Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/135

 Reviews, 103

of revisiting his Toda friends, of acquiring a working knowledge of their language, and of exploring still further the beliefs and usages of this mysterious people.

I can only touch here upon a few salient features of interest in a book which must lie on the shelves of all working anthrop- ologists.

First, as to the origin of the Todas. Differences of cults and rites within the tribe itself seem to indicate that they reached their present settlement on the Nilgiri plateau by at least two successive migrations. Many lines of evidence tend to show that their original home was on the west coast in Malabar, and the process of development of their beliefs, ritual, and institutions suggests that they must have remained in a state of comparative isolation from their neighbours for a considerable period of time. How far they may be connected with the people who erected the remarkable stone monuments still remains uncertain.

Next, as to their rehgion. They worship a pantheon of definitely anthropomorphic beings, who are believed to have lived in the world before man existed. Most of these seem to be hill spirits, each occupying a peak of its own, all of which have on their summits the stone circles, cairns, and barrows which were excavated by Breeks and others. This suggests a connexion with the dolmen-builders; but at the same time it is noteworthy that the Todas seem to have little respect for these monuments, and do not object to their excavation. Besides these hill-spirits many of their gods are deified mortals, men raised to the rank of deities not as the result of ancestor worship but of a hero cult. There is nothing to show that these gods are personifications of the forces of nature; there is no phallic worship, and no indication of totemism. None of these gods are visible to mortals, and most of them are losing any reality which they may once have possessed. To quote Dr. Rivers' summary: "The idea of 'god' is highly developed among the Todas, and I am incHned to believe that the most satisfactory explanation of the Toda deities is that the people came to the Nilgiri Hills with a body of highly developed gods ; that round these gods have clustered various legends connected with the Toda institutions ; that these old gods have gradually through long ages lost their reality ; that certain heroes