TODA. This name is derived from the Tamil Toravam and Toram, a herd. Tho Toda have four or five clans, two of them nearly extinct, and one is endogamic. Their language is Dravidian.
They burn their dead, reverence the buffalo, and take especial notice of the bell suspended to its neck ; bury weapons and personal ornaments with the remains of the dead. The men attain frora 5 feet 4 inches to G feet 1 inch, but average about 5 feet 8 inches. The women range from 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 4i inches, but average 5 feet 1 inch. The men weigh from 110 to 155 lbs., and women from 110 to 130 lbs. When Toda people meet who have been apart for some time, the young women fall on the ground before a senior, and the senior places first the right foot, then the left foot on the head. Women tattoo their arms, chest, and legs with dots. The Toga or Putkuli is worn by both sexes. The Toda is pastoral, but not nomade. They eat buffalo flesh on.ceremonial occasions, but are not fiesh-eaters in general.
They have no weapons for the chase, neither spear nor net, nor do they construct traps or pit falls. They are incrertaing in number. In 1870 tho five clans numbered 713 souls, of whom 258 were men in the prime of life. The average number of children born to each woman is six. and they bear on the average from 171 to 37./ year& The Toda salam to the rising and setting sun and moon, and speak a blessing on the house, May it be well with the male children, the men, the cows, the female calves, and every one." The ancient bells are worshipped and attached to the necks of cattle, and called Konkti-der and Mani-der, bell god, relic god. Each tirieri with its drove of cattle is in charge of the holy palal, who is regarded as a god. Ile is an ascetic milkman or priest, and the kavi-lal, an a.scetic herdsman. No man must touch the palal or approach nearer than five yards. The To la reverences the tude tree, Millingtonia simplici folia, synonym of Meliosma simplicifolia, a plant of the Iliinalayas, Nhassytt, Sylliet, and Mishmi Hills, and in the Western Ghats from the Konkan to Courtallam. The dead have a lock of hair cut
off, are burned with their face downwards, and with all their ornaments, and one or two buffaloes are sacrificed at the spot by being struck with the back of an axe on the head. The lock of hair and portions of the unburned skull are collected in a. cloth and t.aken to the house, which continues closed until the final ceremonial. The slaughtered cattle are carried off by the Kota. Formerly many milch buffaloes were killed at the final interment of the portions of the remains that hacl been preserved, but since 1856 only two are sacrificed, amidst:the wailing and lamentations of the relatives, who question the spirit of the deceased thus: 'Are you suffering from fever? Are your buffaloes thriving? Why did you leave us so soon? Have you gone to Amnor ? ' This final ceremonial is now-a-dayspostponed till several persons have died, and the relics are all preserved and presented together, and interred at the place of cremation. Old and barren cos% s are often sacrificed. The Madras Government on the 21st July 1820 ordered efforts to be made to repress their practice of destroying their infant girls, and it has now ceased. An old woman used to take the child immediately it was born and close its nostrils, ears, and mouth with a cloth, and it was then buried. The old woman got four annas as a present. The women are still (1874) fewer than the men, and tho Toda woman consorts with four or five husbands. They crave for progeny, and in the manner of Genesis xvi. 2-5, xxx. 1-4, and xxxviii. 26, obtain it.-7'he Tndas, by Lieut. Colonel IV. E. Marshall, London 1873.