Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/368

HOLEYA party goes to the bride's house on a fixed day with rice, betel leaf and a few areca nuts, and waits the whole night outside the bride's hut, the bridegroom being seated on a mat specially made by the bride. On the next morning the bride is made to sit opposite the bridegroom, with a winnowing fan between them filled with betel leaf, etc. Meanwhile the men and women present throw rice over the heads of the couple. The bride then accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, carrying the mat with her. On the last day the couple take the mat to a river or tank where fish may be found, dip the mat into the water, and catch some fish, which they let go after kissing them. A grand feast completes the marriage. Divorce is easy, and widow marriage is freely practiced. Holeyas will eat flesh including beef, and have no caste scruples regarding the consumption of spirituous liquor. Both men and women wear a small cap made of the leaf of the areca palm." The Holeyas who were interviewed by us all said that they do not go through the ceremony of catching fish, which is performed by Shivalli Brāhmans and Akkasāles. "All Tulu Brāhmin chronicles," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes * " agree in ascribing the creation of Malabar and Canara, or Kērala, Tuluva, and Haiga to Parasu Rāma, who reclaimed from the sea as much land as he could cover by hurling his battle-axe from the top of the Western Ghauts. A modified form of the tradition states that Parasu Rāma gave the newly reclaimed land to Nāga and Machi Brāhmins, who were not true Brāhmins, and were turned out or destroyed by fishermen and Holeyas, who held the country till the Tulu Brāhmins were introduced by Mayūr Varma (of the