When addressing each other, Nambutiris use the names of their respective illams or manas. When a Nambutiri is talking with a Nayar, or indeed with one of any other caste, the manner in which the conversation must be carried on, strictly according to custom, is such that the Nambutiri's superiority is apparent at every turn. Thus, a Nayar, addressing a Nambutiri, must speak of himself as foot-servant. If he mentions his rice, he must not call it rice, but his gritty rice. Rupees must be called his copper coins, not his rupees. He must call his house his dung-pit. He must speak of the Nambutiri's rice as his raw rice, his coppers as rupees, and his house as his illam or mana. The Nayar must not call his cloth a cloth, but an old cloth or a spider's web. But the Nambutiri's cloth is to be called his daily white cloth, or his superior cloth. The Nayar, speaking of his bathing, says that he drenches himself with water, whereas the Nambutiri sports in the water when he bathes. Should he speak of eating or drinking, the Nayar must say of himself that he takes food, or treats himself to the water in which rice has been washed. But, should he speak of the Nambutiri eating, he must say that he tastes ambrosia. The Nayar calls his sleeping lying flat, and the Nambutiri's closing his eyes, or resting like a Raja. The Nayar must speak of his own death as the falling of a forest, but of the Nambutiri's as entering fire. The Nambutiri is not shaved by the barber; his hairs are cut. He is not angry, but merely dissatisfied. He does not clean his teeth as the Nayar; he cleans his superior pearls. Nor does he laugh; he displays his superior pearls.