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 a point of bathing. The Malaiyalis believe that if a sinner bathes CHAP. I. there the water turns aside and declines to fall upon him. A Hills. similar superstition exists in the case of other holy cascades.

Like the Pachaimalais, the Kollaimalais are well covered with jungle ; and 51 square miles in the Namakkal taluk have been constituted reserved forest. The reserves, the characteristics of which are referred to in Chapter V below, ai-e for the most part confined to the outer slopes of the range, as the growth on the top is much broken up by cultivation. The range is mainly peopled by the Malaiyalis already mentioned, who live in small hamlets grouped into seven ikuIhs, each of which now forms a Government revenue village. They have availed themselves of the basin-like character of the valleys by surrounding the flanks of these with innumerable little terraces for the cultivation of paddy. A few small and scattered communities of Konga Ycllalans and Paraiyans also exist. The revcnvie settlement in force on the range is referred to in Chapter XI ; and the recent report on the intro- duction of this ^ gives an interesting description of the soils, cultivation, and so on of these hills.

The Talaimalais are a small range of hills lying fourteen miles The Taiai- south-east of Namakkal. They possess a peculiar jagged outline malais. and from the south aie decidedly picturesque. One of the peaks selected as a survey station rises to 2,785 feet above the sea. They are covered with grass and low brushwood. Trichinopoly oflEicials used at one time to resort in the hot weather to a bungalow on the top of them, but their bad charnctor for fever and the scarcity of water has led to the practice being abandoned. A well-known Vishnu temple stands on one of their peaks, and is much visited by pilgrims from the neighbouring plains, especially on Saturdays in Purattasi (September-October). It is believed that the cobra's bite is not poisonous on this hill.

Among the scattered hills which face the Madura border in the south-west corner of the district, are some isolated peaks of considerable height. Of these, Topimalai (3,382 feet) and Vellimalai (2,757 feet) in Kulittalai taluk, and Eangamalai (3,101 feet) in the extreme south of Karur are the most remarkable. On Topimalai and Eangamalai, shrines have been built ; and a hill temple also stands en the picturesque and isolated rock at Naina- malai in the Namakkal taluk, which is 2,468 feet above the sea.

Of the rivers of Trichinopoly, the Cauvery and its branch the Ei^eks. Coleroon are by far the most important. The former rises in the The Caurery. Western Ghats in Cocrg, flows eastwards through the Mysore I Q.O., No. 605, Eevenne, dated 30th June 1906, p. 22.