143 
chank is then buried beneath the first stone laid. An 
old reference to this occurs in a petition quoted by 
Wheeler (fide Thurston, III., 147) from two natives of 
Madras, in connection with the founding of a village 
called Chintadrepettah, now a populous division of 
Madras City. The entry runs :—‘ Expended towards 
digging a foundation where chanks were buried with 
accustomary ceremonies.” Roman Catholic converts 
from low castes follow this custom, as well as Hindus ; in 
Tuticorin, if a Roman Catholic Parayan desires to build 
a house, the carpenter employed by him chooses an 
auspicious day by reference to a native calendar, a chank 
is bought in the bazaar and on the day chosen, having 
dug a foundation trench and prepared at the bottom a 
bed of coral stone and mortar, the chank is laid thereon. 
In the cavity of the shell small fragments of five metals 
(panjalokam), gold, silver, copper, iron and lead, are 
placed, turmeric and sandalwood water is sprinkled over, 
and then the whole is hidden under a mass of sweet- 
smelling flowers. The ceremony is ended; the first 
stone may now be lowered into place upon the chank 
and its contents, and good luck is believed to be assured 
to him who will inhabit the house. 
It may, however, happen that in spite of every pre- 
caution, an inauspicious site appears to have been chosen 
as shown by a sequence of misfortunes happening to the 
householder. In such cases Hindus may perform a 
special ceremony called Chankusthabanam to remedy 
the evil. A chank-shell is filled with water and incanta- 
tions made for forty-five days. At the end of this period 
of propitiation, the chank is buried under the house wall. 
(Winslow, Tamiland English Dictionary, p. 390, Madras 
1862.) 
Among the Parawa caste living in Tuticorin and 
other coast towns and villages in Tinnevelly and 
Ramnad, misfortune is often sought to be averted from 
the individual by almost completely burying a chank 
shell in the floor of the hall (A%#dam), about two feet on 
the inner side of the doorway to the street. A small 
portion of the back of the shell shows as a patch of white 
on the surface of the floor. The explanation of the 
custom current among Parawas is that the shell is so 
placed that when an inmate leaves the house, he must 
