THE TODAS.
The Tam. By W. H. R. Rivers, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. (Macmillan and Co. Els. net.)—Mr. Rivers's learned book will remain the chief authority on the interesting race with which he deals. By using skilled interpreters, and by his own linguistic acuteness, he supplies a more exhaustive vocabulary than any of his predecessors of Toda words referring to cult and social observance ; his sympathetic study has provided scholars with invaluable materials for the working out of conclusions, The Todas are a Dravidian people who, according to Mr. Rivers, probably emigrated to the Nilgiri Hills from Malabar. They present many affinities with other races of Southern India; but their sole means of subsistence being now derived from their herds of bullocks, any ancient culture they may have possessed has been superseded almost entirely by an elaborate ritual con- nected with the dairy. The bullock does not, however, appear to be a totem, nor is he worshipped as a god. The Todas hold that he was created together with man by gods who have become more and more shadowy to them with the evolution of the dairy ritual, The author believes the Tease to offer a marked example of the degeneration of a religion owing to the extreme development of its ritual aspect. They may have come to some slight extent under the influence of Hinduism. Like the Hindus, they cremate their dead, but the custom of throwing handfuls of earth upon the corpse suggests that burial was once their practice. Poly- andry prevails among them, as can be seen in the remarkable series of genealogical tables that completes the book. These tables embrace no less than seven hundred and thirty-six out of a .possible total of eight hundred and five Todas. The race, though small in number, is not decreasing.
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