On the fifteenth day after death is the purificatory ceremony. Until this has been done, any one touched by any member of the taravad should bathe before he enters his house, or partakes of any food. A man of the Athikurisi clan officiates. He sprinkles milk oil, in which some gingelly seeds have been put, over the persons of those under pollution. This sprinkling, and the bath which follows it, remove the death pollution. The purifier receives a fixed remuneration for his offices on this occasion, as well as when there is a birth in the taravad. In the case of death of a senior member of a taravad, well-to-do and recognised as of some importance, there is the feast called pinda atiyantaram on the sixteenth day after death, given to the neighbours and friends. With the observance of this feast of pindams there is involved the diksha, or leaving the entire body unshaved for forty-one days, or for a year. There is no variable limit between forty-one days or a year. The forty-one-day period is the rule in North Malabar. I have seen many who were under the diksha for a year. He who lets his hair grow may be a son or nephew of the deceased. One member only of the taravad bears the mark of mourning by his growth of hair. He who is under the diksha offers half-boiled rice and gingelly seeds to the spirits of the deceased every morning after his bath, and he is under restriction from women, from alcoholic drinks, and from chewing betel, also from tobacco. When the diksha is observed, the ashes of the dead are not deposited as described already (in the sun-dried vessel) until its last day--the forty-first or a year after death. When it is carried on for a year, there is observed every month a ceremony called bali. It is noteworthy that, in this monthly ceremony and for the conclusion of the diksha, it is not the thirtieth or three hundred and sixty-fifth day which marks the date for the ceremonies, but it is the day (of the month) of the star which was presiding when the deceased met his death: the returning day on which the star presides. [161] For the bali, a man of the Elayatu caste officiates. The Elayatus are priests for the Nayars. They wear the Brahmin's thread, but they are not Brahmins. They are not permitted to study the Vedas, but to the Nayars they stand in the place of the ordinary purohit. The officiating Elayatu prepares the rice for the bali, when to the deceased, represented by karuka grass, are offered boiled rice, curds, gingelly seeds, and some other things. The Elayatu should be paid a rupee for his services, which are considered necessary even when the man under diksha is himself familiar with the required ceremonial. The last day of the diksha is one of festivity. After the bali, the man under diksha is shaved. All this over, the only thing to be done for the deceased is the annual sradh or yearly funeral commemorative rite. Rice-balls are made, and given to crows. Clapping of hands announces to these birds that