Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/147

Rh a cloth, which he at once recognised as having something to do with the Todas. In former times, a Badaga could be at once picked out from the other tribes of the Nīlgiri plateau by his wearing a turban. At the present day, some Toda elders and important members of the community (e.g.,monegars or headmen) have adopted this form of headgear. The men who were engaged as guides by Dr.Rivers and myself donned the turban in honour of their appointment. Toda females are tattooed after they have reached puberty. I have seen several multiparae, in whom the absence of tattoo marks was explained either on the ground that they were too poor to afford the expense of the operation, or that they were always suckling or pregnant — conditions, they said, in which the operation would not be free from danger. The dots and circles, of which the simple devices are made up,* are marked out with lamp-black made into a paste with water, and the pattern is pricked in by a Toda woman with the spines of Berberis aristata. The system of tattooing and decoration of females with ornaments is summed up in the following cases: —

1. Aged 22. Has one child. Tattooed with three dots on back of left hand. Wears silver necklet ornamented with Arcot two-anna pieces; thread and silver armlets ornamented with cowry (Cyprcea moneta) shells on right upper arm; thread armlet ornamented with cowries on left forearm; brass ring on left ring finger; silver rings on right middle and ring fingers. Lobes of ears pierced. Ear-rings removed owing to grandmother's death.