subject to the British government, he was able to obtain more 
accurate information than it was in my power to do among a people 
so bigotted, and so jealous of the intrusion of strangers. 
“ The Nairs marry before they are ten years of age; but the 
husband never afterwards cohabits with his wife: such a circum- 
stance would be considered as very indecent: he allows her oil, 
clothes, ornaments, and food; but she lives in her mother's house; 
or, after her parents' death, with her brothers; and cohabits with 
any person that she chooses, of an equal or higher rank than her 
own; but never more with her husband. If detected in bestowing 
her favours on any low man, she becomes an outcast. It is no 
reflection on a woman's character to say, that she has formed the 
closest intimacy with different persons; on the contrary, the Nair 
women are proud of reckoning among their favoured lovers many 
brahmins, rajahs, or other persons of high birth. When a lover 
receives admission into a house, he commonly gives his mistress 
some ornaments, and her mother a piece of cloth; but these pre- 
sents are never of such value as to give room for supposing that 
the women bestow their favours from mercenary motives. A Nair 
man, who is detected in fornication with a Shanar woman, is put 
to death; and the woman is sold to the Moplahs: if he have con- 
nection with a slave girl, both are put to death; which is a most 
shocking injustice to the female, who, in case of refusal to her lord, 
would be subject to all the violence of an enraged and despised 
master. 
“ In consequence of this strange manner of propagating the 
species, no Nair knows his father; and every man looks upon his 
sister's children as his heirs. He, indeed, looks upon them with 
