This would seem to show that the Teivaliol have clung more closely to the old custom of infanticide and may be taken as an indication of the greater conservativeness of the priestly caste, but the Teivaliol chiefly occupy those parts of the hills furthest removed from the European settlements, [[692]]and the greater freedom from external influence is probably an important reason for the greater frequency of infanticide among them at present, though it will not explain the greater prevalence in the earlier generations.
The Teivaliol are now much the smaller of the two divisions, the numbers at the most liberal estimate being less than half of those of the Tartharol, and this difference is certainly of long standing. It may be due to original disproportion of numbers, but if female infanticide has long been more frequent among the Teivaliol, this might furnish a cause of their smaller population. It is perhaps significant in this connexion that the only extinct clan of which I have a record is a Teivali clan, the Kemenol, which is said to have become extinct about a hundred years ago, and the causes which led to its extinction may well have produced a great diminution of numbers in other branches of the Teivaliol. [[693]]
[1] There is also a place called Devali in the Wainad which may possibly be connected in some way with the Teivaliol. [↑]
[2] Grigg (Manual, p. 187) derives the word from tasan, a servant. S or sh is sometimes inserted into the word Tartharol, but it is purely euphonic, and I do not think that this derivation is at all probable. [↑]
[3] Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc., 1904, vol. xii, p. 481. [↑]
[4] I neglect the first generation on account of the small number of families for which there are data. [↑]