Risley, Herbert H.; Crooke, William [Editor]: The people of India: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta [u.a.], 1915)

PLATE XXXIV.

Photograph received from Mr. E. Thurston, CLE.

A K'ADIR, WITH CHIPPED TEETH, EROM
THE ANAIMALAI HILLS, MADRAS: PURE
DRAVIDIAN TYPE.

The Kadirs are a jungle tribe found in the Anaimalai
or Elephant Hills of Madras and other ranges extend-
ing southwards into the State of Travancore. They
are of short stature, with a dark skin and broad nose.
They are a happy people, living on the produce of the
forests where they reside. They are nomad in habit,
building neat huts at places which they temporarily
occupy ; good trackers and expert in the pursuit of
game ; wonderfully clever in climbing high trees, their
method of ascent closely resembling that of the
Dayaks of Borneo. They have a horror of cattle,
and will not touch the products of the cow. Their
reticence in regard to the disposal of the dead has
given rise to a legend that they eat the corpse. The
remarkable custom of chipping the teeth curiously
resembles that of the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula.
The Kadirs chip all or some of the upper and lower
incisors into the form of a sharp-pointed, but not
serrated, cone. This is done by means of a chisel,
bill-hook, and file. Both sexes undergo the operation;
it is said that it makes an ugly man or woman
handsome, and that a person who has not been
improved in this way has teeth and'eats like a cow.