List Group 6

Dhangar (Dhanuhâr) - Dhangar - Dhanwâr - Dharhi - Dhârhi - Dhoba - Dholis - Dhunia - Dhuri - Dhuri - Dom (Domra, Domahra) - Dom (Domra) - Dóm - Domb (Dombo)

Dhangar.: - They are shepherds who live in the Himalayas. They make blankets and sell wool and milk.

Dhangar: - The Marâtha caste of shepherds and blanket-weavers, numbering 96,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berâr [1] . They reside principally in the Nâgpur, Wardha, Chânda and Nimâr Districts of the Central Provinces and in all Districts of Berâr. The Dhangars are a very numerous caste in Bombay and Hyderâbâd. The name is derived either from the Sanskrit dhenu, a cow, or more probably from dhan, [2] wealth, a term which is commonly applied to flocks of sheep and goats. It is said that the first sheep and goats came out of an ant-hill and scattering over the fields began to damage the crops of the cultivators. They, being helpless, prayed to Mahâdeo to rescue them from this pest and he thereupon created the first Dhangar to tend the flocks. The Dhangars consequently revere an ant-hill, and never remove one from their fields, while they worship it on the Diwâli day with offerings of rice, flowers and part of the ear of a goat. When tending and driving sheep and goats they ejaculate 'Har, Har,' which is a name of Mahâdeo used by devotees in worshipping him. The Dhangars furnished a valuable contingent to Sivaji's guerilla soldiery, and the ruling family of Indore State belong to this caste. It is divided into the following subcastes: Varâdi or Barâde, belonging to Berâr; Kânore or Kânade, of Kanara; Jhâde, or those belonging to the Bhandâra, Bâlâghât and Chhindwâra Districts, called the Jhâdi or hill country; Lâdse, found in Hyderâbâd; Gâdri, from Gâdar, a sheep, a division probably consisting of northerners, as the name for the cognate caste of shepherds in Hindustân is Gadaria; Telange, belonging to the Telugu country; Marâthe, of the Marâtha country; Mâhurai from Mâhur in Hyderâbâd, and one or two others.

[1] See Russel. Compiled mainly from a paper by Kanhya Lâl, clerk in the Gazetteer office.

[2] Cr. The two meanings of the word 'stock' in English.

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Eleven subcastes in all are reported. For the purposes of marriage a number of exogamous groups or septs exist which may be classified according to their nomenclature as titular and totemistic, many having also the names of other castes. Examples of sept names are: Powâr, a Râjpît sept; Dokra, and old man, an old Mârte, a murderer or slayer; Sarodi, the name of a caste of mendicants; Mhâli, a barber; Kaode, a crow; Chambhâde, a Chamâr, Gîjde, a Gîjar; Juâde, a gambler; Lamchote, long-haired; Bodke, bald-headed; Khatík, a butcher; Chândekar, from Chânda; Dambhâde, one having pimples on the body; Halle, a he-buffalo; Moya, a grass, and others. The sept names show that the caste is a functional one of very mixed composition, party recruited from members of other castes who have taken to sheep-tending and generally from the non-Aryan tribes.

Marriage

A man must not marry within his own sept or that of his mother, nor may he marry a first cousin. He may wed a younger sister of his wife during her lifetime, and the practice of marrying a girl and boy into the same family, called Anta Sânta or exchange, is permitted. Occasionally the husband does service for his wife in his father-in-law's house. In Wardha the Dhangars measure the heights of a prospective bride and bridegroom with a piece of string and consider it a suitable match if the husband is taller than the wife, whether he be older or not. Marriages may be infant or adult, and polygamy is permitted, no stigma attaching to the taking of a second wife. Weddings may be celebrated in the rains up to the month of Kunwâr (September), this provision probably arising from the fact that many Dhangars wander about the country during the open season, and are only at home during the rainy months. Perhaps for the same reason the wedding may, if the officiating priest so directs, be held at the house of a Brâhman. This happens only when the Brâhman has sown an offering of rice, called Gâg, in the name of the goddess Râna Devi, the favourite deity of the Dhangars. On his way to the bride's house the bridegroom must be covered with a black blanket. Nowadays the wedding is sometimes held at the bridegroom's house and the bride comes for it. The caste say that this is done because there are not infrequently among the members of the bridegroom's family widows who have remarried or women who have been kept by men of higher castes or been guilty or adultery. The bride's female relatives refuse to wash the feet of these women and this provokes quarrels. To meet such cases the new rule has been introduced. At the wedding the priest sits on the roof of the house facing the west, and the bride and bridegroom stand below with a curtain between them. As the sun is half set he claps his hands and the bridegroom takes the clasped hands of the bride within his own, the curtain being withdrawn. the bridegroom ties round the bride's neck a yellow thread of seven strands, and when this is done she is married. Next morning a black bead necklace is substituted for the thread. The expenses of the bridegroom's party are about Rs. 50, and of the bride's about Rs. 30. The remaining procedure follows the customary usage of the Marâtha Districts. Widows are permitted to marry again, but must not take a second husband from the sept to which the first belonged. A considerable price is paid for a widow, and it is often more expensive to marry one than a girl. A Brâhman and the mâlguzâr (village proprietor) should be present at the ceremony. If a bachelor marries a widow he must first go through the ceremony with a silver ring, and if the ring is subsequently lost or broken, its funeral rites must be performed. Divorce is allowed in the presence of the caste panchâyat at the instance of either party for sufficient reason, as the misconduct or bad temper of the wife or the impotency of the husband.

Religion.

Mahâdeo is the special deity of the Dhangars, and they also observe the ordinary Hindu festivals. At Diwâli they worship their goats by dyeing their horns and touching their feet. One Bahrâm of Nâchangaon near Pulgaon is the tutelary deity of the Wardha Dhangars and the protector of their flocks. On the last day of the month of Mâgh they perform a special ceremony called the Deo Pîja. A Dhímar acts as priest to the caste on this occasion and fashions some figures of idols out of rice to which vermilion and flowers are offered. He then distributes the grains of rice to the Dhangars who are present, pronouncing a benediction.

