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carved monumental stones may be observed near the mention in the same section of irregular many villages. They are known as virgale, and marriages, may refer to the capture of the bride record the death of some village hero, whose by violende, instead of acquiring her by the more figure is carved in the lower compartment, often civilized practice of courtship and purchase. with some accompaniments indicative of the cause Nowhere is this practice found in greater force in which he fell.
at the present day, than in Australia. These, in a large number of cases, are seen to According to Professor Huxley's arrangement be cattle; and the frequency with which they are of the varieties of the human race, "the indigenous repeated led me to the conclusion that a practice population of Australia presents one of the best had prevailed there, like that of the cattle-lifting marked of all the types or principal forms of Ho common on the Borders between Scotland and mankind," With them he associates “the soEngland in the 14th to the 16th centuries. The called hill-tribes who inhabit the interior of the eramples, however, of such encounters are not Dakkan in Hindustan, and the ancient Egypconfined to frontier villages of opposing States, tians." It need not, therefore, be a matter of sur. but occur promiscuously. Now, as the exclusive prise if similar habits, with regard to intestine constitution of an Indian village tends to isolate plunder and marriages by violence, present it from the cultivation of friendly relations with themselves in their Hindu representatives. The its neighbours, it seemed probable that the bolder Hindus recognise eight descriptions of marriages, spirits of one township might occasionally take two of which, the most ancient, are characterized advantage of a favourable opportunity to pounce as acoomplished by force. That called irakkadan upon the cattle of another, especially among the is thus described, -" when bold men, becoming communities which I have elsewhere described as enamoured of a damsel adorned with large orna. constituting the predatory classes. These, in ments of gold, resolve to seize her by force; this the districts to which I refer, are the Beda and is the marriage-rite peculiar to the broad Marava Tribes. Conversing with my native and high-shouldered giants, who wander over instructor on the subject, I was struck with the the earth exhibiting their prowess." Still more coincidence between the cattle-raids described in applicable to the Australian mode is the paild. the second section of the Tolkappiyan and the cha union, in which "the possession of the sculptured effigies of the utrgale.
persons of females is obtained, while under the As well as I can recollect, that section refers to protection of their non-congenting relations, by the subject of clandestine marriage, as well as violence, and in a state of insensibility." The to that of oattle-lifting, the connection between term paisdcha is applied to an ancient, and which at first sight is not apparent. The former now obsolete, Dravidian dialect; and the name I passed over, as not then connected with my itself is used as one of opprobrium applicable to inquiries; but the latter, which appears to be evil spirits, a relic of which is found in the more particularly described under the name of demonolatry, or devil-worship as it is called, of pasuladigdram, contains an animated scoount the rudest aboriginal races of the south. May of the practice of cattle-lifting, which is said to it not, therefore, have been the original generio be "the origin of all wars;" while the term for name of the predatory tribes of the Indocattle, pasu, literally a cow, is said to represent Australoid group not only kine, but all harmloss creatures, and These crude ideas, founded on some hasty includes women, young unmarried persons of detached notes made to assist the memory many both sexes, children, &c. In a series of animated years ago, are merely thrown out as incitements stanzas, the plan, progress, and results of the raid to those qualified by knowledge and opportunity are vividly described under the title of vechi. to investigate the archaic study of Tamil, which turei, from the badge, vochi (Ixora Coccinia), has been so largely altered by later Aryan a plant worn by the leader and his men, followed interference. by the parguit, karandei, of the plunderers and The author of the Tolkdpplyam, Tiranadumagni, the rescue of the spoil.
is represented to have been the principal disciple My object in calling attention to this composi. of Agastya, deriving his name of Tolkappiyanêr tion, is, to suggest that a full translation will from his native place, which caused him to employ probably throw light on the ethnological condition it as the title of his great work. But it is by no of the early population of the south, particularly means improbable that the Tolkdpplyam is of of that portion which I have designated as the older origin and is a remnant of an earlier predatory tribes. It further occurs to me that Dravidian literature that flourished before the
Jour. Ethnological Society, N. 8. Vol. I. p. 112 (1869). (1870); Indian Antiquary, Vol. XV. p. 26. Jour. Ethnological Society, N. 8. Vol. IL p. 404 Ellia, Cural, p. 160.
