Irulas of Chingleput, North and South Arcot. The Irulas, or Villiyans (bowmen), who have settled in the town of Chingleput, about fifty miles distant from Madras, have attained to a higher degree of civilisation than the jungle Irulas of the Nilgiris, and are defined, in the Census Report, 1901, as a semi-Brahmanised forest tribe, who speak a corrupt Tamil. In a note on the Irulas, Mackenzie writes as follows. [187] "After the Yuga Pralayam (deluge, or change from one Yuga to another) the Villars or Irulans, Malayans, and Vedans, supposed to be descendants of a Rishi under the influence of a malignant curse, were living in the forests in a state of nature, though they have now taken to wearing some kind of covering--males putting on skins, and females stitched leaves. Roots, wild fruits, and honey constitute their dietary, and cooked rice is always rejected, even when gratuitously offered. They have no clear ideas about God, though they offer rice (wild variety) to the goddess Kanniamma. The legend runs that a Rishi, Mala Rishi by name, seeing that these people were much bothered by wild beasts, took pity on them, and for a time lived with them. He mixed freely with their women, and as the result, several children were born, who were also molested by wild animals. To free them from these, the Rishi advised them to do puja (worship) to Kanniamma. Several other Rishis are also believed to have lived freely in their midst, and, as a result, several new castes arose, among which were the Yanadis, who have come into towns, take food from other castes, eat cooked rice, and imitate the people amidst whom they happen to live." In which respects the Irula is now following the example of the Yanadi. Many of the Chingleput Irulas are very dark-skinned, with narrow chests, thin bodies, and flabby muscles, reminding me, in their general aspect, of the Yanadis of Nellore. Clothing is, in the men, reduced to a minimum--dhuti, and languti of dirty white cotton cloth, or a narrow strip of gaudy Manchester piece-good. The hair is worn long and ragged, or shaved, with kudimi, in imitation of the higher classes. The moustache is slight, and the beard billy-goaty. Some of the men are tattooed with a blue dot on the glabella, or vertical mid-frontal line. For ornaments they have a stick in the helix, or simple ornament in the ear-lobe.