36 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY— PART II 



Further north, in the coast villages of South Canara., south of Mangalore, rings 

 made from Strombus shells but known locally as chank rings are employed by parents 

 to avert the evil eye from their young children. At Kasargod, Bekal and the adjacent 

 villages I have found the custom especially common among the Mukuvans, a caste of 

 immigrant Malayali fishermen. Children from 3 to 4 years old in these villages are 

 frequently given necklaces made of Strombus rings alternating with elongated glass 

 beads. Some other castes in the same neighbourhood, Mokayans and Tiyyans together 

 with some Mappillas, are said to follow the same custom. Usually the rings do not 

 exceed twelve in each necklace. Adults do not wear these amulets as is the habit of the 

 woman of certain sections of the Cheruman caste in Malabar {cf. p. 39) and of the 

 Hill Vedans of Travancore. How far these and other facts connote former wide or 

 even universal prevalence of this habit among the indigenous population of Malabar, 

 is a line of inquiry likely to repay careful investigation. 



Finger rings purporting to be made from chank shells, but usually cut from a small 

 species of Strombus common on the western coast of the Gulf of Mannar, are also used 

 very freely throughout the Tamil country and also in Malabar and Cochin, chiefly by 

 non-Brahmans among Hindus, as amulets against evil spirits, the evil eye and certain 

 sicknesses. In Tinnevelly, Madura and Kamnad the custom is very prevalent among 

 both sexes of non-Brahmans. Labbai and Marakkayar Muhammadans in whose veins 

 much Hindu blood is present, also affect the custom. The Vellalans, although like 

 Brahman adults, they wear, except in one section, neither chank-bangles nor rings, 

 often provide their children with chank-rings or else with pieces of chank-shell tied on 

 the wrist of the right hand by means of black thread, as an amulet against the disease 

 called chedi which is, I believe, rickets. In some cases the ring or piece of chank is 

 placed on the wrist only when the disease has laid hold of the child, in others it is tied 

 on when the child attains its second month and kept there till it is three years old, 

 when it is believed that all danger of contracting the disease has passed. Among the 

 castes ranking next — Chettis, KoUans, Thachchans, Thattans, Naidus, Idaiyans, and 

 Chaluppans, a chank-ring is often womi as an amulet against pimples on the 

 face ; occasionally their young children are provided with small and roughly 

 ornamented chank-bangles to safeguard them against chedi. The low castes or 

 Panchamas such as Pallans, Vallayans, Paraiyans, etc., are the most regular devotees 

 of these amulets. 



The Roman CathoUc Parawas of Tuticorin and the other Parawa strongholds 

 on the Pescaria Coast have also been great believers in the virtue of chank amulets, 

 and till recently all babies were given chank-bangles to protect from convulsions and 

 from chedi. Even now the poorer and more ignorant continue to employ these amulets, 

 keeping them on the wrists for about three years. The richer and better educated 

 have either abandoned the practice or keep the bangles on for a much abbreviated 

 period. The Parawas formerly also employed pieces of the curious egg-capsule of the 



