THE ANIMALLAI HILLS. 129 



to sharp points as a marriage ceremony, and the women wear an 

 enormous coil of springy wood, or a strip from the leaf of the pal- 

 myra palm [Borassus Jiabelliformis), coiled up like a clock-spring 

 in the lobe of each ear, which causes the flesh to expand into a 

 thin ring two or three inches in diameter, which sometimes hangs 

 nearly to the shoulder. The women also wear beads and neck- 

 laces of various kinds, but no other covering above the waist. The 

 old women are always hideously ugly, and, as is also the case with 

 the Mulcers, the men are handsomer than the women. Formerly 

 the Karders would perform no menial labor at all, and, while con- 

 senting to carry a load of baggage or a gim, they would be deeply 

 oflfended Lf they were called cooHes. 



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