In an account of marriage among the Kallans, Mr. Nelson writes that "the most proper alliance in the opinion of a Kallan is one between a man and the daughter of his father's sister, and, if an individual have such a cousin, he must marry her, whatever disparity there may be between their respective ages. A boy of fifteen must marry such a cousin, even if she be thirty or forty years old, if her father insists upon his so doing. Failing a cousin of this sort, he must marry his aunt or his niece, or any near relative. If his father's brother has a daughter, and insists upon him marrying her he cannot refuse; and this whatever may be the woman's age. One of the customs of the western Kallans is specially curious. It constantly happens that a woman is the wife of ten, eight, six, or two husbands, who are held to be the fathers jointly and severally of any children that may be born of her body, and, still more curiously, when the children grow up they, for some unknown reason, invariably style themselves the children not of ten, eight or six fathers as the case may be, but of eight and two, six and two, or four and two fathers. When a wedding takes place, the sister of the bridegroom goes to the house of the parents of the bride, and presents them with twenty-one Kali fanams (coins) and a cloth, and, at the same time, ties some horse-hair round the bride's neck. She then brings her and her relatives to the house of the bridegroom, where a feast is prepared. Sheep are killed, and stores of liquor kept ready, and all partake of the good cheer provided. After this the bride and bridegroom are conducted to the house of the latter, and the ceremony of an exchange between them of vallari thadis or boomerangs is solemnly performed. Another feast is then given in the bride's house, and the bride is presented by her parents with one markal of rice and a hen. She then goes with her husband to his house. During the first twelve months after marriage, it is customary for the wife's parents to invite the pair to stay with them a day or two on the occasion of any feast, and to present them on their departure with a markal of rice and a cock. At the time of the first Pongal feast after the marriage, the presents customarily given to the son-in-law are five markals of rice, five loads of pots and pans, five bunches of plantains, five cocoanuts, and five lumps of jaggery (crude sugar). A divorce is easily obtained on either side. A husband dissatisfied with his wife can send her away if he be willing at the same time to give her half of his property, and a wife can leave her husband at will upon forfeiture of forty-two Kali fanams. A widow may marry any man she fancies, if she can induce him to make her a present of ten fanams."