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The Dhímar receives his food and a present, and it is essential that the act of worship should be performed by one of this caste. In their houses they have Kul-Devi and Khandoba the Marâtha hero, who are the family deities. But in large families they are kept only in the house of the eldest brother. Kul-Devi or the goddess of the family is worshipped at weddings, and a goat is offered to her in the month of Cahit (March). The head is buried beneath her shrine inside the house and the body is consumed by members of the family only. Khandoba is worshipped on Sundays and they identify him with the sun. Vithoba, a form of Vishnu, is revered on Wednesdays, and Bâlâji, the younger brother of Râma, on Fridays. Many families also make a representation of some deceased bachelor relative, which they call Munjia, and of some married woman who is known as Mairni or Sâsin, and worship them daily.

Birth Death And Social Status.

The Dhangars burn their dead unless they are too poor to purchase wood for fuel, in which case burial is resorted to. Unmarried children and persons dying form smallpox, leprosy, cholera and snake-bite are also buried. At the pyre the widow breaks her bangles and throws her glass beads onto her husband's body. On returning from the burning ghât the funeral party drink liquor. Some gânja, tobacco and anything else which the deceased may have been fond of during his life are left near the grave on the first day. Mourning is observed during ten days on the death of an adult and for three days for a child. Children are usually named on the twelfth day after birth, the well-to-do employing a Brâhman for the purpose. On this day the child must not see a lamp, as it feared that if he should do so he will afterwards have a squint. Only one name is given as a rule, but when the child comes to be married, if the Brâhman finds that its name does not make the marriage auspicious, he substitutes another and the child is afterwards known by this new name. The caste employs Brâhmans for ceremonies at birth and marriage. They eat flesh including fowls and wild pig, and drink liquor, but abstain from other unclean food. They will take food from a Kunbi, Phîlmâli or a Sunâr. and water from any of the good cultivating castes. A Kunbi will take water from them. The women of the caste wear bracelets of lead or brass on the right wrist and glass bangles on the left. Permanent or temporary excommunication from caste is imposed for the usual offences, and among those visited with the minor penalty are selling shoes, touching the carcass of a dog or cat, killing a cow or buffalo. or allowing one to die with a rope round its neck. No food is cooked for five weeks in a house in which a cat has died. The social standing of the caste is low.

Occupation.

The traditional occupation of the Dhangars is to tend sheep and goats, and they also sell goats' milk make blankets from the wool of sheep, and sometimes breed and sell stock for slaughter. they generally live near tracts of wasteland where grazing is available. Sheep are kept in the open and goats in roofed folds. Like English shepherds. they carry sticks or staffs and have dogs to assist in driving the flocks, and they sometimes hunt hares with their dogs. Their dress consists frequently only of a loin-cloth and a blanket, and having to bear exposure to all weathers, they are naturally strong and hardy. In appearance they are dark and of medium size. They eat three times a day and bathe in the evening on returning from work, though their ablutions are sometimes omitted in the cold weather.

Dhanwâr: -Dhanuhâr. [1] -A primitive tribe living in the wild hilly country of the Bilâspur zamíndâri estates, adjoining Chota Nâgpur. They numbered only 19,000 persons in 1911. The name Dhanuhâr means a bowman, and the bulk of the tribe have until recently been accustomed to obtain their livelihood by hunting with bow and arrows.

[1] . See Russell. This article is bases almost entirely on a monograph by Mr. Jeorâkhan Lâl, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Bilâspur.

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The name is thus merely a functional term and is analogous to those of Dhângar, or labourer, and Kisân, or cultivator, which are applied to the Oraons, and perhaps Halba or farmservant, by which another tribe is known. The Dhanwârs are almost certainly not connected with the Dhânuks of northern India, though the names have the same meaning. They are probably an offshoot of either the Gond or the Kawar tribe or a mixture of both. Their own legend of their origin is nearly the same as that of the Gonds, while the bulk of their sept or family names are identical with those of the Kawars. Like the Kawars, the Dhanwârs have no language of their own and speak a corrupt form of Chhattísgarhi Hindi. Mr. Jeorâkhan Lâl writes of them: "The word Dhanuhâr is a corrupt form of Dhanusdhâr, or 'a holder of a bow.' The bow 1 consists of a piece of bamboo and the arrow is made of wood from the dhâman tree. [1] The pointed end is furnished with a piece or a nail of iron called phani, while to the other end are attached feathers of the vulture or peacock with a tasar silk. Dhanuhâr boys learn the use of the bow at five years of age, and kill birds with it when they are seven or eight years old. At their marriage ceremony the bridegroom carries an arrow with him in place of a dagger as among the Hindus, and each household has a bow which is worshipped at every festival."

Origin

According to their own legend the ancestors of the Dhanuhârs were two babies whom a tigress unearthed from the ground when scratching a hole in her den, and brought up with her own young. They were named Nâga Lodha and Nâga Lodhi, Nâga meaning naked and Lodha being the Chhattísgarhi word for a wild dog. Growing up they lived for some time as brother and sister, until the deity enjoined them to marry. But they had no children until Nâga Lodha, in obedience to the god's instructions, gave his wife the fruit of eleven trees to eat. From these she had eleven sons at a birth, and as she observed a fortnight's impurity for each of them the total period was five and a half months. In memory of this, Dhanuhâr women still remain impure for five months after delivery, and do not worship the gods for that period. Afterwards the couple had a twelfth son, who was born with a bow and arrows in his hand, and is now the ancestral hero of the tribe, being named Karankot. One day in the forest when Karankot was not with them, the eleven brothers came upon a wooden palisade, inside which were many deer and antelope tended by twelve Gaoli (herdsmen) brothers with their twelve sisters. The Lodha brothers attacked the place, but were taken prisoners by the Gaolis and forced to remove dung and other refuse form the enclosure. After a time Karankot went in search of his brothers and, coming to the place, defeated the Gaolis and rescued them and carried off the twelve sisters. The twelve brothers subsequently married the twelve Gaoli girls, Karankot himself being wedded to the youngest and most beautiful, whose name was Maswâsi. From each couple is supposed to be descended one of the tribes who live in this country, as the Binjhwâr, Bhumia, Korwa, Mâjhi, Kol, Kawar and others, the Dhanuhârs themselves being the progeny of Karankot and Maswâsi. The bones of the animals killed by Karankot were thrown into ditches dug round the village and form the pits of chhui mithi or white clay now existing in this tract.

Exogamous Septs.

