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 husbands and guarded them from her wiles. I have failed in these attempts, and she has seduced my lover away from me.

More innocent incidents of love also belong to Marudam; such as the wailing of a wife when her husband has gone away to a far place after quarrelling with her. 'The sparrows whose wings are like the faded water-lily with petals shrunk and folded, and which reside in the roofs of houses, eat the paddy and the other grains spread for drying in the front yard of houses; they make holes in the slender filaments of flowers in the highway. They return to their beds in the roof where they sleep with their young ones. Do not the sad evening and the pains of separation exist where he has gone.'

As agriculture was the chief industry of Marudam, pasturage was the chief industry of Mullai. The sheep, the goat, the cow, the ox, the buffalo were the chief domestic animals tended by the Āyar, herdsmen. Profusion of names for each of these as usual indicates the love the herdsmen felt for their wards. Thus the sheep was called āḍu, uḍu, oruvu, turuvai, tuḷḷal, puruvai, veṛi; the red variety śemmaṛi, mōttai, udaḷ, ēḻagam, pallai, kaḍā, mai, koṛi, tagar, melagam. The goat was called veḷḷādu, kārāda, kochchai, veḷḷai, vaṛkāli; kuṛumbādu, from the wool of which kuṟumbar wove kamblies, was also called varuḍai, varaiyāḍu. The cow had naturally the largest variety of names, ā, paśu, kuram, kurāl, kūlam, kovalam, śurai; a useless cow was sudai; a barren cow, varchai, that which has yeaned once kiṭṭi, kiruṭṭi. The ox was erudu, iṛāl, iṛu, kuṇḍai, kūḷi, koṭṭiyam, śe, kō, nūpam, pagaḍu, pāṇḍil, pāṛal, pullam,