It is said that the Siviyan and Pendukkumekki sub-divisions take low rank, as the remarriage of widows is freely permitted among them. In the Ramnad territory of the Madura district, the marriage of widows is attributed to compulsion by a Zamindar. According to the story, the Zamindar asked an Idaiyan whether he would marry a widow. The reply was that widows are aruthukattadhavar, i.e., women who will not tie the tali string again, after snapping it (on the husband's decease). This was considered impertinent by the Zamindar, as marriage of widows was common among the Maravars. To compel the Idaiyans to resort to widow marriage, he took advantage of the ambiguity of the word aruthukattadhavar, which would also mean those who do not tie up in a bundle after cutting or reaping. At the time of the harvest season, the Zamindar sent his servants to the Idaiyans with orders that they were not to tie up the rice plants in sheaves. This led to severe monetary loss, and the Idaiyans consented reluctantly to widow remarriage. On the death of a married Idaiyan, at Coimbatore, the corpse is placed in a seated posture. A measure of rice, a lighted lamp, and a cocoanut are placed near it, and burning fire-wood is laid at the door of the house. When the relations and friends have arrived, the body is removed from the house, and placed in a pandal, supported behind by a mortar. The male relations put on the sacred thread, and each brings a pot of water from a tank. The widow rubs oil over the head of the corpse, and some one, placing a little oil in the hands thereof, rubs it over her head. On the way to the burning-ground, a barber carries a fire-brand and a pot, and a washerman carries the mat, cloths, and other articles used by the deceased. When the idukadu, a spot made to represent the shrine of Arichandra who is in charge of the burial or burning ground, is reached, the polluted articles are thrown away, and the bier is placed on the ground. A Paraiyan makes a cross-mark at the four corners of the bier, and the son, who is chief mourner, places a small coin on three of the marks, leaving out the one at the north-east corner. The Paraiyan takes these coins and tears a bit of cloth from the winding-sheet, which is sent to the widow. At the burning-ground, the relations place rice, water, and small coins in the mouth of the corpse. The coins are the perquisite of the Paraiyan. The son, who is clean-shaved, carries a pot of water on his shoulder thrice round the pyre, and, at each turn, the barber makes a hole in it with a chank shell, when the head is reached. Finally the pot is broken near the head. The sacred threads are thrown by those who wear them on the pyre, and the son sets fire to it, and goes away without looking back. The widow meanwhile has broken her tali string, and thrown it into a vessel of milk, which is set on the spot where the deceased breathed his last. The son, on his return home after bathing,