Note 189 — Chapter XVIII · THE INHABITANTS OF THE NEILGHERRIES.

E. g. The peaks of the Todas are venerated by the Todas, as they were by the Celto-Scythians. The single stone in the sacred lactarium of the former, was the most conspicuous instrument of superstition in the Druidical or Scythic religion. Captain Congreve asserts that the Toda faith is Scythicism, because they sacrifice female children, bulls, calves, and buffaloes, as the Scythians did horses; that they adore the sun (what old barbarians did not?), revere fire, respect certain trees and bunches of leaves, worship the Deity in groves of the profoundest gloom, and have some knowledge of a future state. He proves that the hills are covered with vestiges of Scythicism, as cairns, barrows, and monolithic altars, and believes them to have belonged to the early Todas, inasmuch as “the religion of the Todas is Scythicism, and these are monuments of Scythicism.” He concludes the exposition of his theory with the following recapitulation of his reasons for considering the Todas of Scythian descent:—1. Identity of religion (not proved). 2. Physiological position of the Todas in the great family race (we are not told how it resembles that of the Scythians). 3. The pastoral mode of life among the Todas. 4. The food of the Todas, which consisted originally of milk and butter (we “doubt the fact”). 5. Their architecture, religious, military, and domestic, the yards of the Toda houses, their temples, their sacred enclosures, their kraals for cattle, are circular, as were those of the Celts, and, indeed, of most ancient people whose divinity was Sun, Light, Fire, Apollo, Mithra, &c. 6. Their marriage customs and funeral rites are nearly identical (an assertion). 7. Their ornaments and dress closely approximate (ditto). 8. Their customs are generally similar (ditto). 9. The authority of Sir W. Jones that the ancient Scythians did people a mountainous district of India (quasi irrelevant). 10. History mentions that India has been invaded by Scythian hordes from the remotest times (ditto). 11. Their utter separation in every respect from the races around them.