Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/200

NAMBUTIRI BRAHMAN vegetables. Sweets are sometimes eaten. Candied cakes of wheat or rice, and rice boiled in milk with sugar and spices, are delicacies. Papadams (wafer-like cakes) are eaten at almost every meal. The Nambūtiri must bathe, and pray to the deity before partaking of any meal. An offering of rice is then made to the household fire, some rice is thrown to the crows, and he sits down to eat. The food is served on a plantain leaf or a bell-metal plate. It should be served by the wife; but, if a man has other Nambūtiris dining with him, it is served by men or children. The sexes feed separately. Before a man rises from his meal, his wife must touch the leaf or plate on which the food has been served. The reason may lie in this. The remains of the food are called ēchchil, and cannot be eaten by any one. Just before finishing his meal and rising, the Nambūtiri touches the plate or leaf with his left hand, and at the same time his wife touches it with her right hand. The food is then no longer ēchchil, and she may eat it. The Nambūtiri householder is said to be allowed by the Sāstras, which rule his life in every detail, to eat but one meal of rice a day — at midday. He should not, strictly speaking, eat rice in the evening, but he may do so without sinning heinously, and usually does. Fruit only should be eaten in the evening. Women and children eat two or three times in a day. A widow, however, is supposed to lead the life of a Sanyāsi, and eats only once a day. A Nambūtiri may eat food prepared by an east country Brāhman (Pattar), or by an Embrāntiri. In fact, in the large illams, where many people are fed every day, the cooks are generally Pattars in South Malabar. The Nambūtiri woman is more scrupulous, and will not touch food prepared by any one of a caste inferior to her own, as the Pattar is considered to be. Tea and coffee are objected