Pondan.--"There are," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [107] "only twenty-eight persons of this caste in Malabar, and they are all in Calicut. These are the palanquin-bearers of the Zamorin. They are in dress, manners, customs, and language entirely Tamilians, and, while the Zamorin is polluted by the touch of any ordinary Tamilian, these Pondans enjoy the privilege of bearing him in a palanquin to and from the temple every day. Now there is a sub-division of the Tamil Idaiyans by name Pogondan, and I understand that these Pogondans are the palanquin-bearers of the Idaiyan caste. It seems probable that the founder, or some early member of the Zamorin, obtained palanquin-bearers of his own (cowherd) caste and granted them privileges which no other Tamilians now enjoy." Pondra.--Pondra, or Ponara, is a sub-division of Mali. Ponganadu.--Ponganadu and Ponguvan have been recorded, at times of census, as a sub-division of Kapu. A corrupt form of Pakanati. Ponnambalaththar.--A class of mendicants, who have attached themselves to the Kaikolans. Ponnara.--Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as a sub-division of Nayar. Poruvannurkaran.--A class of carpenters in Malabar. Poroja.--The Porojas or Parjas are hill cultivators found in the Agency tracts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam. Concerning them, it is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, that "there are held to be seven classes of these Parjas, which differ from each other in points of language, customs, and traditions. The term Parja is, as Mr. Carmichael has pointed out, merely a corruption of a Sanskrit term signifying a subject, and it is understood as such by the people themselves, who use it in contradistinction to a free hill-man. 'Formerly,' says a tradition that runs through the whole tribe, 'Rajas and Parjas were brothers, but the Rajas took to riding horses (or, as the Barenja Parjas put it, sitting still) and we became carriers of burdens and Parjas.' It is quite certain, in fact, that the term Parja is not a tribal denomination, but a class denomination, and it may be fitly rendered by the familiar epithet of ryot (cultivator). I have laid stress on this, because all native officials, and every one that has written about the country (with the above exception), always talk of the term Parja as if it signified a caste. There is no doubt, however, that by far the greater number of these Parjas are akin to the Khonds of the Ganjam Maliahs. They are thrifty, hard-working cultivators, undisturbed by the intestine broils which their cousins in the north engage in, and they bear in their breasts an inalienable reverence for their soil, the value of which they are rapidly becoming acquainted with. The Parja bhumi (land) is contained almost entirely in the upper level. Parts to the south held under Pachipenta and Madugulu (Madgole) are not Parja bhumi, nor, indeed, are some villages to the north in the possession of the Khonds. Their ancient rights to