'You have become entitled to the study of the Vedas; perform all the duties which pertain to the asrama you are about to enter. Never sleep during the day. Study the Vedas by resigning yourself to the care of your spiritual instructor.' These exhortations, though made in Sanskrit, are explained in Malayalam, in order that the boy may understand them--a feature unknown to Brahmans on the other coast. With his words of advice, the preceptor gives the youth a danda or stick made of pipal (Ficus religiosa) wood, as if to keep him in perpetual memory of what would follow if any of the directions be disregarded. The boy then makes his obeisance to his parents and all his relations, and is given a brass vessel called bhikshapatra (alms pot), in which he collects, by house-to-house visits, food for his daily sustenance during the Brahmacharya stage. He proceeds to the kitchen of his own house with the vessel in one hand and the stick in the other. Making his obeisance in due form to his mother, who stands facing the east, he says 'Bhiksham bhavati dadatu' (May you be pleased to give me alms). The mother places five or seven handfuls of rice in the vessel. After receiving similar contributions from the assembled elders, the boy takes the vessel to his father, who is the first guru, saying 'Bhaikshmamidam' (This is my alms collection). The father blesses it, and says 'May it be good.' After the Gayatrijapa, the ceremony of Samidadhana is performed. This is the Brahmachari's daily worship of the sacred fire, corresponding to the aupasana of the Grihastha, and has to be performed twice daily. After another homam at night, the cloth covering the sacred thread and skin is removed, and the consecration of the food is done for the first time. In addition to the skin strap, the Brahmachari wears a mekhala or twisted string of kusa grass. It is doubtless of the youthful Nambutiri that Barbosa wrote as follows at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 'And when these are seven years old, they put round their necks a strap two fingers in width of an animal which they call cresnamergan, and they command him not to eat betel for seven years, and all this time he wears that strap round the neck, passing under the arm; and, when he reaches fourteen years of age, they make him a Brahman, removing from him the leather strap round his neck, and putting on another three-thread, which he wears all his life as a mark of being a Brahman. The rules which were observed with such strictness centuries ago are still observed, and every Nambutiri boy goes through his period of Brahmacharya, which lasts at least for full five years. During the whole of this period, no sandal paste, no scents, and no flowers are to be used by him. He is not to take his meals at other houses on festive occasions. He must not sleep during the day. Nor may he wear a loin-cloth in the ordinary fashion. Shoes and umbrella are also prohibited. The completion of the Brahmachari asrama, or stage