Of ceremonies which take place in infancy and childhood, the following account is given in the Gazetteer of Malabar. "On the fifth day after birth, a woman of the Attikurissi or Marayan caste among Nayars, or of the barber caste in the lower classes, is called in, and purifies the mother, the other women of the household, and the room in which the child was born, by lustration with milk and gingelly oil, using karuga (Cynodon Dactylon) as a sprinkler. Her perquisites are the usual niracchaveppu (1 edangazhi of paddy and 1 nazhi of uncooked rice) placed together with a lamp of five wicks in the room to be cleansed, and a small sum in cash. A similar purification ceremony on the 15th day concludes the pollution period. In some cases, milk and cow's urine are sprinkled over the woman, and, after she has bathed, the Marayan, or Attikurissi waves over her and the child two vessels, one containing water, stained red with turmeric and lime, and one water blackened with powdered charcoal. During this and other periods, a characteristic service called mattu (change) has to be rendered by people of the Mannan caste to Nayars, and to other castes by their proper washermen, who may or may not be Mannans. On the day of birth, the Mannatti brings a clean tuni (cloth) of her own, and a mundu (cloth), which she places in the yard, in which she finds the accustomed perquisites of grain set out, and a lamp. An Attikurissi Nayar woman takes the clean clothes, and the Mannatti removes those previously worn by the mother. Every subsequent day during the pollution period, the Mannatti brings a change of raiment, but it is only on the 7th and 15th days that any ceremonial is observed, and that the Attikurissi woman is required. On those days, a Mannan man attends with the Mannatti, He makes three pradakshinams round the clean clothes, the lamp, and the niracchaveppu, and scatters a little of the grain forming the latter on the ground near it, with an obeisance, before the Attikurissi woman takes the clothes indoors. This rite of mattu has far reaching importance. It affords a weapon, by means of which the local tyrant can readily coerce his neighbours, whom he can subject to the disabilities of excommunication by forbidding the washerman to render them this service; while it contributes in no small degree to the reluctance of Malayali women to leave Kerala, since it is essential that the mattu should be furnished by the appropriate caste and no other.