Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/79

Rh consideration permit the then Government to have any control or authority over them. When tribute was demanded, the Cullers would answer with contempt: 'The heavens supply the earth with rain, our cattle plough, and we labour to improve and cultivate the land. While such is the case, we alone ought to enjoy the fruits thereof. What reason is there that we should be obedient, and pay tribute to our equal? '

"During the reign of Vizia Ragoonada Saitooputty* a party of Colleries, having proceeded on a plundering excursion into the Rāmnād district, carried off two thousand of the Rāja's own bullocks. The Rāja was so exasperated that he caused forts to be erected at five different places in the Shevagunga and Rāmnād districts, and, on pretext of establishing a good understanding with these Nauttams, he artfully invited the principal men among them, and, having encouraged them by repeatedly conferring marks of his favour, caused a great number to be slain, and a number of their women to be transported to Ramiserum, where they were branded with the marks of the pagoda, and made Deva Dassies or dancing girls and slaves of the temple. The present dancing girls in that celebrated island are said to be the descendants of these women of the Culler tribe." In the eighteenth century a certain Captain Rumley was sent with troops to check the turbulent Colleries. "He became the terror of the Collerie Naud, and was highly respected and revered by the designation of Rumley Swamy, under which appellation the Colleries afterwards distinguished him." It is on record that, during the Trichinopoly war, the horses of Clive and Stringer Lawrence were stolen by two Kallan brothers.