Note 20 — I

The Irulas of South Arcot, Mr. Francis writes,20 “are chiefly found about the Gingee hills, talk a corrupt Tamil, are very dark skinned, have very curly hair, never shave their heads, and never wear turbans or sandals. They dwell in scattered huts—never more than two or three in one place—which are little, round, thatched hovels, with a low doorway through which one can just crawl, built among the fields. They subsist by watching crops, baling water from wells, and, when times are hard, by crime of a mild kind. In Villupuram and Tirukkōyilūr tāluks, and round Gingee, they commit burglaries in a mild and unscientific manner if the season is bad, and they are pressed by want, but, if the ground-nut crop is a good one, they behave themselves. They are perhaps the poorest and most miserable community in the district. Only one or two of them own any land, and that is only dry land. They snare hares now and again, and collect the honey of the wild bees by letting themselves down the face of cliffs at night by ladders made of twisted creepers. Some of them are prostitutes, and used to display their charms in a shameless manner at the Chettipālaiyam market near Gingee, decked out in quantities of cheap jewellery, and with their eyelids darkened in clumsy imitation of their sisters of the same profession in other castes. There is little ceremony at a wedding. The old men of the caste fix the auspicious day, the bridegroom brings a few presents, a pandal (booth) is made, a tāli is tied, and there is a feast to the relations. The rites at births and deaths are equally simple. The dead are usually buried, lying face upwards, a stone and some thorns being placed over the grave to keep off jackals. On the eleventh day after the death, the eldest son ties a cloth round his head—a thing which is otherwise never worn—and a little rice is coloured with saffron (turmeric) and then thrown into water. This is called casting away the sin, and ill-luck would befall the eldest son if the ceremony were omitted. The Irulans pay homage to almost all the grāmadēvatas (village deities), but probably the seven Kannimars are their favourite deities.”