Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/517

Rh to be sinful and to need a Saviour. The Todars, though in many respects pleasing and simple, are, nevertheless, slothful, given to lying, and, in their social relations, degraded. They have been in the habit of killing their female infants, and of making amends for the difference in the number of the sexes by allotting one wife to several husbands. Their views of a future state are dark, and their sense of responsibility for their acts to a higher power very dull. The historian need have no apprehension of the Todars receiving injury from Christian ministers, though they may lose their simplicity by contact with thoughtless and godless Europeans.

A hill, partly covered by a dense wood, and in part bare of trees, but clothed to its summit with grass, rose at the back of the house in which we lodged while at Ootacamund. Between it and us was a deep valley, through which a little stream found its way towards the lowlands. About half-way up this hill, and in a bray in the forest, was a Todar mund which I often passed in my morning rambles. By means of my Tamil, I managed to form an acquaintance with the family, whose herd of buffaloes was pastured on the hill-side. The head of the