Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/83

Rh the fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.

Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days. In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.

Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.

Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily present