149 
Paratyan (Thurston, VI, 81). In Travancore when a 
headman or kaikkaran of the Paraiyans settled there 
happens to die, a chank-shell is bur.ed with the corpse 
(Thurston, Vil, 134. ) 
The chank sometimes has a place in the death cere- 
monies of castes which are not Hinduised. Thus among 
the Cherumans of Malabar and Cochin, a caste of 
agricultural serfs, according to Mr. Ananthakrishna Ayyear 
(Thurston, IJ, 81) “ the son or nephew is the chicf 
mourner, who erects a mound of earth on the south side 
of the hut, and uses it asa place of worship. For seven 
days, both morning and evening, he prostrates himself 
before it, and sprinkles the water of a tender coconut on 
it.’ On the eighth day, his relatives, friends, the Vallon, 
and the devil-driver assemble together. The devil-driver 
turns round and blows his conch, and finds out the posi- 
tion of the ghost, whether it has taken up its abode inthe 
mound, or is kept under restraint by some deity. Should 
the latter be the case, the ceremony of deliverance has to 
be performed, after which the sp‘rit is set up as a house- 
hold deity.” 
How far the conch is used in funeral rites outside the 
Madras Presidency, | am not ina position to say, except 
in regard to Thibet, where as already incidentally men- 
tioned, it is a custom to sound it as the body ofa monk or 
anun is being conveyed from the place where death 
occurred. 
(2) Torrens. 
Totems as the distinctive signs of exogamous sey ts 
must have been at one time universal among tribes of 
Dravidian origin. To-day a well developed totemistic 
system characterises the tribal organization of the Santals 
and Oraons who retain languages distinct from those of the 
surrounding peoples, know nothing of the caste system, 
and who continue to worship non-Aryan Gods. Among 
the Santals 91 septs are known, and one of these is known 
as Sankh. The members of this sept may not cut, burn, 
nor use the shell, nor may the women of this sept wear it 
in personal adornment. 
Above these still primitive tribes and between them 
and the fully Hinduised peoples who are split up into 
castes, are a large number of partially Hinduised tribes 
