Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/387

Rh The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine. The following menstrual ceremony has been described * as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. "The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife."  '''Vēdunollu. —' A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cut Nyctanthes Arbor-tristis''. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.  Vēginādu.— A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.  Vekkāli Puli (cruel-legged tiger). — An exogamous section of Kallan.  Vēl (lance). — A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars in 