Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/377

Rh three or four important festivals, presents of rice and other eatables, oil and salt are given to each labourer, or, in some cases, to each family. The average value of these may be taken at 1 rupee per labourer, or Rs. 4 per family. Presents are also made on the occasion of a birth, marriage, or funeral, the value of which varies very much in individual cases. Whole families of Holeyas are attached to the farms, but, when their master does not require their services, he expects them to go and work elsewhere in places where such work is to be got. In the interior, outside work is not to be had at many seasons, and the master has to pay them even if there is not much for them to do, but, one way or another, he usually manages to keep them pretty well employed all the year round." In a note on the Kulwādis, Kulvādis or Chalavādis of the Hassan district in Mysore, Captain J. S. F.Mackenzie writes * that " every village has its Holigiri — as the quarter inhabited by the Hollars is called — outside the village boundary hedge. This, I thought, was because they are considered an impure race, whose touch carries defilement with it. Such is the reason generally given by the Brāhman, who refuses to receive anything directly from the hands of a Holiar, and yet the Brāhmans consider great luck will wait upon them if they can manage to pass through the Holigiri without being molested. To this the Holiars have a strong objection, and, should a Brāhman attempt to enter their quarters, they turn out in a body and slipper him, in former times it is said to death. Members of the other castes may come as far as the door, but they must not enter the house, for that would bring the Holiar bad luck. If, by chance, a person happens to get in, the owner takes