It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson [44] that the section of the Moyar river "stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they are not effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low." In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavani and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied. The Paniyan language is a debased Malayalam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese. Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kad Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kuli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swami (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently of the fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.