pioneer in the field of Tamil history. It was not till I had formulated my explanation that a copy of his book, now rare, came to my hands.

Tamil poetry, from the very earliest period to which imagination based on history may lead us, was realistic. It portrayed the actual customs of the people and the actual state of the landscape. The poets of the various parts of Tamil Naad of those very distant days wrote unhampered by convention, and depicted their regions with a candour and spontaneity natural to bards who come early in the history of a nation. What later became the fashion was then the fact. The poet in the kuṛiñci region sang of love, how a young man got allied to a young woman whom he met while out hunting the deer or tracking the elephant, or how he had saved the life of a young girl when she was swept down the river by the current. These were the picturesque and dramatic situations of the life of those early days, and they formed, therefore, the subject of poetry. In the days when hunting was the main occupation of the hills, a proof of his prowess in archery might have been required of a young man before he could win a girl in marriage with the approval of the elders. He might have had to produce the tooth of a tiger in order to prove he was a great hunter, and capable of defending and supporting the woman he wedded. It would be quite natural in such a society to have it given as a token to the wife, or to have it worn by the children as a token of his life-long pledge. That originated the taali of the tiger's tooth.²⁴ The wedding would naturally be celebrated under the favourite trees when they were in bloom with the river sand spread like a carpet under the trees. It would be marked by a feast in which men and women would join together in song and dance. They would be covered with the dresses of the best leaves interspersed with the bright flowers of the locality.²⁵

Young maidens of the family of the tribal chiefs would

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   ²⁴ Kur; 161, 3; Akam; 7, 18; Puram; 374, 9.

   ²⁵Kali; 39. See G. SUBRAMANIA PILLAI,"Tree Worship and Ophiolatry in the Tamil Nad", pp. 79-82, in the Journal of the Annamalai University, Vol. XII, Nos. 2, 3, 1943. Similar use of leaves and flowers in the Pacific islands is worth study.