Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/35

Rh Oriya, and are called Chenchu vāndlu, and, like the Chenchus, believe that the god Narasimha of Ahōbilam married a girl belonging to their tribe. As a further example of the confusion concerning the Chenchus, I may quote the remarks of Buchanan * about the Irulas, who are a Tamil-speaking jungle tribe: "In this hilly tract there is a race of men called by the other natives Cad Eriligaru, but who call themselves Cat Chensu. The language of the Chensu is a dialect of the Tamil, with occasionally a few Karnata or Telinga words intermixed, but their accent is so different from that of Madras that my servants did not at first understand what they said. Their original country, they say, is the Animalaya forest below the ghats, which is confirmed by their dialect." In the Census Report, 1901, Chenchu is said to be the name by which Irulas of North Arcot and the Mysore plateau are called sometimes, and, in the Census Report, 1891, Chenchu is given as a sub-division of the Yānādis. There can be little doubt that the Chenchus and Yānādis are descended from the same original stock. Mackenzie, in the local records collected by him, speaks of the Chenchus as being called Yānādi Chenchus. The Chenchus themselves at the present day say that they and the Yānādis are one and the same, and that the tribes intermarry.

In Scott's 'Ferishta,' the Chenchus are described as they appeared before Prince Muhammad Masúm, a son of Aurangzib, who passed through the Kurnool district in 1694, as "exceedingly black, with long hair, and on their heads wore caps made of the leaves of trees. Each man had with him unbarbed arrows and a bow for hunting. They molest no one, and live in caverns or