Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/98

MUDUVAR customs, I hazard the conjecture that, when they arrived on the hills, they found a small tribe in possession, with whom they subsequently intermarried, this tribe having affinities with the west coast, while the new arrivals were connected with the east.

The tribe is settled on the northern and western portion of the Cardamom Hills, and the High Range of Travancore, known as the Kanan Dēvan hills, and there is, I believe, one village on the Ānaimalai hills. They wander to some extent, less so now than formerly, owing to the establishment of the planting community in their midst. The head-quarters at present may be said to be on the western slopes of the High Range. The present Mēl Vāken or headman lives in a village on the western slope of the High Range at about 2,000 feet elevation, but villages occur up to 6,000 feet above sea level, the majority of villages being about 4,000 feet above the sea. The wandering takes place between the reaping of the final crop on one piece of land, and the sowing of the next. About November sees the breaking up of the old village, and February the establishment of the new. On the plateau of the High Range their dwellings are small rectangular, rather flat-roofed huts, made of jungle sticks or grass (both walls and root), and are very neat in appearance. On the western slopes, although the materials lend themselves to even neater building, their houses are usually of a rougher type. The materials used are the stems and leaves of the large-leaved īta (bamboo : Ochlandra travancorica) owing to the absence of grass-land country. The back of the house has no wall, the roof sloping on to the hillside behind, and the other walls are generally made of a rough sort of matting made by plaiting split īta stems.