Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/216

KANIYAN Kaniyans," he writes, "possess almanacks, by which they inform people as to the proper time for performing ceremonies or sowing their seeds, and the hours which are fortunate or unfortunate for any undertaking. When persons are sick or in trouble, the Cunishun, by performing certain ceremonies in a magical square of 12 places, discovers what spirit is the cause of the evil, and also how it may be appeased. Some Cunishuns possess mantrams, with which they pretend to cast out devils." Captain Conner notes twenty years later that " Kan- neans derive the appellation from the science of divination, which some of their sect profess. The Kannean fixes the propitious moment for every undertaking, all hysterical affections being supposed to be the visitation of some troublesome spirit. His incantations are believed alone able to subdue it."

The Kaniyans are practically the guiding spirits in all the social and domestic concerns of Travancoreans, and even Muhammadans and Christians do not fail to profit by their wisdom. From the moment of the birth of an infant, which is noted by the Kaniyan for the purpose of casting its horoscope, to the moment of death, the services of the village astrologer are constantly in requisition. He is invariably consulted as to the cause of all calamities, and the cautious answers that he gives satisfy the people. " Putrō na putri," which may either mean no son but a daughter, or no daughter but a son, is jocosely referred to as the type of a Kaniyan's answer, when questioned about the sex of a child in utero. "It would be difficult," Mr. Logan writes,* " to describe a single important occasion in everyday life when the Kanisan is not at hand as a guiding spirit, foretelling