the to be worth fifty rupees and more ; necklaces also floor of the circle being four feet lower than the of similar design, to one of which a large round surface without. The largest number of the gold tali, two inches in diameter at least, was Tod & race that I have ever seen were assem- suspended. Some of the women had broad gold bled by the kraal and hut-nearly 200 men, half pieces, Venetian and Spanish, hung round as many women, and swarms of children; so their necks; these, they said, were talismans, numerous were the latter that, contrary to the or heirlooms, from which they could never part, prevalent impression, * I was then persuaded, and must have found their way to the Hills from what subsequent observation has confirmed, the Malabar Coast, possibly taken thither in that the Todas are not a perishing people. the adventurous ships of Vasco de Gama. The Ten buffaloes were to be sacrificed at this fune- women's fingers were also covered with ringe ral, and after some delay a number of Todas bearing two-anna or four-anna pieces set on ran to the herd that was grazing on the hill. stalks; their ornaments, hair, and all their appurside to drive the selected victims towards the tenances, even to leaf umbrellas, were plentifully kraal. The animals bolted in all directions, adorned with bunches of little white cowries. some up the opposite hill-sides, some into the Just after the buffaloes had been tumbled
• "It is rarely that there are more than two or three and probably the time is not far distant when the Todas, children, and it is not at all an uncommon thing to find only whose numbers for years past have been gradually declina single child, while many families have none at all. This ing, will have passed away." --The Tribes in habiting the must eventually lead to the extinction of the tribe altogether, Neilgherry Hills, by the Rev. J. F. Metz, 1864.
