APPENDIX I

I give here a translation of two extracts from Portuguese manuscripts preserved in the British Museum. The original spelling of the names of places and persons has been preserved and I have added some notes. I am indebted for the translation to Miss A. de Alberti.

Copy of a letter from Father Yacome Finicio to the Vice-Provincial Of Calicut, 1st of April, 1603

The next day we went to visit the villages of the Thodares. We climbed quite half a league above this village, and on reaching the summit nothing was visible on every side but mountains and valleys; all was desert without a single fruit or forest tree, excepting in an occasional damp place where there were a few forest trees. There are no palm trees or jacks in all these mountains, nor any fruit trees, as I have said. As we traversed these mountains and valleys, every now and then we saw a herd of buffaloes in the distance with a Thodar or two guarding them. In this way we met four or five Thodares and sent them to fetch the rest. As no women were visible, I promised one a looking-glass if he would go and fetch them. He hastened away up a mountain and brought back four women, who remained at a distance through timidity and would not join the rest. I sent them word that they must approach if they wanted looking-glasses, and then they came up. After this we went on for another half a league or more and came upon two Thodar huts at the foot of a mountain. They were like a large barrel half buried in the ground, or like a covered bier. They were nine spans in length and the same in breadth; and six spans in the highest part. The hoops of the barrel were of thick reeds like Indian cane, bent into a hoop with both ends fixed in the ground. Pieces of wood from the bush were laid across these reeds and covered with grass. The front was made of stakes set on end, like organ pipes, with no other filling whatever. The door was a span and four inches wide, and two spans and an inch high, so that the Errari and myself could scarcely enter, and inside we had to kneel. There were two beds with grass mattresses on each side, and a small pit in the middle of the hut which was the fireplace. There was a little window on one side, a finger’s length high and a span wide. Beside these houses was a pen for buffaloes, and close by another little house where they make the butter. They said the other houses were half a league distant from each other. Thirty or forty Thodares assembled; they are clothed in a large sheet with no other covering but a small loincloth four or five fingers wide. Their arms are long sticks smeared with butter; when new they look like strips of white paper at a distance, but they cure them and they turn black. They wear long beards, and rather long hair, but not so long as the Pallem. It was two months since I had shaved or cut my hair, so that I looked like one of them, and they did not wonder at me as they did at the Cacenar, who went there with no hair or beard. They never shave except when one of them dies. At a death they kill half of the dead man’s buffaloes, and the other half goes to his heirs. If he has no buffaloes each person gives one, and half of them are killed and the rest are left. They burn the dead body, but it must be wrapped in a veil of pure silk, which they call a toda-pata, worth five or six fanams; and if this is lacking they must wait for it, though it be for a year. In the meantime, in order to preserve the body they open it at the loins, take out the entrails, and cut off the occiput; then they place it in an arbour and dry it in the smoke. Two brothers marry the same woman; she lives with the eldest at night, and with the youngest by day. Others have two or three wives. They do not eat fowls, cow’s flesh, nor goat, and so they breed none of these. They do not eat buffalo’s flesh, but only wild boar and venison. They eat no salt. They have no crops of any kind, and no occupation but the breeding of buffaloes, on whose milk and butter they live. They have no vassals, as was reported; on the contrary, they are subject and pay tribute to the Badega chiefs. When they eat they hold the rice in their left hand, take a lump of butter in the right, mix it with the rice, and so eat it; when their meal is finished they rub their hands together and wipe them on their hair, and so they all smell of butter. In colour they resemble the Malabars, some whiter and some darker; they are generally moderately tall. Their ears are pierced or bored, not long like those of the Malabars, and some wear a silver circle in them like a ring. They wear black threads round their necks, and some have a large silver bead like a pater-noster in front. I had a skein of black thread in my pocket and drew it out; a Thodar seeing it begged it of me earnestly two or three times. I told him that I must give it to the women, and I divided it in four and gave it to the four women above mentioned, and I gave them a looking-glass each, with which they were very delighted. The women wear nothing but a long sheet like the men; they wrap it round them, throwing the right end over the left shoulder, and so cover themselves. Their hair hangs loose, but their faces are uncovered. I said that the women lower down wore bracelets, chains, and jewels on their arms and necks, and in their ears, and thereupon one of them uncovered her arm, on which she wore four large well-made copper bracelets. The sheet worn by both men and women is so filthy that it looks as if it would not burn if you put it on the fire, and if water were thrown on it, it would not penetrate. The men look after the house, cook the rice, do the milking, make the butter, and mind the buffaloes. The women do nothing but pound the rice, and sometimes mind the buffaloes in the absence of their husbands. In speaking with the Pallem I asked him whether he or his wife cooked the rice; he replied that it was a great disgrace among them to allow the wife to cook the rice. The Thodares being thus assembled, I told them that, hearing that we were of the same race and law, I had come to visit them, and as I knew they had neither priest, book, nor law, I being a priest had come to teach them. I asked if they were glad to have me with them, and they replied that they rejoiced greatly at it. I asked if they would follow all my instructions, and they said they would. Then I asked if they would leave off adoring the buffalo and the 300 pagodas. They replied that they feared the buffaloes and pagodas would do them some harm. I said I would be answerable for it, and that I had more power than the pagodas. Then they said that if I would defend them they would willingly leave off adoring them. I asked if they would give up the custom of two brothers marrying one woman, and they said they would. I asked if they thought it right to give their wives to the Pallem; an old man replied, “If it is the command of God, what can we do?” After this they asked me of their own accord to show them the pictures and the book; I did so, and they paid homage to them with great rejoicing. I also gave them a looking-glass each, and after discoursing and conversing with them for some time I asked them to give me two children to take away with me; they excused themselves, saying that they could not do so just then. I asked from whence they were descended, and one replied that he had heard that they came from the East, and some remained there while some settled lower down. They were amazed at seeing white men, and asked me to uncover my arms for them to look at. They were delighted with the Errari’s red tunic and gold buttons, and velvet cap with the gold braid.

