where Ambalakārans are few, and vice versâ, which looks as though certain sections had taken to calling themselves Ambalakārans. The upper sections of the Ambalakarans style themselves Pillai, which is a title properly belonging to Vellālas, but the others are usually called Mūppan in Tanjore, and Ambalakāran, Muttiriyan, and Sērvaikāran in Trichinopoly. The usual title of the Valaiyans, so far as I can gather, is Mūppan, but some style themselves Sērvai and Ambalakāran."
The Madura Valaiyans are said *[1] to be " less brāhmanised than those in Tanjore, the latter employing Brāhmans as priests, forbidding the marriage of widows, occasionally burning their dead, and being particular what they eat. But they still cling to the worship of all the usual village gods and goddesses." In some places, it is said, †[2] the Valaiyans will eat almost anything, including rats, cats, frogs and squirrels.
Like the Pallans and Paraiyans, the Valaiyans, in some places, live in streets of their own, or in settlements outside the villages. At times of census, they have returned a large number of sub-divisions, of which the following may be cited as examples: —
- Monathinni. Those who eat the vermin of the soil.
- Pāsikatti (pāsi, glass bead).
- Saragu, withered leaves.
- Vanniyan. Synonym of the Palli caste.
- Vellāmputtu, white-ant hill.
In some places the Saruku or Saragu Valaiyans have exogamous kīlais or septs, which, as among the Maravans and Kallans, run in the female line. Brothers and sisters belong to the same kīlai as that of their mother and maternal uncle, and not of their father.
