Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/243

Rh grow long, but do not, for want of means, anoint it with oil. They grow moustaches. They wear round the neck a necklace of small white beads to distinguish them from Malayars, who are always afraid of them. Some wear brass finger rings. Women wear a potava (coloured cloth), half of which is worn round the loins, while the other half serves to cover the body. The hair is not smoothed with oil. It is twisted into a knot on the back. It is said that they take an oil bath once a week. Their ear ornament is made of a long palmyra leaf rolled into a disc, and the ear lobes are sufficiently dilated to contain them.  Erkollar.— A Tamil form of the Telugu Yerragolla, which is sub-division of Tottiyan.  Ernādan.— In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Aranādans are described as a hill tribe in Malabar, who kill pythons, and extract an oil from them, which they sell to people on the plains as a remedy for leprosy. These are, I have no doubt, the Ernadans, concerning whom Mr. G. Hadfield writes to me as follows. They are a small jungle tribe, found exclusively in Malabar, and are considered to be the lowest of the jungle tribes by the inhabitants of Malabar, who consider themselves polluted if an Ernādan approaches within a hundred yards. Even Paniyans and Pariahs give them a wide berth, and they are prohibited from coming within four hundred yards of a village. One of their customs is very singular, viz., the father of a family takes (or used to take) his eldest daughter as his second wife. The Ernādans use bows and arrows, principally for shooting monkeys, to the flesh of which they are very partial. They are not particular as to what they eat, and are, in fact, on a par with jackals in this respect, devouring snakes and the putrid flesh of various animals. They 