At last I took leave of them, promising to return at some time during the year and remain with them longer. It did not seem to me necessary to delay any longer, nor to lay any foundation of our faith, as I do not think that the present is a suitable time for the Company to undertake such out-of-the-way enterprises, since it cannot attend to others of greater importance which are close at hand, for want of workers. The Thodares only number a thousand, and these are scattered about four mountains, two belonging to the Malabar, where there are 300. I went to one of these which belongs to the Samorim, another belonging to the Naique, where there are another 300, or a little over; and another belonging to another king, near Charti, where there are another 300 or rather more; the whole distance being eight Canara leagues, which are sixteen in Malabar. And they live scattered about—every month or thereabouts they move their village. The whole district is uninhabited desert. The winds and climate are very cold; the water is excellent, but icy cold; it flows down from the mountains; it cannot be drunk at a draught because of the cold. One is obliged to pause, and after drinking one has to wait awhile for the gums and teeth to get warm. The journey there and back is very laborious and can only be undertaken in January and February. From Manarcate upwards it is impossible to travel in a litter. On the return journey I was very fatigued and asked if it were possible to find men to carry me. I was told that there were plenty of men, but that it was impossible to be carried over these mountains, where one person alone could only climb up and down with great difficulty. Besides this, the Errari and all the rest were very pressing that I should return before any of us fell ill; the Errari said he was himself indisposed, as well as some of the others. They could not tell me anything concerning the Blessed Trinity. I asked them why they wore their hair loose, and a Badaga replied that in the time of Charamparimatei they killed the father of the Thodares, and they asked, “Who killed our father?” and they answered that God killed him; whereupon they unbound their hair and said, “Never will we bind up our hair again until we have killed God, in revenge for our father [and] for the broken pots.” On the return journey the Badegas showed us a shorter and less difficult road, which took us two days and a half, but saved going up and down the last steep mountains. However, there was no lack of mountains to climb, but they were not so difficult, though the first day we climbed down one which was very high and steep. We numbered fourteen with the guides. There was a Badega village at the foot of the mountain, and seeing us they took us for a hostile band and fled into the bush. Our guides called to them not to fly, for we were men of peace who had been to visit the Thodares, whereupon they returned, and coming down we found them armed with their little lances, but we saw the women and children still hidden in the bush. A little further on we came upon four or five more houses; these people also fled into the bush, the women carrying the children on their backs. The second day we slept in the bush two leagues from Manarecate. There were tigers and elephants about, but God preserved us and we all reached Calicut in safety, thanks be to Our Lord. Several afterwards fell sick, however, among whom was the Variel, who is still suffering. May God restore him, for he has promised me to become a Christian, and has already broken his own law as regards food, &c.