Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/498

KORAVA wrist, and glass bangles on the left. The former throw the end of their cloth over the left shoulder, and the latter over the right. It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that "the Kuravans are divided into a number of endogamous sections, of which the Īna Kuravans and the Kāvalkāran Kuravans are the most criminal, especially the latter. The latter are also called the Marasa, Mondu, and Kādukutti Kuravans. In dress and appearance the Nāmakkal Kuravans are said to be superior to those of Karūr, and to look like well-dressed Vellālans or Pallis. They are peculiar in wearing long ear-rings. They are also said to be much better thieves than the others, and to dislike having a Karūr Kuravan when breaking into a house, for fear he might wake the household by his clumsiness."

As examples of intipēru, or exogamous septs, the following, which were given by Uppu Yerukalas, may be cited: — "A knowledge," Mr. Fawcett writes, "of these house or sept names may be useful in order to establish a man's identity, as a Koravar, who is generally untruthful as to his own name, is seldom if ever so as regards his house or sept name, and his father's name. He considers it shameful to lie about his parentage, 'to be born to one, and yet to give out the name of another.'