The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

278 THE OCEAN OF STORY
pregnancy is that which determines the sex of the unborn
child. The priestess pours a quantity of oil on the navel of
the woman from a betel leaf, and, from the manner in which
it flows down, the sex is determined.
Vol. iii, p. 81. Kalian (a caste of thieves).
On the sixteenth day after the first menstrual period of
a Kalian girl, her maternal uncle brings a sheep or goat, and
rice. She is bathed and decorated, and sits on a plank while
a vessel of water, coloured rice and a measure filled with
paddy, with a style bearing a betel leaf stuck on it, are waved
before her. Her head, knees and shoulders are touched with
cakes, which are then thrown away. A woman, conducting
the girl round the plank, pours water from a vessel on to a
betel leaf held in her hand, so that it falls on the ground at the
four cardinal points of the compass, which the girl salutes.
Page 110. Kammalan (carvers of eyes of images, etc.).
The method of a local official to resign office is to lay betel
leaf and areca-nut before his superior, and prostrate himself
in front of him. On p. 114 we learn that the pdn-supdri was
taken to ratify a promise. On p. 128 is described a curious
custom observed in commencing the building of a house. The
carpenters open three or four coco-nuts, spilling the juice as
little as possible, and put some tips of betel leaves into them ;
and, from the way these float in the liquid, they foretell
whether the house will be lucky or unlucky, whether it will
stand for a long or short period, and whether another will
ever be erected on its site.
Page 295. Kodikkdl-velldlan is the occupational name of a
sub-caste of Vellalas, and of Labbai Mohammedans, who
cultivate the betel-vine.
Vol. iv, p. 102 et seq. Kudubi (shifter of cultivation).
Some of the caste are employed in the preparation of
cutch, the extract from the Acacia catechu, obtained by boiling
the chips.
Mr Lathram, of the Forest Department, thus describes the
process :
" The first thing to do is to erect the ovens, known as
wolle. These are made by a party of men a fortnight or so
before the main body come. The ordinary soil of the field
is used, and the ovens are built to a height of 18 inches, and