MARITAL JEALOUSY 165 



The women are thus a powerful influence in favour 

 of polyandry ; and if not established in the first 

 instance, at least it is maintained by the help of 

 their goodwill. In some of the taluks of Malabar 

 the custom of fraternal polyandry survives among the 

 Tiyans (toddy-tappers), though it is said to be dying 

 out. Reasons of an economic nature however support 

 it, reasons urged not on behalf of the men but of the 

 women, because it is possible for a man besides sharing 

 his elder brother's wife to have a wife for himself. 

 Property devolves through the eldest brother's wife. 

 A girl will not be given in marriage to an only son, 

 for her relatives say : " Where is the good ? He may 

 die and she will have nothing. The more brothers 

 the better the match." The argument, it is obvious, 

 will always apply to a monogamic marriage among 

 a community of artisans. It is said that the Tiyan 

 wife sleeps in a room and her husbands outside. 

 When one of them enters the room a knife is placed 

 on the door-frame as a signal to forbid entrance to 

 the other husbands. 1 In South Malabar and the 

 northern parts of Cochin the marriage ceremony of 

 the Tiyans (there called Izhuvas or Thaudans) varies 

 according as the bride is intended to be the wife of 

 one or all of a band of brothers. The operative part 

 of the ceremony seems to be " the giving of sweets," 

 similiar to the Kammdlan ceremony in Malabar 

 already described. The bride and bridegroom are 

 seated on a mat and given milk, plantain-fruits and 

 sugar. If the marriage is intended to be monandrous 

 the bridegroom's brothers do not share in the sweets. 

 If it is to be polyandrous the sweets are served 

 1 Thurston, 112. 



