According to a custom which the Brahmans, the _Vayshya_, the _Kshetria_, and the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar have introduced among themselves, the bride must always carry her dowery to the bridegroom. When she has done this, and left her father’s house, she receives nothing farther, and loses her right of inheriting any of the patrimony destined for the female part of the family. By means of this regulation, which prevails throughout all the superior casts, the Indians endeavour to prevent their property from being divided, and their families from being reduced to poverty, which would undoubtedly be the consequence if the married daughters were allowed to come in for an equal share. The governor of Cochin, M. Van Angelbeck, whom I have already had occasion to mention, was desirous of making some change in this respect among the Christians belonging to the Malabar cast, _Mundacàrer_, who were subject to the Dutch East India Company. He therefore commissioned me to negotiate on this head with these Christians, who assembled several times for that purpose in my habitation at _Mattincèra_; but I was not able to prevail on them to comply with his wishes. They always referred to the antiquity of the practice; and maintained, that the greater part of their families would be infallibly ruined if any other was substituted in its stead. However this may be, it is certain that many young women never get husbands, because it is considered as absolutely necessary that they should bring with them a handsome portion. This is the case in particular with the daughters of the Brahmans, six or seven of whom are often in the same house together, and remain unmarried for want of doweries. The condition of these girls is indeed deserving of pity; and chiefly for this reason, because the Indians, as I have already observed in another place, combine a very contemptible idea with a state of celibacy. The _Taly_, or love-pledge, is hung round the neck of a betrothed girl, even so early as her seventh year, though she remains in the house of her parents till her twelfth.