Note 27 — G

2. In these Provinces27 they are all Hindus. Some of them pretend to have gotras within which a man cannot marry, but of these they can give no list, and it would seem that they have no law of exogamy except a vague injunction that they should not marry near relations. In the detailed Census Returns four gotras are recorded—Abri, Chauhân, Gandena, and Gohal. They wander about with little huts made of reed (sirki), and seldom stay more than a few days in the same place. They call themselves indigenous to the Upper Ganges-Jumna Duâb. They freely admit outsiders into their community, and the only ceremony of initiation is that the new comer has to drink with the members of the tribe. Marriage takes place both in infancy and when they become adults. As a rule they prostitute their girls, and infidelity is little regarded. They allow the marriage of widows and divorced women by the karâo form. They do not employ Brâhmans in any of their domestic ceremonies, and the duty at marriages is performed by the brother-in-law or son-in-law of the bridegroom known as dhiyâna.