In the “hill country” of India live many curious brown peoples whose languages are different from the Aryan tongue of the Hindus. These peoples, called Dravidians, are considered the earliest occupiers of India. Among them no tribe is more curious than the Todas. In some ways they are like the Ainu. Though brown, they are probably really white or Caucasic. They have the features, strong beards, and hairy bodies of whites, and in these respects are like the Ainu.

The Todas live on a tableland whose surface is covered with hills and rolling prairies. The hills are clad with coarse grass, and in some of the valleys are deep forests. The sunshine is bright and warm, and the dry season is long.

The Todas think only of their cattle. They do not hunt—in fact, they have no weapons; they do not cultivate any fields, getting what plant food they use from the Badagas and other neighboring tribes. But they do raise cattle—buffalo. Their villages are located in the midst of pasture land. No village is occupied for a whole year, but the people have always at least two villages and live first in one, then in the other. This is to have fresh pasture for their cattle and to be secure in the wet season. Toda villages contain but few houses, most of which consist of a single room eight feet square; sometimes two or three such rooms are set side by side—these do not open into each other, but each has an outside door. The roofs of these houses are thatched and project a yard or so beyond the house walls. The people sit under the shelter of these projecting roofs while they work or visit. There are no windows or chimneys to the houses. Everything in the house has its proper place—the pestle and mortar for pounding grain, the fireplace, and the raised bank of clay that serves the old people as a sleeping place. Near the house is a pen of stones and mud for the owner’s cattle.

All the cattle of the villages are herded together. There is one dairy for the village, and all the cattle are milked there by special dairymen. After milking, these men give out so much milk as is needed to every one in the village; from the balance they make butter which they divide to the men of the village according to the number of cattle each owns. We have already said that the Todas raise no crops. The Badagas and Kotas live on the land of the Todas; they are stronger and more vigorous than the Todas, and both tribes have weapons and could easily defeat them in battle. But they live in peace with them and pay them, as rent for their land, grains and other produce they need.

We have spoken of the common village herds. There are other (sacred) herds, which are cared for by dairymen priests, who are themselves almost worshipped. The priest has an assistant who cuts wood for him and otherwise serves him. When the priest milks the sacred cows, and he alone may do so, he repeats a prayer. He does the same when he carries the milk into the dairy. The village people treat him and his assistant with great respect and may not touch them, nor any of the implements they use. Men and boys may go to the wall that encloses the dairy buildings, but may not enter. Women may not go near the place.

The cows in the sacred herds have descended from sacred cows of the past. In each herd there is an especially sacred “bell-cow.” This means that she is the owner of an ancient cow-bell which the dairyman priest keeps in the dairy. It belonged to her mother before her and to her mother, and so on back. When a bell-cow dies, the bell has to be put upon her daughter. The priest brings it out from the dairy and waves it around and around the head of the cow morning and night for three days. As he does so he says:—

The cow wears the bell for three days and nights, after which it is taken off forever. It is not used again until the old cow dies and her daughter is then made bell-cow in her place.

Perhaps you would like to know how the priest fills his time? One day is much like another with him. When he rises he washes his face, hands, and teeth. He makes a little lamp from a leaf and after filling it with butter places five wicks in it. After lighting it he sets it to burn in front of the ancient bells and other sacred objects. He then takes his staff and bamboo milk pail and goes to milk the cows. He salutes them and prays to them before milking. Carrying the milk into the dairy, he sprinkles some drops upon the sacred bells as an offering and repeats the names of the gods. He then makes butter from the milk of the preceding day. His work is now done, and he prepares food for himself and his assistant. This man then drives the herd to pasture and gathers firewood. The last thing before going to sleep at night, the priest puts fresh butter and wicks into the little lamp before the bells.

The Todas have other curious customs, but we have no space to describe them. Their salutations, the naming of children, the yearly feast, when they eat a young buffalo bull (they rarely eat meat at any other time), and their funeral customs are all interesting. Every man who dies among the Todas has two funerals, called the green and the dry funeral, a year apart.