Note 26 — P (Continued)

Pānān.—The Tamil Pānāns are said, in the Census Report, 1901, to be also called Mēstris. They are “tailors among Tamils in Madura and Tinnevelly. They employ Brāhmans and Vellālas as purōhits. Though barbers and washermen will not eat food prepared by them, they are allowed to enter Hindu temples.” The Malayālam Pānāns are described in the same report as “exorcists and devil-dancers. The men also make umbrellas, and the women act as midwives. In parts they are called Malayans, and they may be descendants of that hill tribe who have settled in the plains.” In the South Canara Manual, the Pānāns are said to be “the Malayālam caste corresponding to the Nalkes and Pombadas. They are numerous in Malabar, where they are also known by the name of Malayan. The devils whom they personify are supposed to have influence over crops, and at the time of harvest the Pānāns go about begging from house to house, dancing with umbrellas in their hands. On such occasions, however, it is only boys and girls who personify the demons.” “The village magician or conjurer,” Mr. Gopal Panikkar writes,26 “goes by different names, such as Pānān, Malayan, etc. His work consists in casting out petty devils from the bodies of persons (chiefly children) possessed, in writing charms for them to wear, removing the pernicious effects of the evil eye, and so on.” On certain ceremonial occasions, the Pānān plays on an hour-glass shaped drum, called thudi.