32 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY— PART II 



sankhu tali, which on examination shows no Hkeness to a chank shell. These are the 

 Parawas of the coast towns on the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar. When the Portu- 

 guese arrived there early in the sixteenth century, these people, who were principally 

 pearl fishers, chank divers, and fishermen, were orthodox Hindus, but the stress of 

 Muhammadan competition drove them into alliance with the Portuguese and they went 

 over in a 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 sankhu tali as among the castes 

 first mentioned. There is no doubt that when the caste was a Hindu one the taU 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 

 a chank shell on each side. The use of the original name is a strange persistence in view 

 of nearly 400 years' sojourn within the Christian fold ; it is one of the many signs of toler- 

 ance shown by the Roman Catholic priesthood 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 bridegroom, which 

 are tied together with seven turns of a turmeric-dyed thread. (Thurston, Vols. I. and II.) 



(/) DEATH CEREMONIES. 



Throughout the Tamil country all non-Brahman castes which observe Hindu 

 rites have the chank sounded as the body is being taken to the funeral pyre or to the 

 burial ground. It is usual also to employ the conch-blower on the last day of the sraddh 

 ceremonies in those castes which follow the orthodox ritual. Among the Telugus 

 these same rites are largely followed, but it is sa,id that Vaishnavites do not observe 

 them. Among both races, the Brahmans do not have the conch blown at any period 

 of the obsequies — a sign that lends weight to the theory that the chank has been borrowed 

 by Brahmanism from another religion. 



In the Madura and Tinnevelly districts the conch-blowers at a funeral are Ambattans 

 or barbers, the same caste as performs likewise at weddings. Among the Idaiyans 

 of these and the neighbouring districts one part of the funeral rites consists in the son 

 perambulating the pyre thrice with a pot of water on his shoulder ; at each turn the barber 

 makes a hole in it with a shell when the head of the corpse is reached. Finally the pot 

 is broken near the head. (Thurston, II, p. 362.) 



Further north, in the East Coast districts from Tanjore and Salem to the Kistna 

 River, the Panisavans are by caste custom the funeral conch-blowers ; they may indeed 

 be accounted the undertaker caste, as it is their duty to carry news of the death to the 

 relations of the deceased. It is they who generally keep all the materials necessary 



