Note 143 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Social customs. 21. Their dress presents no peculiarities. The women wear jewelry, the satua on the fore-arm, rings (mundari) on the fingers, the bahunta on the upper arm, the palm leaf ornament (tarki) in the ears, necklaces (hansuli) and strings of beads on the neck, heavy anklets (pairi). They do not wear the nose-ring. They use liquor and tobacco freely. They will not eat the flesh of monkeys, cows, buffaloes, horses, camels, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, jackals, or rats. They eat pigs, goats, sheep, fowls, and all kinds of fish. Women do not eat pork. Children eat first, then the men, and last of all the women. They will not touch a Dom, Chamâr, Dharkâr, or Bhangi; nor the wife of the younger brother, the wife’s elder sister, and a connection (samdhin) through the marriage of children. They will not speak by name of the wife or mother, or of the dead if it can be avoided. In the morning they will not speak of death, disease, or quarrels, or of a lame man or a cripple, or of a village where bad characters live or where there was in former days a murder or a fight. They sow, if possible, on the tenth light half of Jeth. Fields for the spring crop are ploughed five times, for the autumn crop twice. They salute by the pâêlagi form, and seniors give the blessing nîkê raho, “Live happily!” If a woman’s relation visits her she seizes him by the feet and weeps. Then in a sort of sing-song she describes all her troubles to him, and ends by washing his feet and giving him tobacco.143 When a guest comes he is expected to bring with him some parched grain and coarse sugar for the children. Then if he is a clansman the householder seats him in the cooking place (chauka) and feeds him. Women are respected, as they work very hard. Men who ill-treat their wives are divorced by the tribal council, and put out of caste for a year or two as a punishment. Old people are taken care of and given only light work. In the hot weather they all collect in the evening under a tree, and chat on village business. In the cold weather they assemble at each other’s houses, sit round a fire of rubbish (kaura), and the house master finds them in chewing tobacco. They are very clannish and detest and distrust strangers. They will eat both kinds of food (pakki and kachchi) only from a Brâhman. No one but a Dom will eat or drink from their hands.