For the following account of the Panans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar. The word is of Tamil origin, and means a tailor. The title taken by them is Panikkan, the usual honorific appellation of most of the industrial castes of Malabar. They are supposed to be one with the Panans of the Tamil country, though much below them in the social scale. They observe a pollution distance of thirty-six feet, but keep Mannans and Vedans at a distance of eight, and Pulayas and Paraiyas at a distance of thirty-two feet from them. They are their own barbers and washermen. They will eat food prepared by Kammalans, of whom there is a tradition that they are a degraded branch. Tiruvarangan, one of the popular sages of Malabar, who are reputed to be the descendants of a Paraiya woman, is said to have been a Panan, and the Panans pay him due reverence. In the Keralolpatti, the traditional occupation of the Panans is said to be exorcism, and in British Malabar this occupation seems to be continued at the present day. Umbrella-making is a secondary occupation for the men. In Travancore, however, the only occupation pursued by the Panans is tailoring. The tali-kettu celebration takes place before the girl attains puberty. If this ceremony is intended to signify a real marriage, the girl is taken to her husband's house on the fourth day of the first menstrual period, and they remain thenceforth man and wife. Otherwise a sambandham ceremony has to be performed either by the tali-tier or some one else, to establish conjugal relations. Inheritance is mostly paternal. The dead are buried, and death pollution lasts for sixteen days. The spirits of deceased ancestors are appeased once a year by the offering of cooked food on the new-moon day in the month of Karkatakam (July-August). Ancestors who died from some untoward accident are propitiated in the month of Avani (August-September) by offerings of flesh and liquor. The latter ceremonial is termed vellamkuli or water drinking. Small earthen sheds, called gurusalas or kuriyalas and matams, are erected in memory of some ancestors. The following account of the Panans of the Cochin State is extracted from a note by Mr. L. K. Ananta Krishna Aiyar. [29]