The Dhanuhârs, being a small tribe, have no endogamous divisions, but are divided into a number of totemistic exogamous septs. Many of the septs are called after plants or animals, and members of the sept refrain from killing or destroying the animal or plant after which it is named. The names of the septs are generally Chhattísgarhi words, though a few are Gondi. Out of fifty names returned twenty are also found in the Kawar tribe and four among the Gonds. This makes it probable that the Dhanuhârs are mainly an offshoot from the Kawars with a mixture of Gonds and other tribes. A peculiarity worth noticing is that one or two of the septs have been split up into a number of others. The best instance of this is the Sonwâni sept, which is found among several castes and tribes in Chhattísgarh; its name is perhaps derived from Sona pâni (Gold water), and its members have the function of readmitting those temporarily expelled from social intercourse by pouring on them a little water into which a piece of gold has been dipped.

[1] Grewia vestita.

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Among the Dhanuhârs the Sonwâni sept has become divided into the Son-Sonwâni, who pour the gold water over the penitent; the Rakat Sonwâni, who give him to drink a little of the blood of the sacrificial fowl; the Hardi Sonwâni, who give turmeric water to the mourners when they come back from a funeral; the Kâri Sonwâni, who assist at this ceremony; and one or two others. The totem of the Kâri Sonwâni sept is a black cow, and when such an animal dies in the village members of the sept throw away their earthen pots. All these are now separate exogamous septs. The Deswârs are another sept which has been divided in the same manner. They are, perhaps, a more recent accession to the tribe, and are looked down on by the others because they will eat the flesh of bison. The other Dhanwârs refuse to do this because they say that when Síta, Râma's wife, was exiled in the jungles, she could not find a cow to worship and so revered a bison in its stead.. And they say that the animal's feet are grey because of the turmeric water Síta poured on them, and that the depression on its forehead is the mark of her hand when she placed a tíka or sign there with coloured rice. The Deswârs are also called Dui Duâria or 'Those having two doors,' because they have a back door to their huts which is used only by women during their monthly period of impurity and kept shut at all other times. One of the septs is named Manakhia, which means 'man-eater,' and it is possible that its members formerly offered human sacrifices. Similarly, the Rakat-bund or 'Drop of blood Deswârs' may be so called because they shed human blood. A member of the Telâsi or 'Oil ' sept, when he has killed a deer, will cut off the head and bring it home; placing it in his courtyard, he suspends a burning lamp over the head and places grains of rice on the forehead of the deer; and he then considers that he is revering the oil in the lamp. Members of the Sîrajgoti or sun sept are said to have stood as representatives of the sun in the rite of the purification of an offender.

Marriage.

Marriage within the sept is prohibited, and usually also between first cousins. Girls are commonly married a year or two after they arrive at maturity. The father of the boy looks out for a suitable girl for his son and sends a friend to make the proposal. If this is accepted a feast is given, and is known as Phîl Phulwâri or 'The bursting of the flower.' The betrothal itself is called Phaldân or 'The gist of the fruit'; on this occasion the contract is ratified and the usual presents are exchanged. Yet a third ceremony, prior to the marriage, is that of the Barokhi or inspection, when the bride and bridegroom are taken to see each other. On this occasion they exchange copper rings, placing them on each other's finger, and the boy offers vermilion to the earth, and then rubs it on the bride's forehead. When the girl is mature the date of the wedding is fixed, a small brideprice of six rupees and a piece of cloth being usually paid. If the first signs of puberty appear in the girl during the bright fortnight of the month, the marriage is held during the dark fortnight and vice versa. The marriage-shed is built in the form of a rectangle and must consist of either seven or nine posts in three lines. the bridegroom's party comprises from twenty to forty persons of both sexes. When they arrive at the bride's village her father comes out to meet them and gives them leaf-pipes to smoke. He escorts them inside the village where a lodging has been prepared for them. The ceremony is based on that of the local Hindus with numerous petty variations in points of detail. In the actual ceremony the bride and bridegroom are first supported on the knees of two relatives. A sheet is held between them and each throws seven handfuls of parched rice over the other. They are then made to stand side by side; a knot is made of their cloths containing a piece of turmeric, and the bride's left hand is laid over the bridegroom's right one, and on it a sendhaura or wooden box for vermilion is placed. The bride's mother moves seven times round the pair holding a lighted lamp, at which she warms her hand and then touches the marriage-crowns of the bride and bridegroom, seven times in succession. And finally the couple walk seven times round the marriage-post, the bridegroom following the bride. The marriage is held during the day, and not, as is usual, at night or in the early morning. Afterwards, the pair are seated in the marriage-shed, the bridegroom's leg being placed over that of the bride, with their feet in a brass dish. The bride's mother then washes their great toes with milk and the rest of their feet with water.

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The bridegroom applies vermilion seven times to the marriage-post and to his wife's forehead and the parting of her hair. The couple are fed with rice and pulses one after the other out of the same leaf-plates, and the parties have a feast. Next morning, before their departure, the father of the bride asks the bridegroom to do his best to put up with his daughter, who is thievish, gluttonous and so slovenly that she lets her food drop on to the floor; but if he finds he cannot endure her, to send her home. In the same manner the father of the boy apologises for his son, saying that he cares only for mischief and pleasure. The party then returns to the bridegroom's house.

Festivities of the women of the bridegroom's party.

During the absence of the wedding party the women of the bridegroom's house with others in the village sing songs at night in the marriage-shed constructed at his house. These are known as Dindwa, a term applied to a man who has no wife, whether widower or bachelor. As they sing, the women dance in two lines with their arms interlaced, clapping their hands as they move backwards and forwards. the songs are of a lewd character, treating intrigues in love mingled with abuse of their relatives and of their men who may be watching the proceedings by stealth. No offence is taken on such occasions, whatever may be said. In Upper India, Mr. Jeorâkhân, Lâl states such songs are sung at the time of the marriage and are called Naktoureki louk or the ceremony of the useless or shameless ones, because women, however shy and modest, become at this time as bold and shameless as men are at the Holi festival. The following are a few lines from one of these songs:

The wheat-cake is below and the urad-cake is above. Do you see my brother' s brother-in-law watching the dance in the narrow lane. [1]

A sweetmeat is placed on the wheat-cake; a handsome young blackguard has climbed on to the top of the wall to see the dance.

When a woman sees a man from afar he looks beautiful and attractive: but when he comes near she sees that he is not worth the trouble. I went to the market and came back with my salt. Oh, I looked more at you than at my husband who is wedded to me.

Conclusion Of The Marriage.

