Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/544

478 their shoulders, “Crack! crash!" went the fore-pole, and down came the palankeen and its load upon the stony road. The pole was broken short off, and affairs looked rather gloomy; but, after a short consultation, and some scolding and grumbling, a slim tree was cut and divided into three portions. These were lashed, one to the palankeen and two to that again, so that the palankeen might be carried “cooly-fashion," and we jogged on again, though more slowly than before.

In vacant spots in the jungle, near the base of the mountain, you notice small patches of ground with a few plantain-trees and some traces of cultivation, and hard by a rude hut or two. These are the habitations of the Erulars, who are among the least civilized and most degraded of the inhabitants of India. Like the Khonds of Central India, known for the cruel sacrifice of human victims, whom, to this day, they fatten and cut to pieces as an offering to their gods, and, like other hill-tribes equally debased, they seem to be the ancient inhabitants of India, perhaps aboriginal tribes, driven to the jungles and mountains by the present races of Hindus. They are small, ill-formed, and go almost naked. Of the family tie they