NATIVES OF MALABAR. 
159 
to poison him. The Poliars are slaves attached to 
the soil. 
The system of distances to be observed by these 
several classes is as follows : — “ A Nair may ap- 
proach, but not touch, a Brahmin. A Tiar must re- 
main thirty-six yards off; a Poliar, ninety-six steps 
off. A Tiar is to remain twelve steps from a Nair ; 
a Malear, three or four steps further ; a Poliar, 
ninety-six steps. A Malear may approach, but not 
touch, a Tiar. A Poliar is not to come even near to 
a Malear, or to any other caste : if he wishes to 
speak to a Brahmin, Nair, Tiar, or Malear, he must 
stand at the above prescribed distance, and cry aloud 
to them.”* 
Perhaps there is no part of India where the rigid 
laws of caste are retained with a more bigoted and 
unrelaxing spirit than in the province of Malabar, oc- 
casioned no doubt by the little comparative intercourse 
held here with strangers until their subjugation by the 
Mohammedan forces under Hyder. This at once 
opened a freer communication with different races, 
who have in some degree subdued those stubborn pre- 
judices which formerly existed, and even now indeed 
continue to exist to a great extent, especially beyond 
the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, where com- 
munion with aliens is naturally less limited, and 
where the temporal interest of the bigoted natives, 
.that talismanick subverter of narrow opinions in every 
country, breaks the fetters of ceremonial restraint, 
flinging men of opposite creeds into social contact, in 
* Hamilton’s Description ofHindostan, vol. ii. pp. 278, 9. 