Several of the ceremonies are repeated at the bridegroom's house after the return of the wedding party. On the day following them the couple are taken to a tank walking under a canopy held up by their friends. Here they throw away their marriage-crowns, and play at hiding a vessel under the water. When they return to the house a goat is sacrificed to Dulha Deo and the bride cooks food in her new house for the first time, her husband helping her, and their relatives and friends in the village are invited to partake of it. After this the conjugal chamber is prepared by the women of the household, and the bride is taken to it and told to consider her husband's house as her own. The couple are then left together and the marriage is consummated.

Widow-Marriage And Divorce.

The remarriage of widows is permitted but it is not considered as a real marriage, according to the saying: "A woman cannot be anointed twice with the marriage oil., as a wooden cooking-vessel cannot be put twice on the fire." A widow married again is called a Churiyâhi Dauki or 'Wife made by bangles,' as the ceremony may be completed by putting bangles on her wrists. When a woman is going to marry again she leaves her late husband's house and goes and lives with her own people or in a house by herself. The second husband makes his proposal to her through some other women. If accepted, he comes with a party of his male friends, taking with him a new cloth and some bangles.

[1] The term brother's brother-in-law is abusive in the same sense as brother-in-law (sâla ) said by a man.

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They are received by the widow's guardian, and they sit in her house smoking and chewing tobacco while some woman friend retires with her and invests her with the new cloth and bangles. She comes out and the new husband and wife bow to all the Dhanwârs, who are subsequently regaled with liquor and goats' flesh, and the marriage is completed. Polygamy is permitted but is not common. A husband may divorce his wife for failing to bear him issue, for being ugly, thievish, shrewish or a witch, or for an intrigue with another man. If a married woman commits adultery with another man of the tribe they are pardoned with the exaction of one feast. If her paramour is a Gond, Râwat, Binjhwâr or Kawar, he is allowed to become a Dhanwâr and marry her on giving several feasts, the exact number being fixed by the village Baiga or priest in a panchâyat or committee. With these exceptions a married woman having an intrigue with a man of another caste is finally expelled. A wife who desires to divorce her husband without his agreement is also turned out of the caste like a common woman.

Childbirth.

After the birth of a child the mother receives no food for the first and second, and fourth and fifth days, while on the third she is given only a warm decoction to drink. On the sixth day the men of the house are shaved and their impurity ceases. But the mother cooks no food for two months after bearing a female child and for three months if it is a male. The period has thus been somewhat reduced from the traditional one of five and a half months, [1] but it must still be highly inconvenient. At the expiration of the time of impurity the earthen pots are changed and the mother prepares a meal for the whole household. During her monthly period of impurity a woman cooks no food for six days.. On the seventh day she bathes and cleans her hair with clay, and is then again permitted to touch the drinking water and cook food.

Disposal Of The Dead.

The tribe bury the dead. The corpse is wrapped in an old cloth and carried to the grave on a cot turned upside down. On arrival there it is washed with turmeric and water and wrapped in a new cloth. The bearers carry the corpse seven times round the open grave, saying, 'This is your last marriage,' that is, with the earth. The male relatives and friends fill in the grave with earth, working with their hands only and keep their backs turned to the grave so as to avoid seeing the corpse. It is said that each person should throw only five handfuls. Other people then come up and fill in the grave, trampling down the surface as much as possible. For three days after a death the bereaved family do not cook for themselves but are supplied with food by their friends. These, however, do not give them any salt as it is thought that the craving for salt will divert their minds from dwelling on their loss. The tribe do not perform the shrâddh ceremony, but in the month of Kunwâr, on the day corresponding to that on which his father died, a man feeds the caste-fellows in memory of him. And at this period he offers libations to his ancestors, pouring a double handful of water on the ground for each one that he can remember and then one for all the others. While doing this he stands facing the east and does not turn to three different directions as the Hindu custom is. The spirit of a man who has been killed by a tiger becomes Baghia Masân or the tiger imp, and that of a woman who dies in childbirth becomes a Churel. Both are very troublesome to the living.

Religion.

The principal deities of the Dhanwârs are Thâkur Deo, the god of agriculture, and Dîlha Deo, the deity of the family and hearth. twice a year the village Baiga or medicine-man, who is usually a Gond, offers a cocoanut to Thâkur Deo. He first consecrates it to the god by placing it in contact with water and the small heap of rice which lies in front of his shrine, and then splits it asunder on a stone, saying, 'Jai Thâkur Deo,' or 'Victory to Thâkur Deo.' When any serious calamity befalls the tribe a goat is offered to the deity.

[1] See commencement of this article.

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It must also be first consecrated to him by eating rice; its body is then washed in water and some of the sacred dîb [1] grass is placed on it, and the Baiga severs the head from the body with an axe. Dîlha Deo is the god of the family and the marriage-bed, and when a Dhanwâr is married or his first son is born, a goat is offered to the deity. Another interesting deity is Maiya Andhiyâri, or the goddess of the dark fortnight of the month. She is worshipped in the house conjointly by husband and wife on any Tuesday in the dark fortnight of Mâgh (January-February), all the relatives of the family being invited. On the day of worship the husband and wife observe a fast, and all the water which is required for use in the house during the day and night must be brought into it in the early morning. A circular pit is dug inside the house, about three feet deep and as many wide. A she-goat which has borne no young is sacrificed to the goddess in the house in the same manner as in the sacrifice to Thâkur Deo. The goat is skinned and cut up, the skin, bones and other refuse being thrown into the hole. The flesh is cooked and eaten with rice and pulse in the evening, all the water including that used for cooking, and the new earthen pots used to carry water on that day are thrown into the pit. The mouth of the pit is then covered with mud with great care to prevent a child falling into it; as it is held that nothing which has once gone into the pit may be taken out, even if it were a human being. It is said that once in the old days a man who happened to fall into the pit was buried alive, its mouth being covered over with planks of wood; and he was found alive when the pit was reopened next year. This is an instance of the sacrificial meal, common to many primitive peoples, at which the sacred animal was consumed by the worshippers, skin, bones and all. But now that such a course has become repugnant to their more civilised digestions, the refuse is considered sacred and disposed of in some such manner as that described. The goddess is also known as Rât Devi or the goddess of he night; or Rât Mai, the night mother. The goddess Maswâsi was the mythical ancestress of the Dhanwârs, the wife of Karankot, and also the daughter of Maiya Andhiyâri or Rât Mai. She too is worshipped every third year in the dark fortnight of the month of Mâgh on any Tuesday. Her sacrifice is offered in the morning hours in the forest by men only, and consists also of a black she-goat. A site is chosen under a tree and cleaned with cowdung, the bones of animals being placed upon it in a heap to represent the goddess. The village Baiga kills the goat with an axe and the body is eaten by the worshippers. Maswâsi is invoked by the Dhanwârs before they go hunting, and whenever they kill a wild boar or a deer they offer it to her. She is thus clearly the goddess of hunting. The tribe also worship the spirits of hills and woods and the ghosts of the illustrious dead. The ghosts of dead Baigas or medicine-men are believed to become spirits attending on Thâkur Deo, and when he is displeased with the Dhanwârs they intervene to allay his anger. The brothers of Maswâsi, the twelve Gaolis, are believed to be divine hunters and to haunt the forests, where they kill beasts and occasionally men. Six of them take post and the other six drive the beasts or men towards these through the forest, when they are pierced as with an arrow. The victim dies after a few days, but if human he may go to a sorcerer, who can extract the arrow, smaller than a grain of rice, from his body. In the month of Aghan (November), when the grass of the forests is to be cut, the members of the village collectively offer a goat to the grass deity, in order that none of the grass-cutters may be killed by a tiger or bitten by a snake or other wild animal.

