Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/122

DAMMULA wrists of the bride and bridegroom. On the fourth day, the nikka rite is celebrated, and the newly-married couple sit together while the nalagu ceremony of smearing them with sandal, and waving coloured water (ārati), is performed. The two pots containing water are kept for forty days, and then examined. If the water remains sweet, and does not "teem with vermin," it is regarded as a good omen. The seed grains, too, should by this time have developed into healthy seedlings.  '''Dammula. —''' Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a small class of Telugu beggars, and priests in the temples of village goddesses.  Dandāsi.— The Dandāsis are summed up in the Ganjam Manual as being village watchmen, many of whom are great thieves. " It is curious," Mr. S. P. Rice Writes,* " to find that the word Naiko [meaning leader or chief], which is corrupted into the Telugu Naidu, is the caste distinction of the lowest class, the village watcher and professional thief. This man, for all that his cognomen is so lofty, goes by the generic name of Dandasi. This word means worthy of punishment, and assuredly no appellation ever fitted its owner more completely than does this. He is the village policeman and the village thief, a curious mixture of callings." According to other versions, the name is derived from danda, a stick, and āsi, sword, from dandabādi, a stout bamboo stick, or from dandapāsi, stick and rope, in reference to the insignia of the Dandāsi's office.

A large number of criminals, undergoing punishment in Ganjam for robbery and thieving, are Dandāsis. The members of the caste, like the Tamil Kallans, believe 