Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/125

Rh Gazetteer of Malabar, that "amongst Mukkuvas the vidāram marriage obtains, but for this no ceremony is performed. The vidāram wife is not taken to her husband's house, and her family pay no stridhanam. A vidaram marriage can at any time be completed, as it were, by the performance of the kalyānam ceremonies. Even if this be not done, however,a child by a vidāram wife has a claim to inherit to his father in South Malabar, if the latter recognises him by paying to the mother directly after her delivery a fee of three fanams called mukkapanam. A curious custom is that which prescribes that, if a girl be married after attaining puberty, she must remain for a period in the status of a vidāram wife, which may subsequently be raised by the performance of the regular kalyānam."

Divorce is easily effected by payment of a fine, the money being divided between the husband or wife as the case may be, the temple, the Arayans, and charity.

A pregnant woman has to go through a ceremony called puli or ney-kudi in the fifth or seventh month. A ripe cocoanut, which has lost its water, is selected, and heated over a fire. Oil is then expressed from it, and five or seven women smear the tongue and abdomen of the pregnant woman with it. A barber woman is present throughout the ceremony. The husband lets his hair grow until his wife has been delivered, and is shaved on the third day after the birth of the child. At the place where he sits for the operation, a cocoanut, betel leaves and areca nuts are placed. The cocoanut is broken in pieces by some one belonging to the same sept as the father of the child. Pollution is got rid of on this day by a barber woman sprinkling water at the houses of the Mukkuvans. A barber should also sprinkle water at the temple on the same day.