Magic and witchcraft.

The Dhanwârs are fervent believers in all kinds of magic and witchcraft. Magic is practised both by he Baiga, the village priest or medicine-man, who is always a man and who conducts the worship of the deities mentioned above, and by the tonhi, the regular witch, who may be a man or woman. Little difference appears to exist in the methods of the two classes of magicians, but the Baiga's magic is usually exercised for the good of his fellow-creatures, which indeed might be expected as he gets his livelihood from them, and he is also less powerful than the tonhi. The Baiga cures ordinary maladies and the bites of snakes and scorpions by mesmeric passes fortified by the utterance of charms. He raises the dead in much the same manner as a witch does, but employs the spirit of the dead person in casting out other evil spirits by which his clients may be possessed.

[1] Cynodon Dactylon.

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One of the miracles performed by the Baiga is to make his wet cloth stand in the air stiff and straight, holding only the two lower ends. He can cross a river walking on leaves, and change men onto beasts. Witches are not very common among the Dhanwârs. A witch, male or female, may be detected by a sunken and gloomy appearance of the eyes, a passionate temperament, or by being found naked in a graveyard at night, as only a witch would go there to raise a corpse from the dead. The Dhanwârs eat nearly all kinds of food except beef and the leftovers of others. They will take cooked food from the hands of Kawars, and the men also from Gonds, but not the women. In some places they will accept food from Brâhmans, but not everywhere. They are not an impure caste, but usually live in a separate hamlet of their own, and are lower than the Gonds and Kawars, who will take water from them but not food. They are a very primitive people, and it is stated that at the census several of them left their huts and fled into the jungle, and were with difficulty induced to return. When an elder man dies his family usually abandon their hut, as it is believed that his spirit haunts it and causes death to any one who lives there.

Social Rules.

A Kawar is always permitted to become a Dhanwâr, and a woman of the Gond, Binjhwâr and Râwat tribes, if such a one is living with a Dhanwâr, may be married to him with the approval of the tribe. She does not enjoy the full status of membership herself, but it is accorded to her children. When an outsider is to be admitted a panchâyat of Dhanwârs is assembled, one of whom must be of the Mâjhi sept. The members of the panchâyat hold out their right hands, palm upwards, one below the other, and beneath them the candidate and his wife place their hands. The Mâjhi pours water from a brass vessel on to the topmost hand, and it trickles down from one to the other on to those of the candidate and his wife. The blood of a slaughtered goat is mixed with the water in their palms and they sip it, and after giving a feast to the caste are considered as Dhanwârs. Permanent exclusion from caste is imposed only for living with a man or woman of another caste other than those who may become Dhanwârs, or for taking food from a member of an impure caste, the only ones which are lower than the Dhanwârs. Temporary exclusion for an indefinite period is awarded for an irregular connection between a Dhanwâr man and woman, or of a Dhanwâr with a Kawar, Binjhwâr, Râwat or Gond; on a family which harbours any one of its members who has been permanently expelled; and on a woman who cuts the navel-cord of a newly-born child, whether of her own caste or not. Irregular sexual intimacies are usually kept secret and redressed by marriage whenever possible. A person expelled for any of the above offences cannot feast without being invited, removes their leaf-plates with the leftovers of food, and waits on them generally, and continually proffers his prayer for readmission. When the other Dhanwârs are satisfied with his long and faithful service they take him beck into the community. Temporary exclusion from caste, with the penalty of one or more feasts for readmission, is imposed for killing a cow or a cat accidentally, or in the course of giving it a beating; for having a cow or bullock in one's possession whose nostrils or ears get split; for getting maggots in a wound; for being beaten except by a Government official; for taking food from any higher caste other than those from whom food is accepted; and in the case of a woman for saying her husband's name aloud. This list of offences shows that the Dhanwârs have almost completely adopted the Hindu code in social matters, while retaining their tribal religion. A person guilty of one of the above offences must have his or her head shaved by a barber, and make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Narsingh Nâth in Bodâsâmar zamíndâri; after having accomplished this he is purified by one of the Sonwâni sept, being given water in which gold has been dipped to drink through a bamboo tube, and he provides usually three feasts for the caste-fellows.

Dress And Tattooing.

The tribe dress in the somewhat primitive fashion prevalent in Chhattísgarh, and there is nothing distinctive about their clothing. Women are tattooed at their parents' house before or just after marriage. It is said that the tattoo marks remain on the soul after death, and that she shows them to God, probably for purposes of identification.

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There is a saying, 'All other pleasures are transient, but the tattoo marks are my companions through life.' A Dhanwâr will not take water from a woman who is not tattooed.

Names Of Children.

