Sir H. Hardinge to Secretary of India Board (Lord Mahon). [Extract of Private Letter.] Calcutta, August 6, 1845. "It would be most improper to attempt to punish these poor savages of the hills, the aborigines of the country, for crimes so revolting to humanity, perpetrated within 250 miles of the seat of government. The system must chiefly be one of persuasion as regards the Khondes: punishment would only induce them to perform these atrocities in secret, which in point of numbers are supposed to amount to 1500 human victims cruelly tortured every year. "Punishment by death cannot meet the case of numerous tribes who do not fear death. For instance, a party of these savages were invited to Madras. They were hospitably treated, received presents, and when about to be sent home, a distance of 500 miles, begged as a favour to be killed, confident that they would be born again, and so reappear as infants in their own villages!" The Niaides. To the Governor of Fort St. George. [Judicial.] May 7, 1845. "We highly approve of the measures adopted by Mr. Conolly, Collector of Malabar, for the purpose of ameliorating the wretched condition of the Niaides, an abject race of people, consisting of not more than six hundred persons, and reputed to be the descendants of a Brahmin excommunicated many centuries ago. He states that they were regarded as outcasts even by the slaves, whom they were not allowed to approach within forty paces, and that their subsistence has been of the most precarious and disgusting kind." The Tinnevelly District. Report from Mr. E. B. Thomas, Collector, at Tinnevelly. [P. C. 5212, Coll. 12.] "In the centre of the large Cusbah of Streevygoontum exists an old mud fort, or rather wall, of about twenty feet high, surrounding some hundred and twenty houses, of a body of people calling themselves Kotie Vellalers, that is, Fort Vellalers. Within this wall no police officer, warrant, or Peon ever enters. . . . The females are said to be kept in a state of great degradation and ignorance. They never pass without the walls alive: when dead they are carried out by night in sacks." Petition of the Kotie Vellalers at Tinnevelly. 66 As your petitioners' ancestors were the persons who crowned Pandiam Kings of the Pandiam kingdom from generation to generation, your petitioners alone are the persons who crown annually in the Oothra Nutchuthra of the Pungoony month the God Anaravadadanadar, in the town of Tinnevelly; the same day in which the God delivers a sceptre to a person in authority. It is true that your poor petitioners are Hindoos, but our manners and customs are quite different from those of all other Hindoo castes. Even in our wedding days the bride is kept within a curtain, so that our near relations also might not see her; and still even the dead body of a woman should not be looked at by any man but her father, husband, and son; for when any woman dies, only the wives of the Kottamars, who are our slaves, go into the department of the woman, put the corpse into a bag, tying well its mouth, and then the female slaves take the bag out of the house, carry it to a bier which is prepared at a little distance by the male slaves, called Kottamars, where the female slaves put the bag into the bier, and the bier is taken out to the burying ground by four male slaves, which is followed by all of her relatives. But all persons except her father, husband, sons, and brothers, and the four bearers, should stop at a considerable distance from the burying ground; and then the funeral rites are performed by the said relations, and the body is burnt out by the four bearers." The object of this petition, which extends to some length, is that no change should be permitted or enjoined in the customs it describes. Deities of Evil. Memorandum by G. D. Drury, Esq., Chief Secretary, District of Tinnevelly. [Coll. P. C. 4806.] “There were in many villages, chiefly inhabited by classes of lower caste, small edifices, both thatched and tiled, in which worship was offered to Deities of Evil, which were supposed to be Demons or Devils, and were the objects of terror to those people: the names of some of these Demons were 'Veeran,' 'Kurpen,' and Katarree' (female). They were worshipped in jungles, and the spot selected was usually under the shade of some spreading tree, most frequently the tamarind tree, from which was to be seen suspended a long iron chain, with a seat, as for a swing, attached to it; and beneath the tree were to be found spears of iron of different shapes, with human and animal figures in rude pottery. Annual ceremonies were performed in these places, in order to propitiate the Demon which presided." Stupifying Sweetmeats. Madras. Captain Vallancey to the Secretary of Fort St. George. [P. C. 4993, Coll. 19.] "Within the last few years, while carrying on a search for fugitive Thugs, I have become aware of the existence of a set of wretches who practise a system of drugging travellers on the high-roads and in the principal towns, for the purpose of plundering them of their property. . . . . In Bengal such perpetrators are termed Matywallahs, as they administer the drug in a sweetmeat; but in this part of India it is administered in some liquid-generally milk..... A short time after the dose has been administered stupefaction ensues, and the person who has partaken of it becomes perfectly senseless, and will fall into a deep sleep. If, however, the dose administered should be large, delirium and raving takes place, which often ends in death. . . . . I believe it to be a fact that not one of this class of villains has ever been detected." In consequence of this report, the Government of Fort St. George addressed a circular judicial letter, recommending that the heads of police should "caution all persons not to receive messes or sweetmeats from strangers." Astrologers in Nepaul. (Journal of Major Lawrence.) Nepaul, July 7, 1845. "On the 4th a vulture, having settled on the roof of the palace above where the Maharajah was seated, was shot. His Highness consulted the astrologers as to what the evil omen augured. They replied that he (the Maharajah) would within four months receive a severe hurt and die. They stated that the danger is only to be averted by aims and devotion: money has |