Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7 — John Shaqi
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
On arrival at the forest depôt, with its comfortable bungalows and
Kadir settlement, I was told by a native servant that his master was
away, as an "elephant done tumble in a fit." My memory went back to
the occasion many years ago, when, as a medical student, I took part
in the autopsy of an elephant, which died in convulsions at the London
Zoological Gardens. It transpired later in the day that a young and
grown-up cow elephant had tumbled, not in a fit, but into a pit made
with hands for the express purpose of catching elephants. The story
has a philological significance, and illustrates the difficulty which
the Tamulian experiences in dealing with the letter F. An incident
is still cherished at Mount Stuart in connection with a sporting
globe-trotter, who was accredited to the Conservator of Forests for
the purpose of putting him on to "bison" (the gaur, Bos gaurus), and
other big game. On arrival at the depôt, he was informed that his
host had gone to see the "ellipence." Incapable of translating the
pigeon-English of the native butler, and, concluding that a financial
reckoning was being suggested, he ordered the servant to pay the
baggage coolies their elli-pence, and send them away. To a crusted
Anglo-Indian it is clear that ellipence could only mean elephants. Sir
M. E. Grant Duff tells [7] the following story of a man, who was
shooting on the Anaimalais. In his camp was an elephant, who, in the
middle of the night, began to eat the thatch of the hut, in which he
was sleeping. His servant in alarm rushed in and awoke him, saying
"Elephant, Sahib, must, must (mad)." The sleeper, half-waking and
rolling over, replied "Oh, bother the elephant. Tell him he mustn't."
The salient characteristics of the Kadirs may be briefly summed up
as follows: short stature, dark skin, platyrhine. Men and women have
the teeth chipped. Women wear a bamboo comb in the back-hair. Those
whom I met spoke a Tamil patois, running up the scale in talking,
and finishing, like a Suffolker, on a higher note than they commenced
on. But I am told that some of them speak a mixture of debased Tamil
and Malayalam. I am informed by Mr. Vincent that the Kadirs have
a peculiar word Ali, denoting apparently a fellow or thing, which
they apply as a suffix to names, e.g., Karaman Ali, black fellow;
Mudi Ali, hairy fellow; Kutti Ali, man with a knife; Puv Ali, man
with a flower. Among nicknames, the following occur: white mother,
white flower, beauty, tiger, milk, virgin, love, breasts. The Kadirs
are excellent mimics, and give a clever imitation of the mode of
speech of the Muduvans, Malasars, and other hill tribes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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