Page:Tales of the Sun.djvu/208

192 We are puli men, They are tiru men: If one s’â man, Surrounds tiru men; S’â man remains. Tâ, tai, tôm, tadingana.” The robbers were all uneducated, and thought that the leader was merely singing a song as usual. So it was in one sense; for the leader commenced from a distance, and had sung the song over twice, before he and his companions commenced to approach the robbers. They had understood his meaning, which, however, even to the best educated, unless trained to the technical expressions of trade, would have remained a riddle.

When two traders discuss the price of an article in the presence of a purchaser, they use an enigmatic form of language.

“What is the price of this cloth?” one trader will ask another.

“Puli rupees,” another will reply, meaning “ten rupees.”

Thus, there is no possibility of the purchaser knowing what is meant unless he be acquainted with trade technicalities. By the rules of this secret language tiru means “three,” puli means “ten,” and sâvana (or shortly s’â) means “one.” So