among their kings and lords, none of them think of "fhrouding their women from the fight of all man"kind; though among the Bráhmens this modesty " and decorum are attended to.

10th. "Among the Nayrs, they drefs out and "adorn their women with jewels and fine apparel, "and bring them out into large companies, to have "them feen and admired by all the world.

11th. "Among the Malabars, priority in age "ftamps fuperiority and rule, were the difference only. "of a moment; and, notwithstanding that fuch party "may be a fool, or blind, or aged, or otherwife, the "rulership devolves to the fifter's children; nor has "it ever been heard that any one put to death his "elder with a view of fooner attaining to dominion.*

12th. "In cafe the line of defcent and fucceffion "become extin&t among them, or be in danger of be"coming fo, they do then bring an alien, (whether an "adult or minor,) and him they conftitute the inhe❝ritor, as the substitute for a son, or for a brother, or for "a fifter's fon : nor will any future difference be made "between fuch adopted and a real heir; which custom ❝is current and obferved among all the infidels of "Malabar, whether Rajahs or Shopkeepers, from the "higheft to the loweft; fo that the line of defcent "becomes not extinct.†

13th.

*Thus in the Zamorins' families, and in that of the Rajahs of Paulghaut, there are from fifty to a hundred or more males of the same blood, i. e. descended from females of the Rajah's family, who are all entitled to, and do accordingly rise to, the chief rule, agreeably to their seniority in point of birth, without any other right or title of precedence,

This is in general true; but there lately occurred an instance to the contrary, whereby the Rauje or Lordship of Vittulnaad has escheated to the Company. With respect to the provision occa sionally made against such extinctions of families, it is very true that the Rajahs make it a practice, in case of any impending dan ger of this kind, to procure some males and females (though of the latter more than of the former) to keep up the regal line.

13th. "They have, moreover, fubjected themselves "to a multitude of inconveniences, or difficult ob"fervances, which they do, nevertheless, steadfastly ad"here to; as, for inftance, they have arranged and "limited the fitnefs of things as refpectively appli"cable to the higher, middle, and lower ranks, in "fuch manner, that if a perfon of the higher, and one "of the lower, happen to meet, or rather to approach "each other, the proper distance to be obferved be"tween them is known and defined; and if this dif

tance be encroached upon, he of the higher caft must "bathe; nor can he lawfully touch food before underKs going this purification; or if he do, he falls from "his dignity, to which he cannot be raised again; nor "has he any other resource than to betake himself to "flight, and, forfaking his abode, to proceed where "his fituation is unknown; and should he not thus "flee, the ruler of the country is to apprehend him, "and fhall fell him to fome mean perfon, fhould even "the party incurring this difgrace be a child or a "woman; or otherwise he may refort to the Moslems, "and poffefs the Ilam,* or elfe become a Jogui, or a “Fringy, i. e. a Chriftian.

σε

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14th. In like manner it is prohibited for those of "a lower degree to drefs food for a higher; and if any one partake of fuch a meal, he muft fall from his rank. 15th. Those who are entitled to wear the Zunaar, "or Bráhmenical thread, are fuperior to, and more no"ble than, all the claffes of the Infidels of Malabar; " and

This is one of the reasons assigned to me by a Rajah of the Zamorin family, for the number of Mapilla Mussulmans being now greater in the Calicut districts than the Hindus and Nayrs; namely, the nicety of their observances, and facility of losing cast; which drives the parties, from necessity, into the pale of Islamism. The same Rajah mentioned, on this occasion, the custom of the Namboory Brúhmens, who thus disposed of their own women, without incurring any disparagement of cast, to the Mapillas; which rule holds also good in respect to other females, as intimated in the second note page 13, and in the sequel of ZEIRREDDIEN'S text,

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*

"and among thefe Zunaar wearers there are also the "higher, middle, and lower. Of the first are the "Bráhmens, who are above all others the most respectable; and these also have among themselves the "fame diftinctions of firft, fecond, and third degrees. 16th. "The Nayrs of Malabar follow the martial "profeffion, and exceed both in numbers and dignity, "having fundry degrees among themselves; and in"ferior to them in caft are the Teers, whofe practice "it is to climb up the cocoa-nut trees, and to bring "down the fruit, and to extract the intoxicating juice "thereof, called toddy; and below these Teers are the carpenters, fmiths, goldfmiths, fishermen, &c. and "under these again, in refpect of degree, are the Po"leres, or Poliars, (i. e. ploughmen,) and thofe of other "bafe cafts, engaged in the manual part of husban"dry; and among whom alfo are other fubordinate "degrees of diftinction.t

* Poliar the labouring lower clans are named;
By the proud Nayrs the noble rank is claimed;
The toils of culture and of art they scorn:
The shining faulchion brandish'd in the right,
Their left arm wields the target in the fight.

