136 The Ethnology of India. 



pushed far ahead of their base of operations, possibly their baggage 

 and most of their women had been cut off, and being left with a scant 

 supply of wives in their new settlements, they may have adopted the 

 present arrangement. Yet it seems one which has little to recom- 

 mend it to permanence. The extraordinary thing then is, that it 

 appears that in some parts of the Malabar Coast, parts of other tribes 

 have actually to some degree borrowed the practice from the Nairs: 

 There can be nothing about the country unfavourable to the propaga- 

 tion of women. Any cause tending to female infanticide would also 

 tend to polyandry, but this has not been assigned as the reason in 

 Malabar. 



In the Canara districts, the Jains are still numerous, many of the 

 Bants, &c. being of this sect, and it appears that this country (known 

 also as the Tulu or Tulava country) was formerly a great stronghold 

 of the Jains and ruled by Jain Rajas. 



THE BORDERERS. 



The Teeemen oe Islandees of the South West Coast. 



On the Malabar Coast there is a numerous class called Teers or 

 Teermen. They are generally a fair good-looking race, but considered 

 to be of very low caste. Caste ideas are there carried to an extreme 

 unknown in Hindustan, where, with the exception of the unclean 

 scavenger caste, mere contiguity and general intercourse is not sup- 

 posed to affect caste, and all classes mix freely together. In Malabar 

 and Travancore, the Nairs do not pretend to be more than Soodras, 

 but they make out the Teers and Shanars (who are much the same) to 

 be so infinitely below them, that they must get out of the way when 

 a Nair calls out to announce his approach in the public road. And 

 yet the Teers are by no means a low and degraded caste ; on the 

 contrary they are, as I said, a good-looking, and they are also a thriving 

 prosperous people, who are largely educated in the Government 

 schools, obtain much public and private service, are acquiring land, 

 and are in every way well-to-do. 



They have (it seemed to me in Malabar) not the least aboriginal 

 trace, but are fairer and in appearance more refined looking than the 

 Nairs. The Shanar women of this class are those about whose 

 liberty to cover themselves a disturbance was made in the Travancore 



