Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/287

Rh but feel disappointment that they are not mentioned in this book.

It would have added to the interest of the book had the author told us how he collected his facts, whether through the medium of others or face to face, for it would seem from internal evidence that many of them came through the former channel; for example, his Kâtars do not appear to be the genuine folk of the forest fastnesses where the wild elephant is at home in huge herds, where, indeed, it is scarcely possible for a Brahman to penetrate while preserving his caste, owing to difficulties in procuring cooked food and because of unavoidable contact with people who, from his point of view, are vilely impure. A striking peculiarity about the Kâtars is that they alone of all the peoples of South India malform their teeth; they hack the front teeth into points, thus making them resemble the teeth of a shark. Many of the customs described are not peculiar to the people in connection with whom they are mentioned. It is, of course, always a difficult matter to determine whether a custom or a feature in a ceremony, and so on, is really one which has grown up, as it were, with people of the most inferior castes, who, having little grit or character of their own, are always apeing their betters. It is only in salient points of certain ceremonies, especially those connected with birth, marriage, death, i.e. in fact those most deeply imbued with their nature, that we may hope to find something really their own; and, unfortunately, this is just where the author fails us. Thus, in describing the Puliyans' marriage ceremony he does not say who ties the bride's tâli (the marriage token). The bridegroom's friend tightens it, but who ties it? And there is omission of ceremonies which are strictly peculiar to a caste; e.g., when speaking of the Kammâlans, he disappoints by leaving out the one in which the Kammâlan (carpenter) is and must be the protagonist in the charming and, of course, interesting prelude to habitation of every new house. It is rather staggering to be told that the Nayâdis are skilful hunters! It is true they may, as the author expresses it, "hunt" toads and tortoises, but hunters in the English sense they certainly are not. It is difficult to convey to the mind of the Englishman at home the condition of utter degradation in which the Nayâdis are, not only in the Cochin State, but in British India.