Eravallars do not live as small independent communities, but are mostly attached to farmers, under whom they work for a daily wage of two edangazhis and a half of paddy (unhusked rice). The women also work for the same wage, but never agree to serve in a state of bondage. During the festival kathira in the village temple of their landlords, when sheaves of corn are brought, every male member gets from his landlord two veshtis (a cloth with a coloured border 3 yards in length), and every woman a potava (coloured cloth 8 yards in length). During the Onam and Vishu festivals, one para of paddy, two cocoanuts, a small quantity of gingelly (Sesamum) and cocoanut oil are also given. The landlords partly defray their marriage and funeral expenses by a grant of a few paras of paddy, some salt and chillies. Sometimes they agree to work for twenty valloms (a large corn measure) a year. To improve their condition, they borrow money from their landlords, and purchase a bullock or buffalo or two, to cultivate a plot of land, after clearing a portion of the forest belonging to their master. They raise some crops, and make some saving to pay off the debt. Should they be so unfortunate as to fail in the undertaking, they willingly mortgage themselves to their master, or to some other, for the wages above mentioned, and wait for some favourable opportunity to pay off the debt. Women never surrender themselves to work in a state of bondage, but are independent day-labourers. The Eravallars are, as certified by their masters, always truthful, honest, faithful and god-fearing, and never, like the Pulayas of the northern parts of the State, ungratefully run away from their masters. A girl, when she comes of age, is lodged in a separate hut (muttuchala) erected at a distance of a furlong from the main hut. Only a few girl friends are allowed to be in company with her during the period of her seclusion, which is generally seven days, during which food is served to her at a distance, when she comes to take it. No grown-up member approaches her, for fear of pollution. She bathes on the morning of the seventh day, and is then allowed to enter the hut. The day is one of festivity to her friends and relations. If a girl is married before she attains puberty, her husband contributes something for the expenses of the ceremony. Should a woman cohabit with a man before marriage and become pregnant, she used, in former times, to be put to death, but is now turned out of caste. Instances of the kind are, they say, extremely rare.