Children are named on the chathi or sixth day after birth, and the parents always ascertain from a wise man whether the soul of any dead relative has been born again in the child so that they may name it after him. It is also thought that the sex may change in transmigration, for male children are sometimes named after women relatives and female after men. Mr. Híra Lâl notes the following instance named after his grandfather; the second was called Bhâlu or bear, as his maternal uncle who had been eaten by a bear was reborn in him; the third was called Ghâsi, the name of a low caste of grass-cutters, because the two children born before him had died; and the fourth was called Kausi, because the sorcerer could not identify the spirit of any relative as having been born again in him. The name Kausi is given to any one who cannot remember his sept, as in the saying, 'Bhîle bisâre kausi got,' or 'A man who has got no got belongs to the Kausi got.' Kausi is said to mean a stranger. Bad names are commonly given to avert ill-luck; Marha, a corpse; or after some physical defect as Lati, one with clotted hair; Petwa, a stammerer; Lendra, shy; Ghundu, one who cannot walk; Ghunari, stunted; or from the place of birth, as Dongariha or Pahâru born on a hill; Banjariha, born in brushwood, and so on. A man will not mention the names of his wife, his son's wife or his sister's son's wife, and a woman will not name her husband or his elder brother or parents. As already stated, a woman saying her husband's name aloud is temporarily put out of caste, the Hindu custom being thus carried to extremes, as is often the case among the lower castes.

Occupation.

The tribe consider consider hunting to have been their proper calling, but many of them are now cultivators and labourers. They also make bamboo matting and large baskets for storing grain, but they will not make small bamboo baskets or fans, because this is the calling of the Turis, on whom the Dhanwâr looks down. The women collect the leaves of sâl [1] tress and sell them at the rate of about ten bundles for a pice (farthing) for use as chongis or leaf-pipes. As already stated, the tribe have no language of their own, but speak a corrupt form of Chhattísgarhi. Russel R. V. and Hiralal, The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (London; Macmillan and Co., 1916; rpt. 1975. Delhi: Cosmo Publications), vol. ll.

Dharhi: - They live in Central India. They are dancers and singers.

Dhârhi: - (possibly from Sans. dhrista, "impudent"), [2] a tribe of dancers and singers of whom there is a Hindu and a Muhammadan branch. They have been described under one of their many names, Kingariya or Kingriya, in another place. Another name for them is Pâwariya or Pâwanriya (from the foot pânw) carpet (pânwara) they use. In the hills, though socially ranked with Doms, they do not belong to them, for they properly include only those Khasiyas who have been put out of caste for some offence or other and their offspring form a new caste with the special avocation of singing and dancing. Internal Structure. The Census lists show forty sections. Many of these are local as Audhiya, Balrâmpuri, Chaurasiya, Desi Gujarâti, Jaunpuri, Haripuriya, Kanaujiya, Madhesiya, Pachhwâhan, and Sarwariya. Others connect them with well-known castes or tribes, as Bânsphor, Boriya, Dhelphor, Dusâdh, Ghosi, Kewat.

[ 1] Shorca robusta.

[ 2] See Crooke.

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Occupation.

The Dhârhi has two distinct functions. In the first place he is a musician and singer, and appears at houses on occasions of festivity, such as a marriage or when a woman is purified after the birth pollution and rejoins the household. He and the women who accompany him, who are usually of equivocal reputation, sing and play the double drum (mridang) or the guitar (tambîra), for which he gets presents of grain, money or clothes. Secondly, the Hindu Dhârhi keeps swine and acts in many villages as the priest of the god (Gânwdeotal deohâr). He cleans and plasters his platform, and takes anything in the way of an offering which is not consumed by the worshippers themselves.

Social Rules.

The Dhârhi from his habits of begging and going about with women of bad character has rather an unsavoury reputation, and socially ranks very little above the Chamâr. They permit widow-marriage, divorce and remarriage of divorced women, but if a woman separates from her husband without cause she must repay through her second husband any charges which may have been incurred in her first marriage. Muhammadan Dhârhis have their marriages done, if they are well-off, by the Qâzi; if they are poor, by the village Dafâli. The Hindu Dhârhis seldom or never employ a Brâhman except to take the auspices and fix a lucky day for the wedding. Two common proverbs show the opinion generally held of the Dhârhi-Dena lena kâm Dom Dhârhiyon ka, muhabbat dusri chíz hai -"Taking presents is the way of pimps and buffoons; true love is quite a different thing. "Randi ki kamâi, ya khâe Dhârhi, ya khâe gâri.- "The prostitute's earning go to the pimp or cabman."

Dhoba: - small caste belonging to the Mandla District and apparently an offshoot from one of the primitive tribes [1] . They have never been separately classified at the census but always amalgamated with the Dhobi or washerman cast. But the Mandla Dhobas acknowledge no connection with Dhobis, nor has any been detected. One Dhoba has indeed furnished a story to the Rev. E. Price that the first ancestor of the caste was a foundling boy, by appearance of good lineage, who was brought up by some Dhobis, and, marrying a Dhobi girl, made a new caste. But this is not sufficient to demonstrate the common origin of the Dhobas and Dhobis. The Dhobas reside principally in a few villages in the upper valley of the Burhner River, and members of the caste own two or three villages. They are dark in complexion and have, though in a less degree, the flat features, coarse nose and receding forehead of the Gond; but they are taller in stature and not so strongly built, and are much less capable of exertion.

Exogamous Divisions.

The caste has twelve exogamous septs, though the list is probably not complete. These appear to be derived from the name of villages. Marriage is forbidden between the Bâghmâr and Bâghcharia septs, the Mârâtha and Khatnâgar and Marâlwati septs and the Sonwâni and Sonsonwâni septs. These septs are said to have been subdivided and to be still related. The names Bâghmâr and Bâghcaria are both derived from the tiger; Sonwâni is from Sona-pâni or gold-water, and the Sonsonwâni sept seems therefore to be the aristocratic branch of the Sonwânis. The children of brothers and sisters may marry but not those of two sisters, because a man's maternal aunt or mausi is considered as equivalent to his mother. A man may also marry his step-sister on the mother's side, that is, the daughter of his own mother by another husband either prior to or subsequent to his father, the step-sister being of a different sept. This relaxation may have been permitted on account of the small numbers of the caste and the consequent difficulty of arranging marriages.

[ 1] See Russell. This article is partly based on an account of the caste furnished by Mr. H F. E Bull and drawn up by Mr. F. R. R Rudman in the Mandla District Gazetteer.

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Marriage Customs.

The bridegroom goes to the bride's house for the wedding which is conducted according to the Hindu ritual of walking round the sacred post. The cost of a marriage in a fairly well-to-do family, including the betrothal, may be about Rs. 140, of which a quarter falls on the bride's people. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. A pregnant woman stops working after six months and goes into retirement. After a birth the woman is impure for five or six days. She does not appear in public for a month, and takes no part in outdoor occupations or field-work until the child is weaned, that is six months after its birth.

