Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/490

OKKILIYAN deities, and sacrifice goats and fowls to Māgāliamma and Koniamma.

The Kiraikkārans of Coimbatore, whose main occupation is cultivating kirai (Amarantus) and other vegetables, are said to be Kempati Okkiliyans, i.e., Okkiliyans who emigrated from Kempampatti in Mysore.

The hereditary headman of the caste, at Coimbatore, is called Pattakāran, who has under him a Chinna (little) Pattakaran. The headman presides over the caste council meetings, settles disputes, and inflicts fines and other forms of punishment. If a person is accused of using coarse language, he is slapped on the cheek by the Chinna Pattakāran. If, during a quarrel, one person beats the other with shoes, he has to purify himself and his house, and feed some of his fellow castemen. The man who has been slippered also has to undergo purificatory ceremony, but has not to stand a feast. In cases of adultery, the guilty persons have to carry a basket of sand on the head round the quarters of the community, accompanied by the Chinna Pattakāran, who beats them with a tamarind switch. In some places, I am informed, there is a headman for the village, called Ūru Goundan, who is subject to the authority of the Nāttu Goundan. Several nādus, each composed of a number of villages, are subject to a Pattakar, who is assisted by a Bāndari. All these offices are hereditary.

When a Gangadikāra girl reaches puberty, her maternal uncle, or his son, constructs a hut of stems of cocoanut leaves, reeds and branches of Pongamia glabra. Every day her relations bring her a cloth, fruits, and flowers. On alternate days she is bathed, and dressed in a cloth supplied by the washerwoman. The hut is broken up, and a new one constructed on the third, fifth, and seventh days. During the marriage ceremony, the