Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/274

NATTUKOTTAI CHETTI wealthy they may be, they usually live in the most penurious manner, and they will never by any chance show mercy to a debtor, so long as he shall have a penny left, or the chance of earning one. However, to make amends for their rapacity, they are in the habit of spending large sums now and then in works of charity. And, whatever faults there may be, they are most excellent men of business. Indeed, until quite lately, the good faith and honesty of a Nāttukōttai Setti were proverbial, and are even now conspicuous. The Nāttukōttai Settis claim to be a good caste, and asserted that they emigrated to this district thousands of years ago from a town called Kāveripattanam, in consequence of an intolerable persecution. But the other Settis will not admit the truth of their story, and affect to despise them greatly, alleging even that they are the bastard descendants of a Muhammadan man and a Kalla woman. The word Nāttukōttai is said to be a corruption of Nāttarasangkōttai, the name of a small village near Sivaganga. But this derivation appears to be doubtful." The name is usually said to be derived from Nāttukōttai, or country fort.

It has been said that "the Nāttukōttai Chettis, in organisation, co-operation, and business methods, are as remarkable as the European merchants. Very few of them have yet received any English education. They regard education as at present given in public schools as worse than useless for professional men, as it makes men theoretical, and scarcely helps in practice. The simple but strict training which they give their boys, the long and tedious apprenticeship which even the sons of the richest among them have to undergo, make them very efficient in their profession, and methodical in whatever they undertake to do."