Next in rank to the Nairs come the _Tiars_ or _Shanars_, a stout, good-looking, hard-working race, who do not pretend to Sudra origin. Formerly the Nairs exacted deference from the Tiars with extreme cruelty and arrogance, treating them more like brutes than men; and if a Tiar defiled a Nair by touching him, he was instantly cut down. But British rule is gradually uprooting these caste barbarisms, and the position of the Tiars is improving. Some of them hold appointments as clerks in Government offices, and they are protected by just and equal laws. The Tiars form the mass of the field labourers; but the proper duty of their caste is to extract juice from the palm-tree, and either boil it into _jaggery_ (unrefined sugar), or distil it. Their women are exceedingly pretty, with masses of long hair; but there is a prevalent custom for all the brothers of a family to have but one wife amongst them to save expense, which leads to most disastrous consequences. Below the Tiars there are several outcast tribes; among them the _Churmas_ or slaves, a miserable and down-trodden race, possibly the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants. Even now they are slow to understand that they are not slaves, and land on which there are most _Churmas_ still sells at the highest price.
The _Moplahs_, or Mohammedans of Malabar, are descended from Arab mariners and traders by native women, and hence their name, from _Mah-pilla_ "son of the mother." They have certainly been established in Malabar for a thousand years, if not more, as it is on record that the Viceroy Cheruman Permal, who then divided the country amongst his chiefs, was converted by a Moplah, and sailed for Mecca. All the sympathies of the Moplahs are with Arabia and the Red Sea, and they frequently undertake pilgrimages to Mecca. Respecting their creed they are fanatical, and are easily roused to fury by an insult, or an attempt on the part of the Nairs to treat them as a lower caste. On these occasions they run mucks; but in ordinary times they are hard-working, intelligent, abstemious, excellent boatmen, and capital backwoodsmen. Many of the Moplahs are very wealthy. Their mosques, however, are poor edifices, not to be distinguished from ordinary dwelling-houses, and the temples of the Hindus are no better. There is no attempt at ornamental architecture in the religious buildings of Malabar.