Brahnivical Customs. 463 



their husbands, to ascend the pyre with them. Accordingly, the 

 mortahty upon this score is small enough in Mahamalaipuram. 

 All seem hale and hearty, although for the most part they Hve 

 upon rice and fruits, tasting flesh but seldom, as it is never used 

 by the Brahmin caste. The Brahmins will not even eat eggs, 

 because they are the produce of hens ; nor drink milk because 

 it is procured from cows ! The girls generally marry at thirteen. 

 They are, however, usually betrothed from the time they are 

 two or three years of age, the bridegroom-elect taking the 

 bride-elect to reside with himself. 



All the natives whom we fell in with could read and write, 

 but the Sanscrit inscriptions on the rock-temples were quite 

 unintelligible to them, as they only spoke Tamil, Telugu, and 

 Malabar. The greater number had their foreheads painted ac- 

 cording to the caste they belonged to. Those worshipping Siva 

 wore, suspended by a cord round the neck, small silver amulets, 

 called Lingams, which have images of Siva enclosed. The 

 adherents of Brahma, as already mentioned, wear no distin- 

 guishing mark upon the forehead, except that those that are 

 married wear a five-ply cord (panul), tied obliquely across the 

 upper part of the body. One must not, how^ever, attach too much 

 faith to these varieties of external markings, since many tattoo 

 their foreheads with red^ or yellow, or ashen-gray punctures, 

 which usually have no special signification, but simply imply 

 that on account of the pressure of business requiring frequent 

 absence, they have neither time nor opportunity to have the 

 distinguishing insignia of their caste properly designed. Ac- 



