the bridegroom adorns the bride with flowers, and makes her look into a mirror, while he recites mantrams suitable to the occasion. From the sixth to the ninth day there is practically nothing in the way of ceremonial. And, as that proper to the tenth day is invariably done on the sixth day, the ceremony may be said to conclude on the night of the sixth day. A few Brahmans are fed to please the pitris, and the couple go to a jak tree, under which some rice, curds, and ghi are placed on kusa grass, and an offering is made of flowers and sandalwood or powder. The kankanam, bamboo staff, arrow, and mirror are given to the Vadhyar, and the wedding is over. Sir W. W. Hunter [101] speaks of the Nambutiris as "a despised class," they having had fishermen ancestors. The little ceremony of catching fish, which is a very important item in the marriage rites, may look like preservation in meaningless ceremonial of something real in the past, but it only shows that, in an endeavour to interpret ceremonial, we must be far from hasty. Among the Shivalli Brahmans of South Canara, the marriage mat is taken to a tank in procession. The bride and bridegroom make a pretence of catching fish, and, with linked fingers, touch their foreheads. It is recorded, in the Manual of South Canara, that "all Tulu chronicles agree in ascribing the creation of Malabar and Canara, or Kerala, Tuluva, and Haiga, to Parasu Rama, who reclaimed from the sea as much land as he could cover by hurling his battle-axe from the top of the western ghauts. According to Tulu traditions, after a quarrel with Brahmans who used to come to him periodically from Ahi-Kshetra, Parasu Rama procured new Brahmans for the reclaimed tract by taking the nets of some fishermen, and making a number of Brahmanical threads with which he invested the fishermen, and thus turned them into Brahmans, and retired to the mountains to meditate, after informing them that, if they were in distress, and called on him, he would come to their aid. After the lapse of some time, during which they suffered no distress, they were curious to know if Parasu Rama would remember them, and called upon him in order to find out. He promptly appeared, but punished their thus mocking him by cursing them, and causing them to revert to their old status of Sudras."