Note 34 — Chapter XXVIII · THE CLANS OF THE TODAS
Reading edition
It is easy to see how the Todas may have lost such arts, supposing that they once possessed them. The Toda now regards nearly every kind of manual labour as beneath his dignity, and if a people showing artistic skill in the adornment of the articles they use in everyday life should hand over the making of these articles to another race, it is fairly certain that the artistic side would suffer, and this is especially likely to happen when the artisans whose services are employed are such people as the Kotas.34 Assuming that such a transference took place, it is easy to understand the complete disappearance of art even higher than that which the contents of the monuments show.