Harkness, Henry: A description of a singular aboriginal race inhabiting the summit of the Neilgherry Hills, or Blue Mountains of Coimbatoor, in the Southern Peninsula of India (London, 1832)

ERULAR TRIBE. 29

these tribes, are to be met with in many of the moun-
tainous parts of the Peninsula, but the Erulars of this
vicinity differ from them in many particulars; and the
Curumbars, from their connexion with the tribes who
inhabit the more elevated parts of the mountains, and
particularly with the Tudas, are now quite distinct from
the people bearing this name in other parts of the
country.

Neither of these tribes know the use of the plough, or,
at least, they do not use it to till any part of the lands
which they occupy; and being quite unskilled in all the
arts of life, their state of being is but little removed from
that of utter uncivilization.

Their languages are jargons formed from a mixture of
those of the nations nearest to them, such as the Tamil,
the Carnataca, or the Malayal'ma ; that of the Curumbar
having a considerable intermixture of the Tuda. They
may be classed as Hindus; and to the introduction
among them of some of the Hindu observances, they
seem to owe the little civilization to which they can be
said to have claim.

The Tudas do not consider the Erulars as forming a
part of the inhabitants of the hills, but they allow this
designation to the Curumbars, whom they call Curbs,*
and from whom they receive certain services.

* Their term for a cleft or glen.