Note 109 — G

The Gujarâti Brâhmans in the Panjâb. 5. “The Gujarâti or Byâs Brâhmans who come from Gujarât in Sindh are in some respects the highest of all Brâhmans; they are always fed first; and they bless a Gaur when they meet him, while they will not eat ordinary food from his hands. They are fed on the twelfth day after death, and the Gaurs will not eat on the thirteenth day if this has not been done. But they take inauspicious offerings. To them appertain especially the Râhu offerings made at an eclipse. They will not take oil, sesame, goats, or green or dirty clothes; but will take old clothes, if washed, buffaloes, and the seven varieties of grain (satnaja). They also take a special offering to Râhu made by a sick person, who puts gold in ghi, looks at his face in it, and gives it to a Gujarâti, or who weighs himself against satnaja and makes an offering of the grain. A buffalo which has been possessed by a devil to that degree that he has got on the top of a house (no difficult feat in a village) or a foal dropped in the month of Sâwan, or buffalo calf in Mâgh, are given to the Gujarâti as being unlucky. No Gaur would take them. At every harvest the Gujarâti takes a small allowance (seori) of grain from the threshing floor, just as does the Gaur.”109