Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/135

Rh The main feature of the festival is the boiling of new rice as at Pongal. Men also put on women's clothes, and perform grotesque dances. In the same way, in the ten days' festival in honour of Māriyattāl held at Uttaramallūr during the Tamil month Avani (August), the goddess is carried about by washermen (Vannān), who perform a kind of pantomime (vilas) in her honour. There is a curious belief that these goddesses (or Gangammāl, if they are distinguished) must travel along roads and paths, and cannot go across country, and that they cannot pass over the leaves of the margosa or the stems of the plant called in Tamil perandei (Vitis quadrangularis). Consequently, when cholera is about, and the goddess is supposed to be travelling from village to village seeking victims, branches of margosa and long strings of perandei are placed on all the paths leading into the grāmam or chēri. Sometimes, also, leaves of the margosa are strung together, and hung across the village street. These are called toranam.

Besides the deities already referred to, there are a number of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins (pey or pisāsu), whom Paraiyans propitiate. Mathureivīran and Vīrabadran are, for example, two well-known demons. Among Tamil Paraiyans there are families in almost every village, who hold a kind of sacerdotal rank in the esteem of their fellows. They are called Valluvans, Valluva Pandārams, or Valluva Paraiyans. Their position and authority depend largely on their own astuteness. Sometimes they are respected even by Brāhmans for their powers as exorcists. It is often impossible to see any difference between the Valluvans and the ordinary Paraiyans, except that their houses are usually a little apart from other houses in the chēri. They take a leading part in local Paraiya festivals. At marriages