are appointed to decide social disputes, and manage the common property of the caste. In Travancore there are said to be only three families of Patnulkaran priests. For the higher ceremonies, Brahman priests are employed. "A girl's marriage is usually celebrated before puberty, and sometimes when she is a mere child of four or five. Great importance is attached to gotras or exogamous septs, and it is said that the septs of the bride and bridegroom are conspicuously inscribed on the walls of a marriage house. In the selection of an auspicious hour (muhurtam) for a marriage, two favourable planetary situations, one closely following the other, are necessary; and, as such occasions are rare, a number of marriages take place at one time. A man may claim his maternal uncle's daughter as his wife, and polygamy is permitted. The marriage ceremonial resembles the Brahmanical rites in many points. On the fourth day, a ceremonial observed by Telugu Brahmans, called Nagabali, is performed. The marriage badge, which is tied on the bride's neck, is called bottu. [From a note on the marriage ceremonies among the Patnulkarans of Madura, I gather that, as among Telugu and Canarese castes, a number of pots are arranged, and worshipped. These pots are smaller and fewer in number than at a Telugu or Canarese wedding. A figure of a car is drawn on the wall of the house with red earth or laterite. [88] On it the name of the gotra of the bridegroom is written. On the fourth day, the nagavali (or offering to Devas) is performed. The contracting couple sit near the pots, and a number of lights are arranged on the floor. The pots, which represent the Devas, are worshipped.] "The namakarana, or name-giving ceremony, is performed on the eleventh day after birth. An eighth child, whether male or female, is called Krishna, owing to the tradition that Krishna was born as the eighth child of Vasudeva. Babies are affectionately called Duddu (milk) or Pilla (child). The annaprasana, or first feeding of the child, is sometimes celebrated at the end of the first year, but usually as a preliminary to some subsequent ceremony. Sometimes, in performance of a vow, boys are taken to the shrine at Tirupati for the tonsure ceremony. The upanayana is performed between the seventh and twelfth years, but neither brahmacharya nor samavartana is observed. "The dead are burnt, and the remains of the bones are collected and deposited under water. Death pollution lasts only for ten days. The sradh, or annual ceremony, when oblations are offered to ancestors, is observed. Widows are allowed to retain their hair, but remove the bottu. Unlike Brahman women, they chew betel, and wear coloured cloths, even in old age."