Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/148

KAMMALAN :Goldsmiths put inferior gold into the refining-pot.
 * If, successful, pour it into a mould ; if not, pour it into the melting pot. The Rev. H. Jensen explains* that the goldsmith examines the gold after melting it. If it is free from dross, he pours it into the mould; if it is still impure, it goes back into the pot.


 * The goldsmith will steal a quarter of the gold of even his own mother.


 * Stolen gold may be either with the goldsmith, or in his fire-pot.


 * If the ear of the cow of a Kammālan is cut and examined, some wax will be found in it. It is said that the Kammālan is in the habit of substituting sealingwax for gold, and thus cheating people. The proverb warns them not to accept even a cow from a Kammālan. Or, according to another explanation, a Kammālan made a figure of a cow, which was so lifelike that a Brāhman purchased it as a live animal with his hard-earned money, and, discovering his mistake, went mad. Since that time, people were warned to examine an animal offered for sale by Kammālans by cutting off its ears. A variant of the proverb is that, though you buy a Kammālan's cow only after cutting its ears, he will have put red wax in its ears (so that, if they are cut into, they will look like red flesh).


 * What has a dog to do in a blacksmith's shop? Said of a man who attempts to do work he is not fitted for.


 * When the blacksmith sees that the iron is soft,he will raise himself to the stroke.


 * Will the blacksmith be alarmed at the sound of a hammer?