One of these men afterwards proceeded to a large village about a mile away, and appeared to capture three more cobras in the same manner at houses where the residents denied that any were to be found; but in the end I was told by the villagers that he had only two cobras in his basket, this being the number that I saw in his possession before these last pretended captures were made.
These people are said to live well, better, indeed, than the majority of the villagers. The women are given to lavish personal adornment of an inexpensive kind, chiefly articles of brass and glass. On one lady, perhaps considered a beauty, I counted sixteen bead necklaces; twenty-four bangles, chiefly of common black glass, on the wrists; four silver armlets on the upper arms; and six rings on each finger and thumb, excepting only the middle finger of each hand.
The Kandian village is a self-contained unit, producing everything that the inhabitants require, with the exception of the few articles previously mentioned. It hears a faint echo of the news of the great outer world, without feeling that this has any connexion with its own life. It would listen with almost equal indifference to a statement that the sky was blue, or that England was at war with a European power, or that a new Governor had been appointed. When I asked a villager’s opinion regarding the transfer of a Government Agent who had ruled a Province for some years, he replied, “They say one Agent has gone and another Agent has come; that is all.”
The supervision of the work of maintaining in order the embankment of the village reservoir or “tank,” upon which the rice crops depend, as well as of the fencing of the rice field, is in the hands of the Gamarāla, now termed in other parts than the North-central Province, the Vidānē. The latter title is not recognised in any of the folk-tales, in which (with one exception) the Gamarāla is the only headman represented. His jurisdiction extends over two or three closely adjoining villages, or sometimes over one only.
Of a higher rank and different functions is the Āracci (pronounced Āratchy), who rules over five or six villages, and who is responsible for the maintenance of order, arrests and prosecutes offenders, and acts as general factotum for seeing that the orders received from superior headmen are promulgated and obeyed.
Of much more important authority are the Kōralē-Āracci and Kōrāla, the latter being the head of a considerable district, and above these again is the Raṭēmahatmayā, who is the supreme and very influential chief of a large part of a Province. By successive steps in promotion the members of influential or respectable families may rise to any of these offices. Though all but the highest one are unsalaried, they are competed for with a good deal of eagerness on account of the power which they confer, the possibility of further promotion, and also for the opportunities which they afford for receiving “presents,” which flow in a pleasing though invisible, but not therefore less remunerative, stream towards all but the Vidānēs and Gamarālas.
A few words may be added regarding the castes of the Kandian districts whose stories are given in this work, or who are referred to.
The Smiths come next to the cultivating caste, sometimes occupying separate hamlets, but often living in the same village as the superior caste, though divided from it by an impassable gulf, of which only the women preserve the outward sign. Those of the cultivating caste are alone permitted by social custom to dress in one outer robe in one piece; all of lower rank must wear a separate garment from the waist upward.
The Smiths are considered to be the highest class of their caste, called Nayidē, the artificers. There are said to be five classes of Nayidēs:—(1) Ācāri (pronounced Ātchāry), which includes the Smiths, Painters, and Sculptors; (2) Baḍahaela, Potters; (3) Mukkara or Karāwa, Fishers; (4) Madinna, Toddy-drawers (“toddy” is fresh palm-juice); (5) all “Moormen,” the descendants of Muhammadan settlers. All these, and the other low castes, except the Roḍiyās, cultivate rice and millet.
The Potters live by making all local forms of earthen pottery, and tiles and bricks if required. They build up large temporary kilns filled with alternate layers of pots and fire-wood, and are often intelligent men. Some of them are priests or conductors of services for the propitiation of planets and other evil astronomical bodies, as well as astrologers.