Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/113

Rh and even to possession of much of the land. If the account of the colonisation of Tondeimandalam by Vellālans in the eighth century A.D. is historic, then it is possible that at that time the Paraiyans lost the land, and that their degradation as a race began.

The Paraiyans have long been a settled race. And, though a number of them emigrate to Ceylon, Mauritius, South Africa, the West Indies, the Straits Settlements, and even to Fiji, the vast majority live and die within a mile or two of the spot where they were born. The houses in which they live are not temporary erections, or intended for use during certain seasons of the year only. The rudest form is a hut made by tying a few leaves of the palmyra palm on to a framework of poles or bamboos. The better class of houses are a series of rooms with low mud walls and thatched roof, but generally without doors, surrounding a small courtyard, in which the family goats, buffaloes, and fowls have their homes. The cooking is done anywhere where it is convenient either indoors or out, as there is no fear of pollution from the glance or shadow of any passer-by. Very occasionally the walls of the house, especially those facing the street, are whitewashed, or decorated with variegated patterns or figures in red and white. Paraiya women, like higher caste women, are much given to tracing exceedingly intricate symmetrical designs (kōlam) with rice flour on the smooth space or pathway immediately before the doors of their houses, it is said, to prevent the entrance of evil spirits. Mr. S. P. Rice writes to me that the patterns on the floor or threshold are generally traced with white powder, e.g., chalk, as rice is too costly; and that the original object of the custom was not to drive away evil spirits, but to provide food for the lowest creatures of creation — ants, insects, etc.