Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/486

MALAYALI efforts to get free. When one bull is tired out, another is brought up to take its place.

"The Malaiyālis have a good many superstitions of their own, which are apparently different from those of the plains. If they want rain, they pelt each other with balls of cow-dung, an image of Pillaiyar (Ganēsa) is buried in a manure pit, and a pig is killed with a kind of spear. When the rain comes, the Pillaiyar is dug up. If a man suffers from hemicrania, he sets free a red cock in honour of the sun on a Tuesday. A man who grinds his teeth in his sleep may be broken off the habit by eating some of the food offered to the village goddess, brought by stealth from her altar. People suffering from small-pox are taken down to the plains, and left in some village. Cholera patients are abandoned, and left to die. Lepers are driven out without the slightest mercy, to shift for themselves.

"With regard to marriage, the Malaiyālis of the Trichinopoly district recognise the desirability of a boy's marrying his maternal aunt's daughter. This sometimes results in a young boy marrying a grown-up woman, but the Malaiyālis in this district declare that the boy's father does not then take over the duties of a husband. On the Kollaimalais, a wife may leave her husband for a paramour within the caste, but her husband has a right to the children of such intercourse, and they generally go to him in the end. You may ask a man, without giving offence, if he has lent his wife to anyone. Both sections practice polygamy. A betrothal on the Pachaimalais is effected by the boy's taking an oil bath, followed by a bath in hot water at the bride's house, and watching whether there is any ill omen during the process. On the Kollaimalais, the matter is settled by a simple interview. On both hill ranges, the wedding