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| type = article
| status = wanted
| status = proofread
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| subtitle =
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| untitled =
| untitled =
| source title = Spiritualist, The
| source title = London Spiritualist
| source details =
| source details = No. 290, March 15, 1878, p. 122
| publication date = 1878
| publication date = 1878-03-15
| original date = 1878-03-12
| original date = 1878-03-12
| notes =
| notes =
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}}
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<center>''To the Editor of ''“''The Spiritualist.''”</center>
{{Style S-Small capitals|Sir}},—Allow me to add a few words to the observations of “H. M.” on the account of the Todas, extracted from Madame Blavatsky’s ''Isis Unveiled, ''in the last number of ''The'' ''Spiritualist. ''I was for fifteen years in the district to which the Nilgiri Hills belong, and am well acquainted with those hills throughout their length and breadth, and with the habits of the various tribes inhabiting them. I have known numbers of the Todas, and am familiar with their villages, habits, ceremonies, and, belief. Let me say that with regard to the communication from the very holy personage who commands Madame Blavatsky’s great respect, every statement in the first paragraph is absolutely and directly contrary to fact. In the second paragraph the statements about the Todas not being born of Toda mothers, but being the children of a select sect, set apart for special religious purposes, and having places of worship unknown to Europeans rivalling splendid pagodas—(the “Brahmanam-guru” does not seem to know that a goparam is the tower of a pagoda)—are ludicrous nonsense. And this I must assert, notwithstanding the warning against disbelieving those statements which Madame Blavatsky has been rash enough to insert in the closing lines of the extract under review.
Such an endorsement of such statements naturally leads to distrust of the volumes which contain it, and it must be said that to an old Indian, there is much in them that seconds Mrs. Showers’ doubt whether Madame Blavatsky has ever resided in India at all! It is especially dangerous to meddle with the Todas; during the last twenty years much has been written about them by persons who knew them well. Any who like, for example, may compare Colonel Marshall’s ''A Phrenologist Amongst the Todas,'' published by Longmans, two or three years ago, with the account of the “Brahmanam-guru!” The honorary member of the British National Association of Spiritualists, Captain R. F. Burton, might also have a good deal to say about the Todas, since he published his work on the ''Blue Mountains'' more than thirty years since. All good spirits of whatever degree, astral or elementary, ''νους ''or ruach, prevent his ever meeting with ''Isis''—rough might be the unveiling!
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Late Madras, C.S.}}
Loudon, March 12,1878.
{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|See the affixed postal card received six months later.|center}}
{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|See the affixed postal card received six months later.|center}}
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| continues = 13
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| author =
| author =
| subtitle =
| subtitle =
| untitled = yes
| untitled = yes
| source title = Spiritualist, The
| source title = London Spiritualist
| source details =
| source details = No. 290, March 15, 1878, p. 122
| publication date = 1878
| publication date = 1878-03-15
| original date = 1878-03-12
| original date = 1878-03-12
| notes =
| notes =
}}
}}
...
<center>''To the Editor of ''“''The Spiritualist.”''</center>
{{Style S-Small capitals|Sir}},—I am thankful that the subject of Madame Blavatsky’s reference to the Todas has been ventilated, though the critic of her work has not been able to cite any other authority than the ''Cornhill Magazine ''for last January in support of his statements.
It is possible (though I can hardly credit it) that readers may exist who may imagine that Madame Blavatsky’s statement may not be easily corroborated. To such I commend in the first place Lieutenant-Colonel William E. Marshall’s work, entitled ''A Phrenologist Among the Todas. ''(8vo. London, 1873). This contains his study of a primitive tribe in South India; its history, character, customs, religion, infanticide, polyandry, and language, and is illustrated with a very large series of plates by the autotype process. As the work probably gives a more minute description of the eight Dravidian races than any other, its information being partly derived from facts supplied by “the only European able to speak the obscure Toda tongue,” the Rev. Friedrich Metz, of the Basle Missionary Society, I respectfully request your readers to peruse it before they accept'' ''“H. M.’s” statements as necessarily precise. I may further cite: Shortt, John, M.D. ''Tribes on the Neilgherries.'' Privately printed. 8vo. Madras, S.A.; Ouchterlony, Captain J., Madras Engineers. ''Statistical Report of'' ''the Nilgherry Hills. ''1847; Pope, Rev. G. M., D.D. ''Brief Outline of the Grammar of the Tuda ''(''sic'')'' Language'': 8vo. London, 1873. [Bound up with Marshall’s book, but separate copies existing.]
And if it were worth while to collect a bibliography of writers on the Toda race, I could do so. But most men would refrain from entering into a field where Dr. Shortt and Lieutenant-Colonel Marshall have been before them.
{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |7-13}}
I carefully abstain from criticising the singular points of detail in which <e H. M.” differs from the voluminous authors I have cited, as I do not wish to notice anonymous writers. If the subject appears to be divided into two separate camps, Madame Blavatsky, the sun (as shown by the autotypes) {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |7-13}}
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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.290_1878-03-15.pdf|page=4|London Spiritualist, No. 290, March 15, 1878, p. 122
</gallery>