PREFACE.
The following papers are all the productions of Natives
and the only alterations I have made are in the names of
persons and occasionally also of places. The work is
divided into five parts and comprises miscellaneous re-
ports and orders on Police and Revenue matters, sum-
maries of evidence in a variety of cases with copies of two
or more depositions in each, a number of decisions re-
lative to the occupancy of land with the respective appeal
petitions from each, a copy of the standard Hookumnama
of the province, and lastly specimens of different deeds
commonly in use in Malabar.
This book will, I trust, supply a want and aid those
whose object is to acquire a knowledge of the official and
every-day language of Malabar.
I had in course of preparation a small dictionary of
useful words, which would have served also as a vocabu-
lary to the present work, when I ascertained that the
Rev. Mr. Laseron of Cochin had a similar work already
in the press. I am permitted to state, that in the second
edition of Mr. Laseron's Dictionary care will be taken to
include all words to be met with in the following pages.
CHARLES COLLETT.
Malabar
Sept. 1856.
