Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/74

CHERUMAN headman faces east, and applies his sickle to the stalks, reserving the first stalk for the deities above mentioned. The corn is thrashed and measured by one of them, and, as he does so, he says 'Labham' (profit) for one, 'Chetham' (loss) for two, and counts up to ten. The eleventh goes to the share of the reapers. Thus they get one para for every ten paras of corn. The poor people that attend are also given a handful of the grain. After reaping, the members of the castes named in the table below receive a small portion of the corn for their services rendered to the farmers in the course of the months during which cultivation has been carried on: —