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)

62 SACRED GROVES.

ing any one to behold their infants till of a certain age,
we expressed no desire to see it.

After night-fall, the scenery around us was grand
beyond description. Much of the grass, fern, and heather,
being frost bitten and withered, the Tudas had taken this
opportunity, before the setting-in of the rains, to fire it;
and many of the ridges of mountains now presented an
undulating and apparently endless line of flame.

We were much disappointed the next morning, to learn
that the Teriri was unoccupied, although its being so,
afforded us, perhaps, a better opportunity of examin-
ing it.

They have no fewer than five of these sacred groves in
different parts of the hills; each of them belongs to and
is supported by particular families of the lay class.

A priest and his attendant are nominated to each from
among the Terallis or Paikeis, they only, as before men-
tioned, being competent to hold these offices. The former
is called a Pol-aul, the latter a Capil-aul, and the accept-
ance of the office of either must be, on their parts, entirely
voluntary.

A Paiki having consented to accept the office of Pol-
aul, and the suffrages being obtained of the whole of that
class, resident within the limits to which the Teriri more
immediately belongs, he throws off all his garments, as
though, by thus denuding himself, he at the same time
threw off all his worldly affections, and proceeding to some