Note 23 — N

There are families, in which the business of the magician and sorcerer is hereditary, chiefly in South Malabar and among the Chela23 Nambūtiris, as those are termed who, in the turbulent period of Tippu’s invasion, were made Muhammadans by force. True, these returned almost at once to their own religion, but a stigma attaches to them, and they are not looked on as true Nambūtiris.