Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/400

MALA Rh Rh

Concerning the home of the Mālas, Mr. Nicholson writes that "the houses (with mud or stone walls, roofed with thatch or palmyra palm leaves) are almost invariably placed quite apart from the village proper. Gradually, as the caste system and fear of defilement become less, so gradually the distance of their houses from the village is becoming less. In the Ceded Districts, where from early times every village was surrounded by a wall and moat, the aloofness of the houses is very apparent. Gradually, however, the walls are decaying, and the moats are being filled, and the physical separation of the outcaste classes is becoming less apparent." Mr. Nicholson writes further that "according to their own traditions, as told still by the old people and the religious mendicants, in former times the Mālas were a tribe of free lances, who, 'like the tiger, slept during the day, and worked at night.' They were evidently the paid mercenaries of the Poligars (feudal chiefs), and carried out raids and committed robberies for the lord