17th.

CAMOENS, Book vii.

These lines, and especially the two last, contain a good description of a Nayr, who walks along, holding up his naked sword with the same kind of unconcern, as travellers in other countries carry in their hands a cane or walking-staff. I have observed others of them have it fastened to their back, the hilt being stuck in their waistband, and the blade rising up, and glittering between the shoulders. It must not, however, be inferred, that all the Nayrs betake themselves, at present, to the martial profession; for, according to the information collected for me with much care on the customs of that country by the late Lieutenant MAC LEAN (who was Malabar translator to the commission of which I was a member) there are supposed to be thirty distinct classes of this general tribe; many of whom do now apply to the peaceable arts of husbandry, penmanship and accounts, weaving, carpen ter's work, pottery, oil-making, and the like; though formerly they are all said to have been liable to be called upon by their respective sovereigns to perform military service.

For a farther account of these casts, see note page 5, and second note page 13.

17th." If a ftone light from a Polere on a woman "of a fuperior rank on a particular night, which is "marked out for this in the year, then that woman "must be excluded from her rank; and although fhe "fhall not have feen the faid man, nor been touched "by him, yet ftill her lord fhall make a conveyance "of her by fale; or fhe fhall become a Molem, or a "Chriftian, or a female Jogui; and this cuftom is "general.*

18th. "In cafes of fornication (or what is locally "deemed the illicit intercourfe between the fexes) if "the parties differ much in degree, the higher lofes "his or her rank; nor has he or fhe any other refource "than the one above-mentioned: yet, if a Bráhmen "fornicate with a Nayr woman, he fhall not thereby "lofe his caft; there being between thofe two old "tribes that anciently established connection which "hath been already noticed.

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19th. Such are the painful obfervances which "they have entailed on themselves, through their own ignorance and want of knowledge, which God Al"mighty hath, however, in his mercy, rendered the means of encreafing the numbers of the faithful."+

XV. Our Mahommedan author then proceeds to mention, that the towns built along the coaft of Malabar owed their origin to, and were principally conftructed

* I have allowed this paragraph of ZEIRREDDIEN's text to stand inserted in the order of his own enumeration, because it is connected with the one that follows; though the custom it refers to seems so unreasonable, that, as I never had occasion to hear it corroborated by the report of the natives, I cannot vouch for its being well founded.

In the manner adverted to in the second note page 15. And here closes, for the present, the literal extract I have made from ZEIRREDDIEN'S performance, which, for distinction sake, I have marked with inverted commas.

Atructed by, the Mahommedan traders,* who, though not then amounting to a tithe of the general population, were much courted by the feveral Rajahs, and more especially by the Zamorin, to frequent his port of Calicut, on account of the duty of ten per cent. that was levied on their trade.

XVI. The arrival of the fleets of the Portuguese, the firft under Vafco de Gama, in the 904th year of the Higeree, (correfponding with the year of our Lord 1498,) and of that conducted by Cabral, a few years thereafter, with the negociations, jealoufies, and wars that enfued thereon, are next related by our author, in a manner eafily enough reconcileable to the accounts of the fame tranfactions already published throughout Europe. He afcribes the Europeans reforting to India, to their defire to purchase pepper and ginger. Nor does he feek to conceal that, between them and the Mahommedan traders, a commercial jealoufy immediately fprang up, which proved the caufe of all the bitter wars that were afterwards carried on, by sea and land, by the Zamorins and Mahommedans on the one part, and the Rajah of Cochin (to whofe port the Portuguese had failed, on their breach with the former Prince) and his European allies on the other; the former being afterwards reinforced from the Arabian Gulph by a large fleet fitted out under the command of Ameer Hofaine, an officer in the fervice of Kaunis al Ghowry, the then reigning Sultaun of Egypt; but these armaments failed of their object; and the Ghowry Prince was foon afterwards himself subdued by Selim, the Turkish Emperor; and of the treatment which the Mahommedan traders continued, in the mean time, to experience

B 2

*The principally current Malabar æra is stated in the account ascribed to the Bishop of Verapoli (as already quoted in the note page 2) to have been fixed from the building of the city of Coulum, (by us called Quiloan,) about twenty-four cadums, (Malabar leagues,) or eighty British miles, south of Cochin. It was formerly very famous as the emporium of the coast, and founded in the 825th year of the Christian æra.