Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/191

Rh work of destruction, and with every movement the man and the ladder swayed to and fro, as if the whole thing would collapse at any moment. However, all was safe,and, after securing as much honey as he could conveniently carry, he began the return journey. Hand and foot he went up ring after ring until he reached the top in safety, performing the ascent with an air of nonchalant ease, which would have done credit to any steeple jack." The honey is brought for sale in hollow bamboo joints. Sometimes Kānikars come into Trivandrum, bringing with them live animals for the zoological gardens.

The word Kānikaran means a hereditary proprietor of land. There is a tradition that there were once two hill kings, Srī Rangan and Vīrappan, whose descendants emigrated from the Pāndyan territories beyond Agastyakūtam under pressure from a superior force, and never returned to the low country. The following legend is current among the Kānikars. " The sea originally covered everything, but God caused the water to roll back, and leave bare all the hills. Then Paramēswara and Parvati made a man and woman, whose descendants were divided into fifty-six races, and multiplied exceedingly, so that a sore famine invaded the land. In those days men were hunters, and lived by snaring animals and plucking wild fruits off the trees. There was no corn, for men did not know how to sow rice, and cultivate it. The cry of the famine-stricken reached Paramēswara and Parvati, and they visited the earth in the form of a pair of hamsam (the bird which carries Brahma), and alighted on a kanjiram tree. While seated there, the god and goddess noticed a pair of dragon-flies, which paired together, and they too, their hearts swelling with love, embraced each other, and, taking pity on mankind,