Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/359

Rh appears that the Tiyans were at that time an organised guild of professional planters. Although the cocoanut tree may have been introduced by descendants of immigrants from Ceylon moving up the coast, the practice of planting and drawing toddy was no doubt taken up by the ordinary Tulu cultivators, and, whatever the origin of the name Billava may be, they are an essentially Tulu class of people, following the prevailing rule that property vests in females, and devolves in the female line."

It is worthy of note that the Billavas differ from the Tīyans in one very important physical character — the cranial type. For, as shown by the following table, whereas the Tīyans are dolichocephalic the Billavas are, like other Tulu classes, sub-brachycephalic: —

Cephalic Index. Some Billavas about Udipi call themselves either Billavaru or Halēpaikaru. But the Halēpaiks proper are toddy-drawers, who are found in the Kundapūr tāluk, and speak Kanarese. There are said to be certain differences between the two classes in the method of carrying out the process of drawing toddy. For example, the Halēpaiks generally grasp the knife with the fingers directed upwards and the thumb to the right, while the Billavas hold the knife with the finders directed downwards and the thumb to the left. A Billava at Udipi had a broad iron knife with a round hole at the base, by which it was attached to an iron hook fixed on to a rope worn round the loins. For crushing the flower-buds