the door, and gives some alms. The woman of the house is satisfied that such an action will soon bring down rain in torrents." In the Kapu community, women play an important part, except in matters connected with agriculture. This is accounted for by a story to the effect that, when they came from Ayodhya, the Kapus brought no women with them, and sought the assistance of the gods in providing them with wives. They were told to marry women who were the illegitimate issue of Pandavas, and the women consented on the understanding that they were to be given the upper hand, and that menial service, such as husking paddy (rice), cleaning vessels, and carrying water, should be done for them. They accordingly employ Gollas and Gamallas, and, in the Tamil country, Pallis as domestic servants. Malas and Madigas freely enter Kapu houses for the purpose of husking paddy, but are not allowed into the kitchen, or room in which the household gods are worshipped. In some Kapu houses, bundles of ears of paddy may be seen hung up as food for sparrows, which are held in esteem. The hopping of sparrows is said to resemble the gait of a person confined in fetters, and there is a legend that the Kapus were once in chains, and the sparrows set them at liberty, and took the bondage on themselves. It has been noted [116] by Mr. C. K. Subbha Rao, of the Agricultural Department, that the Reddis and others, who migrated southward from the Telugu country, "occupy the major portion of the black cotton soil of the Tamil country. There is a strange affinity between the Telugu cultivators and black cotton soil; so much so that, if a census was taken of the owners of such soil in the Tamil districts of Coimbatore, Trichinopoly, Madura, and Tinnevelly, ninety per cent, would no doubt prove to be Vadugars (northerners), or the descendants of Telugu immigrants. So great is the attachment of the Vadugan to the black cotton soil that the Tamilians mock him by saying that, when god offered paradise to the Vadugan, the latter hesitated, and enquired whether there was black cotton soil there."