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cultivators, and the Muckwas of the fishers; both are well made 
women, sometimes tall, and always graceful. 
The Moplahs, or wives of the Mahomedans, who have been for 
many centuries settled among the Malabars, are in all respects a 
contrast to the natives; far from exposing any of their personal 
charms, they muffle themselves up in a covering of thick cotton 
cloth, and always retire on the approach of a stranger: they are 
extremely dirty, and pride themselves on their chastity; the young 
Tetees, on the contrary, never consider it among the cardinal 
virtues; but after marriage, they make good wives, and affectionate 
mothers. 
I inquired into the truth of Mr. Grose’s anecdote of a Malabar 
woman, who living with an English lady at Anjengo, to please her 
mistress, dressed in the European manner; but appearing after- 
wards in the queen of Attinga’s presence with her breasts covered, 
the cruel despot ordered them to be cut off, for such a mark of 
disrespect: it was confirmed at Attinga. It is not only the vulgar 
who are thus sparingly clothed; for the first princesses wear only 
a finer muslin, with costly jewels. 
Most of the Malabar men have a knife stuck in their girdle; 
and the steel pen with which they write their letters, accounts, and 
records, on the leaf of the Palmyra tree, there called olas: they 
write in a straight line, in a neat manner, and with great expedi- 
tion: their books consist of several leaves, fastened together by a 
thong. The northern Hindoos write with the calamus, or reed, 
on a smooth glossy paper, made of hemp, rice, and different in- 
gredients. 
The Malabar Christians dress like their pagan neighbours, 
