MYSORE, CANARY, AND MALABAR. 
339 
wash the clothes of the astrologer, or Panchanga, he occasionally CHAPTER 
comes, and tells them some lies ; for that he is never at the trouble ' ■ 
... 
of predicting the truth, except to those who are rich. July iff. 
The Wully Tigulas , like the Vana Pallls, are a cast of Tamul , or Customs of 
Tigula origin ; and their only employment is the cultivation of Tigulas? 
kitchen gardens. They have lost their original language ; but 
when there is a scarcity of girls here, they go down to the lower 
Carnatic, and get wives from the parent stock. The men are allowed 
a plurality of wives, and never divorce them, but content them- 
selves with giving their females a good drubbing when they prove 
unfaithful. The girls continue to be marriageable after the age of 
puberty, and are very industrious in gathering the produce of the 
garden, and in carrying it to market. They do not spin. This cast 
has hereditary chiefs called Gaunda , which is the Tamul name for 
the head man of a village. None of them can read. With the Vana 
Pallis they eat, but cannot intermarry. They are allowed to eat 
animal food, but not to drink spirituous liquors. They bury the 
dead, and have some faint notions of a future state; but rather as 
a thing of which they have heard, than as a thing of which they 
are firmly convinced, or in which they are much interested. They 
take the vow of Ddseri , which literally means service ; the person, 
who taices the vow, thereby dedicating himself to the service of 
God. They are admitted into all temples, so that they are not con- 
sidered of an impure descent ; but they have no Guru. At the an- 
nual commemoration of their deceased parents, the Panchanga reads 
prayers (Mantrams), which they do not understand ; but at births, 
marriages, or funerals, no such ceremony is required. They do not 
observe the Amdvasyas . The cast god is V meat a Rdmana, or the 
Vishnu of Tripathi. When they go into a temple of this idol, they 
give the priest some small money, and get in return holy water and 
consecrated flowers. They offer sacrifices to the Saktis, and in fact 
worship every thing they meet, which is called a deity. 
Although this place be only three cosses from Silagutta , the Gardens. 
i 
