147 
According to Ananthakrishna Ayyar (Thurston, VII, 
23) “At the marriage ceremony, the tali (marriage 
badge) is made of a piece of a conch shell (7ardinedla 
rapa) which is tied on the bride’s neck at an auspicious 
hour. She is taken before her landlord, who gives her 
some paddy, and all the coconuts on the tree beneath 
mincheshewhappens stOuknecl “i, . 7. -. 1 No 
ascertain whether a marriage will be a happy one, a 
conch shell is spun round. If it falls to the north, it 
predicts good fortune ; if to the east or west, the omens 
are favourable ; if to the south, very unfavourable.” 
Lastly and most interesting of all, we find a caste 
calling their marriage badge sanvkhu ¢ali which on 
examination shows no likeness to a chank shell. These 
are the Parawas of the coast towns on the Indian side 
of the Gulf of Mannar. When the Portuguese arrived 
there early in the sixteenth century, these -eople who 
were principally pearl fishers, chank divers, and fisher- 
men, were crthodox Hindus, but the stress of Muham- 
madan competition drove them into alliance with the 
Portuguese and they went over ina body to the Roman 
Catholic church. To-day the badge tied around the 
bride’s neck on marriage consists of three ornaments, 
a central cross flanked on either side by the symbol of 
the Holy Ghost ; nevertheless it is called saxkhu tali 
as among the castes first mentioned. There is no doubt 
that when the caste was a Hindu one the /a/i was true 
to name, indeed Parawa tradition is definite, for it asserts 
that originally the central ornament was a small figure 
of some Hindu God (probably Krishna) flanked by one 
of achank shell on each side. The use of the original 
name isa strange persistence 1n view of nearly 400 years 
sojourn within the Christian foid; it is one of the many 
signs of tolerance shown by the Roman Catholic priest- 
hood towards their converts’ prejudices on immaterial 
points--a tolerance in petty matters that has done much 
to help that church in its propaganda. 
Among some castes, including the Bauris and 
Dandasis of Ganjam, turmeric water from a chank shell 
is poured seven times over the hands of bride and bride- 
eroom which are tied together with seven turns of a 
turmeric-dyed thread. (Thurston, Vols. I and II.) 
IO-A 
