Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Both men and women are decently clad. Males wear veshtis, one end of
which hangs loose, and the other is tucked in between the legs. They
have a shoulder cloth, either hanging loosely over their shoulders,
or sometimes tied to the turban. They allow their hair to grow
long, but do not, for want of means, anoint it with oil. They grow
moustaches. They wear round the neck a necklace of small white beads to
distinguish them from Malayars, who are always afraid of them. Some
wear brass finger rings. Women wear a potava (coloured cloth),
half of which is worn round the loins, while the other half serves
to cover the body. The hair is not smoothed with oil. It is twisted
into a knot on the back. It is said that they take an oil bath once
a week. Their ear ornament is made of a long palmyra leaf rolled into
a disc, and the ear lobes are sufficiently dilated to contain them.
Erkollar.--A Tamil form of the Telugu Yerragolla, which is sub-division
of Tottiyan.
Ernadan.--In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Aranadans are
described as a hill tribe in Malabar, who kill pythons, and extract
an oil from them, which they sell to people on the plains as a remedy
for leprosy. These are, I have no doubt, the Ernadans, concerning
whom Mr. G. Hadfield writes to me as follows. They are a small
jungle tribe, found exclusively in Malabar, and are considered to
be the lowest of the jungle tribes by the inhabitants of Malabar,
who consider themselves polluted if an Ernadan approaches within
a hundred yards. Even Paniyans and Pariahs give them a wide berth,
and they are prohibited from coming within four hundred yards of a
village. One of their customs is very singular, viz., the father of
a family takes (or used to take) his eldest daughter as his second
wife. The Ernadans use bows and arrows, principally for shooting
monkeys, to the flesh of which they are very partial. They are not
particular as to what they eat, and are, in fact, on a par with
jackals in this respect, devouring snakes and the putrid flesh of
various animals. They are fond of collecting the fat of snakes, and
selling it. Muhammadans employ them in felling timber, and cultivating
fields. Their clothing is exceedingly scanty, and, when hard up,
they use wild plantain leaves for this purpose.
Through Mr. Hadfield's influence with the tribe, Mr. F. Fawcett
was able to examine a few members thereof, who appeared before him
accompanied by their Mappilla master, at a signal from whom they ran
off like hares, to attend to their work in the fields. Their most
important measurements were as follows:--
Max. Min. Av.
Stature (cm.) 156.6 150.6 154.5
Cephalic index 85 77 81
Nasal index 108.8 71.1 88.4
The Ernadans, according to these figures, are short of stature,
platyrhine, with an unusually high cephalic index.
Erra.--See Yerra.
Erudandi.--See Gangeddu.
Erudukkaran.--See Gangeddu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account