Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/65

Rh to give a local habitation to the ancient name. Moreover, the name of the great Emperor of Malabar, who is known to every child on the coast as Chēramān Perumal, was undoubtedly the title and not the name of the Emperor, and meant the chief (literally, big man) of the Chēra people."

Of the history of slavery in Malabar an admirable account is given by Mr. Logan, from which the following extracts are taken. "In 1792, the year in which British rule commenced, a proclamation was issued against dealing in slaves. In 1819, the principal Collector wrote a report on the condition of the Cherumar, and received orders that the practice of selling slaves for arrears of revenue be immediately discontinued. In 1821, the Court of Directors expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the lack of precise information which had been vouchsafed to them, and said ' We are told that part of the cultivators are held as slaves: that they are attached to the soil, and marketable property.' In 1836, the Government ordered the remission in the Collector's accounts of Rs. 927-13-0, which was the annual revenue from slaves on the Government lands in Malabar, and the Government was at the same time 'pleased to accede to the recommendation in favour of emancipating the slaves on the Government lands in Malabar.' In 1841, Mr. E. B. Thomas, the Judge at Calicut, wrote in strong terms a letter to the Sadr Adālat, in which he pointed out that women in some tāluks (divisions) fetched higher prices, in order to breed slaves; that the average cost of a young male under ten years was about Rs. 3-8-0, of a female somewhat less; that an infant ten months old was sold in a court auction for Rs. 1-10-6 independent of the price of its mother; and that, in a recent suit, the right to twenty-seven slaves