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22
TAMIL STUDIES

among the half-civilized castes and tribes of India, and the use of the bomerang by the Kallans of South India are found nowhere except among certain Australian tribes; Dr. R. Wallace's description of tree climbing by the Dyaks of Borneo applies equally well to the Kadars of the Anamalai hills ; and the chipping of all or some of the incisor teeth by the Kadars and Mala-Vedans may be found among the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula.

Philology : Linguistic affinities, especially some doubtful resemblance between the numerals in Mundari and in certain Australian dialects have been noticed by Bishop Caldwell and Sir H. Rislev. But it may be pointed out that the Munda language is quite independent of the Dravidian tongue and it may be doubted whether the poor similarity in respect of the numerals alone will be enough to establish the theory under discussion.

Geography: The argument under this head has already been stated and more will be said about it further on. However, it may not be out of place to mention here in support of it a tradition which had currency among the early Tamils and has been preserved in their literature. That is,

பஃறுளி யாற்றுடன் பன்மலை யடுக்கத்துக் குமரிக்கோடுங் கொடுங்கடல் சொள்ள.-Sil.

(The cruel sea swallowed up the Pahruli river and the Kumari peak with the chain of mountains).

And the commentary of Adiyârkunallâr on the above lines runs thus : (a) அக்காலத்து அவர் நாட்டுத்