Funeral Rites.

The dead are usually buried, and all members of the dead man's sept are considered to be impure. After the funeral they bathe and come home and have their food cooked for them by other Dhobas, partaking of it in the dead man's house. On the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth day, when the impurity ends, the male members of the sept are shaved on the bank of a river and the hair is left lying there. When they start home they spread some thorns and two stones across the path. Then, as the first man steps over the thorns, he takes up one of the stones in his hand and passes it behind him to the second, and each man successively passes it back as he steps over the thorns, the last man throwing the stone behind the thorns. Thus the dead man's spirit in the shape of the stone is separated from the living and prevented from accompanying them home. Then a feast is held, all the men of the dead man's sept sitting opposite to the panchâyat at a distance of three feet. Next day water in which gold has been dipped is thrown over the dead man's house and each member of the sept drinks a little and is pure.

Caste Panchâyat And Social Penalties.

The head of the caste is always a member of the Sonwâni sept and is known as Râja. It is his business to administer water in which gold has been dipped (sona-pâni) to offenders as a means of purification, and from this the name of the sept is derived. The Raja has no deputy, and officiates in all ceremonies of the caste; he receives no contribution from the caste, but a double share of food and sweetmeats when they are distributed. The other members of the Panch he is at liberty to choose from any got or sept he likes. When a man has been put out of caste for a serious offence he has to give three feasts for readmission. The first meal consists of a goat with rice and pulse, and is eaten on the bank of a stream; on this occasion the head of the offender is shaved clean and all the hair thrown into the stream. The second meal is eaten in the yard of his house, and consists of cakes fried in butter with rice and pulse. The offender is not allowed to partake of either the first or second meal. On the third day the Râja gives the offender gold-water, and he is then considered to be purified and cooks food himself, which the caste-people eat with him in his house. A man is not put out of caste when he is sent to jail, as this is considered to be an order of the Government. A man keeping a woman of another caste is expelled and not reinstated until he has put her away, and even then it is said that they will consider his character before taking him back. A man who gets maggots in a wound may be readmitted to caste only during the months of Chait and Pîs.

Occupation And Social Customs.

The Dhobas act as priests of the Gonds and are also cultivators. Their social position is distinctly higher than that of the Gonds and some of them have begun to employ Brâhmans for their ceremonies. They will eat the flesh of most animals, except those of the cow-tribe, and also field-mice, and most of them drink liquor, though the more prominent members have begun to abstain. The origin of the caste is very obscure, but it would appear that they must be an offshoot of one of the Dravidian tribes. In this connection it is interesting to note that Chhattísgarh contains a large number of Dhobis, though the people of this tract have until recently worn little in the way of clothing, and usually wash it themselves only when this operation is judged necessary. Many of the Dhobis of Chhattísgarh are cultivators, and it seems possible that a proportion of them may also really belong to this Dhoba caste.

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Dholis: - They are from Rajasthan and move from village to village to sing.

Dhunia: - They clean and card cotton.

Dhuri: - See Bharbhunjas.

Dhuri: - A caste belonging exclusively to Chhattísgarh,[1] which numbered 3000 persons in 1911. Dhuri is an honorific abbreviation from Dhuriya as Bâni from Bania. The special occupation of the caste is rice-parching, and they are an offshoot from Kahârs, though in Chhattísgarh the Dhuris now consider the Kahârs as a subcaste of their own. In Bengal the Dhuriyas are a subcaste of the Kândus or Bharbhîjas. Sir H. Risley states that "the Dhurias rank lowest of all the subcastes of Kândus, owing either to their having taken up the comparatively menial profession of palanquin-bearing or to their being a branch of the Kahâr 2 caste who went in for grain-parching and thus came to be associated with in Kândus." [2] The caste has immigrated to Chhattísgarh from the United Provinces. In Kawardha they believe that the Râja of that State brought them back with him on his return from a pilgrimage. In Bilâspur and Raipur they say they came from Bâdhâr, a pargana in the Mírzâpur District, adjoining Rewah. Badhâr is mentioned in one of the Râjim inscriptions, and is a place remembered by other castes of Chattísgarh as their ancestral home. The Dhuris of Chhattísgarh relate their origin as follows: Mahâdeo went once to the jungle and the damp earth stuck to his feet. He scraped it off and made it into a man, and asked him what caste he would like to belong to. The man said he would leave it to Mahâdeo, who decided that he should be called Dhuri from dhîr, dust. The man then asked Mahâdeo to assign him an occupation, and Mahâdeo said that as he was made from dust, which is pounded earth, his work should be to prepare cheora or pounded rice, and added as a special distinction that all castes including Brâhmans should eat the pounded rice prepared by him. All castes do eat cheora because it is not boiled with water. The Dhuris have two subcastes, a higher and a lower, but they are known by different names in different tracts. In Kawardha they are called Râj Dhuri and Cheorâkîta, the Râj Dhuris being the descendants of personal servants in the Râja's family and ranking above the Cheorâkîtas or rice-pounders. In Bilâspur they are called Badhâria and Khawâs, and in Raipur Badhâria and Desha. The Khawâs and Desha subcastes do menial household service and rank below the Badhârias, who are perhaps later immigrants and refuse to engage in this occupation. The names of their exogamous sections are nearly all territorial as Naugahia from Naogaon is Bilâspur District, Agoria from Agori, a pargana in Mízâpur District, Kâshi or Benâres, and a number of other names derived form villages in Bilâspur. But the caste do not strictly enforce the rule forbidding marriage within the gotra or section, and are content with avoiding three generations both on the father's and mother's side. They have probably been driven to modify the rule on account of the scarcity of their numbers and the difficulty of arranging marriages. For the same reason perhaps they look with indulgence on the practice, as a rule strictly prohibited, of marriage with a woman of another caste of lower social rank, and will admit the children of such a marriage into the caste, though not the woman herself.

1 . See Russell. This article is mainly compiled from papers by Mr. Gokul Prasâd, Naib-Talisildâr, Dhamtari, and Pyâre Lâl Misra, a clerk in the Gazetter office.

2 . Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kându.

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Marriage.

