Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 8.djvu/123

 KOTA MEN. (435)

KOTA WOMEN. (436)

HE Kotas, another of the primitive tribes of the Neelgerry hills, number 1,112 persons by the last census; they are divided into 534 male and 578 females. We follow Mr. Breeks' description of them as we have done in regard to other local tribes.

Dr. Shortt thus describes them:—

"They are well made and of tolerable height, rather good featured and light skinned, having a copper colour, and some of them are the fairest skinned among the hill tribes. They have well formed heads, covered with long black hair, grown long, and let loose, or tied up carefully at the back of the head; they have a slightly elongated face, with sharply defined features; the forehead narrow, but prominent, and occasionally protuberant; cars flat, and lying close to the skull; eyes dark brown, of moderate size and deep set, varying in colour from Nos. 1 to 5 of Paul Broca's tables; eyebrows dark and bushy, with a tendency to approach, and frequently united to each other; nose, as a rule, smaller, and more sharply defined than in the Todas, ridged, and slightly rounded and pointed at the extremity, two inches in length; alæ of nostrils expanded, measuring one and a quarter inches in breadth; mouth of moderate size and well formed; teeth well grown and regular; lips of fair size and well compressed; chin well set and small. Altogether they may be pronounced tolerably good looking, and the general aspect of the countenance indicating energy and decision. "The women are of moderate height; of fair build of body; most of them have prominent foreheads, with more of a straight nose, and a somewhat vacant expression. "The villages of the Kotas are larger than the munds of the Todas, containing