The Ethnology of India. 75 
In the centre of this tract, in Malabar, the Bramins, owing to political 
circumstances and hostile rule, have been to a great extent driven 
away, but they ave very numerous in Travancore and Cochin; and in 
the Palghaut valley (a little inland, where the break takes place in the 
line of the ghats) the Bramins seem to be very numerous as cultiva- 
tors, and are industrious and good in that capacity. The principal 
class of Bramins on the South Coast are called Namberees, and they 
have some very peculiar customs. They affect, however, much of 
the sacerdotal character, and seem to be very influential in Travancore 
and Cochin. Throughout the South Western Coast, however, wherever 
the Nairs and allied tribes are or have been politically dominant or 
are now numerous, the Bramins have by no means a monopoly of 
office, even among Hindus; for the Nairs themselves are frequently 
educated and hold very many public offices. 
The Namberee Bramins are described as very like the Nairs and 
Seneral Hindu population of the South Coast, but as not unfrequently 
fairer. 
It remains to notice the Tamil country. There also the Bramins 
are numerous, but it appears that throughout the extreme South, they 
again lose that literary predominance, or almost monopoly, which they 
enjoy in the Maratta and other countries in the middle zone of India 
as well as in the extreme North. Ihave mentioned that the Nairs 
of the Malayala and Talava country by no means resign the pen to 
the Bramins ; and so also it appears that throughout the Tamil country 
offshoots of the dominant tribes, under the names of Modelliars, 
Pillays, &c., do much of the clerkly work, and the Bramins have not 
generally the office of village accountant and collector—the posses- 
sion of which is the greatest test of predominance in that respect. I 
gather that the Lingamite sect is less numerous in the Tamil than 
in the Canarese country, and consequently the Bramins are in a 
sacerdotal point of view more important. They also push their 
fortunes in many secular ways. They rent much land, but will not 
hold the plough, and are extensively employed in the public offices 
as hurkaras (messengers or process servers) and in such like capa- 
cities, also as keepers of choultrees and in many other occupations. 
With reference to what I have said of them as renters rather than 
cultivators, I should add that, though the Palghat country is included 
