temple, carrying the cooked rice, and scattering it wide as they go, repeating mantrams. They enter the temple, and remain within until daybreak. No one can leave the temple until morning comes. Before daybreak, the temple is thoroughly swept and cleaned, and then the Mussads go out, and the five Nambutiris again enter before sunrise, and perform the ordinary worship thrice in the day, for this day only. The next morning, the Mussad priests return and resume their duties. Beyond noting that the weirdness of the human tumult, busy in its religious effusion, is on the last night enhanced by fireworks, mere description of the scene of the festival will not be attempted, and such charming adjuncts of it as the gallery of pretty Nayar women looking on from the garden fence at the seething procession in the lane below must be left to the imagination. It will have been noticed that the Nambutiris hold aloof from the festival; they purify the temple before and after, but no more. The importance attached to the various offices of those who are attached to the temple by however slender a thread, was illustrated by a rather amusing squabble between two of the Mukkuvans, an uncle and nephew, as to which of them should receive the silver umbrella from the temple, and bear it to the house of the goldsmith to be repaired. During the festival, one of them made a rapid journey to the Zamorin (about fifty miles distant), paid some fees, and established himself as the senior who had the right to carry the umbrella. "An important local festival is that held near Palghat, in November, in the little suburb Kalpati inhabited entirely by Pattar Brahmans from the east. But it is not a true Malayali festival, and it suffices to mention its existence, for it in no way represents the religion of the Nayar. The dragging of cars, on which are placed the images of deities, common everywhere from the temple of Jagganath at Puri in Orissa to Cape Comorin, is quite unknown in Malabar, excepting only at Kalpati, which is close to the eastern frontier of Malabar.