Legend
< Captain Burton's work entitled Goa (continued from page 7-24) >
become; more and more plentiful. Neither did I cite the Cornhill Magazine as an authority, for that speaks of the Thibetans, not of the Todas. I referred to it merely as illustrating the nature of the polyandry attributed to the Todas, not as proving that the latter practised it. Among Hindoos of every caste, all shades of colour, from a light bamboo to a jet black may be met with. The fairest specimens are to be found among Brahmins (presumably the caste least mixed with aboriginal blood); but even among these I have never seen any who could really be said to be fair as Europeans. Among Mussulmans, especially those from Upper India, I have seen those to whom the term might be applied; they had red whiskers and beards, and complexions no darker than those of Italians and Spaniards. Grey eyes (cats’-eyes, as the natives call them in Southern India) I have seen among both Hindoos and Mussulmans, even when the skin has been of a copper colour.
I note that while “Late Madras C. S.” cites Marshall’s A Phrenologist among the Todas against Madame Blavatsky, Dr. Carter Blake would cite the work in her favour. I only contradict those statements which my own eyes tell me are wrong, and account for other alleged facts in the ordinary way.
Bath, March 15th, 1878.
Indian Mysticisms
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Editor's notes