Note 38 — Introduction.

Toda.—The language of the Todas of the Nilgiri hills, concerning which Dr. W. H. R. Rivers writes as follows.38 “Bernhard Schmid,39 who wrote in 1837, appears to have known more of the true Toda language than any one who has written since, and he ascribes two-thirds of the Toda vocabulary to Tamil, and was unable to trace the remaining third to any other language. Caldwell40 believed the language of the Todas to be most closely allied to Tamil. According to Pope,41 the language was originally old Canarese with the addition of a few Tamil forms, but he has included in his vocabulary words which have probably been borrowed from the Badagas.”