113 
to village hawking glass bangles generally carry a few. 
The demand for them is very restricted for though it is 
compulsory upon the women of the chank section to 
wear them, they usually require only a single one 
in the course of their life and this even may have 
come to them from the mother or other female rela- 
tive. The same bangle may be worn by two or even three 
generations in succession. The usual cost of such a 
bangle is four annas but in cases of emergency when one 
is broken accidentally, the bereft may willingly pay 
even a rupee to have it replaced. 
The district where this custom was actually observed 
by Mr. Govindan in operation among Vellalans and 
Idaiyans was Coimbatore and so faras I have been able 
to ascertain no chank-bangle wearing sub-division of 
either of these castes 1s found outside the district named. 
The Collectors of Salem, Tanjore, South Arcot, Madura 
and Trichinopoly, who have been kind enough to insti- 
tute enquiries in the various taluks of their respective 
districts, agree in stating that they can find no evidence 
of any section of the Vellalar and Idatyar castes following 
this custom ; with regard to Tinnevelly, my own experi- 
ence is that only children of various lower castes wear 
chank-bangles and that solely as amulets. 
The practice is more general among low castes. 
The Collectors of Madura and Trichinopoly both inform 
me that among Paraiyans, Chukkiliyans (leather workers, 
etc.), Oddans, Koravas and the Naick sections known as 
Kavaraja and Thottiya Kambalathans together with the 
wandering tribe of Lambadis, the custom of wearing 
chank-bangles is found to prevail here and there in both 
districts. “There appears to be no general observance of 
the custom—in some villages and taluks none among the 
women of the castes named wears chank-bangles ; else- 
where, as in the Namakkal Taluk (Trichinopoly District), 
a definite section of the Paratyan caste called Sengudimi 
Paraiyans adopts this ornament as a distinguishing sept 
distinction, while in other parts of the country, the women 
of these various low castes wear it chiefly if not entirely for 
its ornamental value. The custom appears to be dying 
out, aS witness the vagueness of the people who still 
adhere to its observance as to the reason tor so doing, 
its partial and sporadic geographical distribution in the 
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