1336.] Translated from the Mackenzie Manuscripts. 



333 



them temporary renters : half of them are manual cultivators, paying 

 tribute to the government. 



The customs of the tribe of Agatd-Maravas are the following: these 

 are servants to the before mentioned Dot.li//as, and this by hereditary 

 descent. The men serve the men, and the women serve the women. 

 The women of this tribe wear ornaments of red gum-lac, made to re- 

 semble coral. They imitate the females of the Dottiya tribe in the 

 fashion of their ear-ornaments. The Dottiya men retain a portion of 

 the Agata women as a sort of inferior wives. The Agatas are com- 

 monly called earth-coral-wearing Maravas ; because they fabricate the 

 semblance of jewels from gum-lac. If the husband of a woman of the 

 Agata tribe die, she again enters on the marriage state. These women 

 are at liberty to take as many successive husbands as they please. 

 This is the detail of the Agata Maravas. 



The following is the account of the Curuchi Kattu Maravas. The 

 customs of this class resemble those of the before mentioned Sembu- 

 natta Maravas. Although the females of the Curuchi Kattu Maravas 

 intermarry with men of the Semhu-natta Maravas, yet the women of 

 the latter class do not intermarry with the Agata, Maravas ; and the 

 male offspring of such marriages, intermarry only with women of the 

 Sembu-natta Maravas. Though the Curuchi Kattu Maravas are Saivas^ 

 yet they perform pujai (worship) to various images as before specified. 

 These people are all of them servants or laborers in cultivation, or 

 small farmers, under the Sethupathi. Others are upon the footing of 

 the Sethupathi' s proper people; and pay tribute for their lands in the 

 same manner. Such is the account of the Curuchi Kattu Maravas. 



The following is the account of the Orurnattu V attagai Maravas, 

 These are Saivas ; but, as above, perform worship to various images. 

 They are habituated to drunkenness. Like the before mentioned 

 Maravas they are accustomed on the part of the bridegroom to give 

 thirty* fanams as a marriage present to the bride, which is received by 

 her father and mother. The elder or younger sister of the bridegroom 

 goes to the house of the bride : and, to the sound of the conch-shell, ties 

 on the tali; and early on the following morning brings her to the house 

 of the bridegroom. After some time, occasionally three or four years, 

 when there are indications of offspring, in the fourth or fifth month ? 

 the relatives of the pair assemble and perform the ceremony of remov- 

 ing the deficiency ; placing the man and his wife on a seat in public, 

 and having the sacrifice by fire and other matters conducted by the 

 Purohitan (or Brahman) ; after which the relatives sprinkle seshai 

 rice (or rice beaten out without any application of water) over the 

 heads of the pair. The relatives are feasted and otherwise hospitably 



Most probably " cully fanams." 



