Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/86

KALLAN August, large numbers of villagers attacked the Kallars in two villages in the Dindigul division, and burnt the Kallar quarters."

"The crimes," Mr. F. S. Mullaly writes,* "that Kallars are addicted to are dacoity in houses or on highways, robbery, house-breaking and cattle-stealing. They are usually armed with vellari thadis or clubs (the so-called boomerangs) and occasionally with knives similar to those worn by the inhabitants of the western coast. Their method of house-breaking is to make the breach in the wall under the door. A lad of diminutive size then creeps in, and opens the door for the elders. Jewels worn by sleepers are seldom touched. The stolen property is hidden in convenient places, in drains, wells, or straw stacks, and is sometimes returned to the owner on receipt of blackmail from him called tuppu-kuli or clue hire. The women seldom join in crimes, but assist the men in their dealings (for disposal of the stolen property) with the Chettis." It is noted by the Abbé Dubois that the Kallars " regard a robber's occupation as discreditable neither to themselves, nor to their fellow castemen, for the simple reason that they consider robbery a duty, and a right sanctioned by descent. If one were to ask of a Kallar to what people he belonged, he would coolly answer, I am a robber." It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that "dacoity of travellers at night used to be the favourite pastime of the Kallans, and their favourite haunts the various roads leading out of Madura, and that from Ammayanāyakkanūr to Periyakulam. The method adopted consisted in threatening the driver of the cart, and then turning the vehicle into the ditch so