The Reddi of the south of India are divided into 24 clans, who marry in their own clans. They profess to be Vaishnava. As a law, the men marry their sister's daughter, but an aunt does not marry her nephew. Sometimes the bride is a mere child of five or six years old ; sometimes the bridegroom's age is no more, while the wife to whom he is married is a full grown young woman, who, by the time her hus band has grown up, has a young family of four or five children. Property descends through the issue of a son and granddaughter, uncle and niece. If a man refuse to marry his own sister's daughter, his father's property descends not to him, but to the man who marries the rejected woman. When a young Reddi woman of sixteen or twenty years of age is married to a boy of five or six years, she lives with some other adult male, perhaps a maternal uncle or cousin, but is not allowed to form a connection with the father's relations ; occasionally it may be the boy husband's father himself, that is, the woman's father-in-law ! Should there be children, they are fathered on the boy-husband. When the boy grows up, the wife is either old or past child bearing, and he in his turn takes up with some other boy's wife in a manner precisely similar to his own case, and begeti children for the boy husband.
The Komaii or Hindu shopkeepers of Madras, before contracting marriage, send an offering of betel to the Chakili or shoemakers, and in Viza gapatam, Brahmans go through the ceremony of asking the Mala's consent to their marriage.
With the Maravar of Ramnad and Sivaganga disparity of ages is not considered, nor is the presence or assent of the bridegroom necessary,— a blade of wood in his absence serving as proxy. Some of their subdivisions do not marry into the father's family ; but Hindus in general intermarry With the mother's relations.
The monkey-faced Kallar in the south of India are a brave and martial people, with much phy sical power and endurance. Their habits and customs are entirely aboriginal. Nominally of the Saiva sect, they are mostly devil-worshippers. They have a first and second marriage, like the Maravar of Ramnad. The titular surname of all Kallar is Ambalakaren, and they numbered 155,537 in 1881. Divorce and re-marriage of widows are allowed. Marriage of near relatives is usual. The Western Kallar of Madura are polyandrists. It constantly happens that a woman is the wife of either ten, eight,_ six, or two hus bands, who are held to be fathers jointly and severally of any children that may be born of her body. And when the children grow up they style themselves the children not of ten, eight, or six fathers, as the case may be, but of eight and two, or six and two, or four and two fathers.
The Palli race of 'the Cuddapah districts pledge their wives as security for loans of money, and if not repaid, the woman is re-married to another man. A case of this bigamy was tried in 1876 at the Session of Cuddapah, and all the parties were fined. The husband had borrowed some money from his mother-in-law, and left his wife with .her till he could repay. Having failed to
pay within the prescribed period, the wife was re-married to another man. The twice-married wife, her mother, and a third party who was present at the second marriage, were held to be equally punishable as principals, all having been present at the re-marriage.
The Karakatan Vellalar of the Madura hills occupied their present locality before the Vellalar of the plains adopted the customs of the Aryan immigrants. And now, amongst them, when an estate is likely to descend to a female in default of male issue, she is forbidden to marry an adult, but goes through the ceremony of marriage with some male child, or, in some cases, with a portion of her father's dwelling-house, on the under standing that she may receive any man of the caste. Her children inherit the property, which is thus retained in the woman's family, the child husband being the supposititious father.
The /Thom/ are faithful and brave, boundlessly hospitable, and a guest's safety and care are para mount duties. Agriculture and war are deemed the sole honourable avocations. A boy is married in his tenth year to a girl four or five years older than himself. In the middle of the marriage feast, at night, while the dancing goes on, the girl's uncle lifts her on his shoulder, while one of the boy's uncles does the same with the bride groom. Suddenly the uncles exchange burdens, and the boy's uncle . makes off with the bride. In a moment the festivities cease, the kinsmen range themselves into two hostile tribes, the girl's friends trying to recapture the bride, the boy's to cover her flight. The two parties carry the fight to great lengths, and the conflict exhibits an ancient custom of marrying by capture. • The Yerkal, Korawa, or Kunchi Kori are wanderers, of whose original country they them selves retain no knowledge. They are darker than the usual tinge of Hindus around them. In their own communities they style themselves Yerkal, and they give the same appellation to the language in which they hold communication with each other. With the exception of the cow, almost all animals are used by them as food. They worship a goddess called Poler Amma. Polygamy is common ; and if a man owe money to his neighbour, he pledges his wife or daughter to his creditor, who may either live with them or transfer them to another person. On the release of the debtor, be reclaims his wife and any chil dren that may have been born in the interval. In N. Arcot, Chingleput, and Tanjore, the Korawa mortgage their unmarried daughters, who become the absolute property of the mortgagee until the debt is discharged. In Madras, the Korawa, when in want of money, sell their wives outright for about 50 rupees. In Nellore, they all pur chase their wives at from 30 to 70 rupees, making payment in asses or cattle. Their various clans do net intermarry. They bury their dead. In Travancore there are 56,274 Komwa; and there is a race of this name in Cuteh of similar habits.