Infant-marriage is in vogue, and polygamy is permitted only if the first wife be barren. The betrothal is cemented by an exchange of betel-leaves and arec-nuts between the fathers of the engaged couple. A bride-price of from ten to twenty rupees is usually paid. Some rice, a pice coin, 21 cowries and 21 pieces of turmeric are placed in the hole in which the marriage post is erected. When the wedding procession arrives at the girl's house the bridegroom goes to the marriage-shed and pulls out the festoons of mango leaves, the bride's family trying to prevent him by offering him a winnowing-fan. He then approaches the door of the house, behind which his future mother-in-law is standing, and slips a piece of cloth through the door for her. She takes this and retires without being seen. The wedding consists of the bhânwar ceremony or walking round the sacred pole. During the proceedings the women tie a new thread round the bridegroom's neck to avert the evil eye. After the wedding the bride and bridegroom, in opposition to the usual custom, must return to the latter's house on foot. In explanation of this they tell a story to the effect that the married couple were formerly carried in palanquin. But on one occasion when a wedding procession came to a river, everybody began to catch fish, leaving the bride deserted, and the palanquin-bearers, seeing this, carried her off. To prevent the recurrence of such a mischance the couple now have to walk. Widow-marriage is permitted, and the widow usually marries her late husband's younger brother. Divorce is only permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife.

Religious Beliefs.

The Dhuris principally worship the goddess Devi. Nearly all members of the cast belong to the Kabírpanthi sect. They believe that the sun on setting goes through the earth, and that the Milky Way is the path by which the elephant of the heavers passes from south to north to feed on the young bamboo shoots, of which he is very fond. They think that the constellation of the Great Bear is a cot with three thieves tied to it. The thieves came to steal the cot, which belonged to an old woman, but God caught them and tied them down there for ever. Orison is the plough left by one of the Pândava brothers after he had finished tilling the heavens. The dead are burnt. They observe mourning during nine or ten days for an adult and make libations to the dead at the usual period in the month of Kunwâr (September-October).

Occupation And Social Status.

The proper occupation of the caste is to parch rice. The rice is husked and then parched in an earthen pan, and subsequently pounded with a mallet in a wooden mortar. When prepared in this manner it is called cheora. The Dhuris also act as khidmatgârs or household servants, but the members of the Badharia subcaste refuse to do this work. Some members of the caste are fishermen, and others grow melons and sweet potatoes. Considering that they live in Chhattísgarh, the caste are somewhat scrupulous in the matter of food, neither eating fowls nor drinking liquor. The Kawardha Dhuris, however, who are later immigrants than the others, do not observe these restrictions, the reason for which may be that the Dhuris think it necessary to be strict in the matter of food, so that no one may object to taking parched rice from them. Râwats and Gonds take food from their hands in some places, and their social status in Chhattísgarh is about equivalent to that of the Râwats or Ahírs. A man of the caste who kills a cow or gets vermin in a wound must go to Amârkantak to bathe in the Nerbudda.

Dom: - Domra; Domahra (Sans. Doma; Dama; Domba),[1] a Dravidian menial caste found scattered throughout these Provinces, regarding whose origin and ethnological affinities there has been much speculation.

[ 1] See Crooke. For the Eastern Doms the valuable note by Mr. J. Kennedy, C. S., has been ;largely used, and that of Pandit Juala Dat Joshi for the Hill Doms. In addition to these, notes by Mr. H. D. Ferard, C. S., Banda : M. Chhedi Lal,

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To the east of the Province they are usually known as Dom, but are sometimes called Jallad, "executioner," Hatyara, "murderous, blood-thirsty," or Supach, which is, as we shall see, traditionally the name of the founder of the tribe, and who also enters into the legends of the Bhangis. The name seems to represent the Svapaka or "cooker of dogs," a man of a degraded and outcast tribe, the son of an Ugra woman by a Kshatriya. He is required to live outside towns like the Chandala, to eat his food in broken vessels, to wear the clothes of the dead, and to be excluded from all intercourse with other tribes; he can possess no other property than asses and dogs and his only office is to act as public executioner or to carry out the bodies of those who die without kindred. His kinsman, the Chandala, according to Manu, [1] ranks in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a woman in her courses, and an eunuch, none of whom must a Brahman allow to see him when eating. According to Dr. Caldwell [2] they are the surviving representatives of an older, ruder, and blacker race who preceded the Dravidians in India. Sir H. M. Elliot [3] considers them to be "one of the original tribes of India. Tradition fixes their residence to the north of the Ghagra, touching the Bhars on the east in the vicinity of the Rohini. Several old forts testify to their former importance, and still retain the names of their founders, as, for instance, Domdiha and Domingarh, in the Gorakhpur District. Ramgarh and Sahnkot, on the Rohini, are also Dom forts." Attempts have also been made to connect them in some way with the Domkatar or Domtikar Rajputs or Gorakhpur, and with the Domwar Bhuinhars. [4] All this discussion is, as Mr. Risley says, somewhat profitless: but out of it seems to emerge "a general consensus of opinion that the Doms belong to one of the races whom, for convenience of expression, we may call the aborigines of India. Their personal appearance bears out this opinion. Mr. Beames [5] describes the Doms of Champaran as "small and dark, with long tresses of unkempt hair, and the peculiar glassy eye of the non-Aryan autochthon," and Mr. Sherring [6] remarks that "dark-complexioned, low of stature, and somewhat repulsive in appearance, they are readily distinguished from all the better castes of Hindus." "The type, however," Mr. Risley adds, "as is the case with most widely-diffused castes, seems to display appreciable variations. In Eastern Bengal, according to Dr. Wise, the Dom's hair is long, black, and coarse, while his complexion is oftener of a brown than a black hue; and among the Magahiya Doms, whom I have seen in Bihar, only a small portion struck me as showing any marked resemblance to the aborigines of Chota Nagpur, who are, I suppose, among the purest specimens of the non-Aryan races of India. On the whole, however, the prevalent type of physique and complexion seems to mark the caste as not of Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to connect it with any compact aboriginal tribe of the present day. The fact that for centuries they have been condemned to the most menial duties, and have served as the helots of the entire village community, would, of itself, be sufficient to break down whatever tribal spirit they may once have possessed, and to obliterate all structural traces of their true origin."

To this must be added another point which cannot be left out of consideration in dealing with these menial races. The tribes of scavengers, such as the Bhangi and Dom, have for many generations formed a sort of Cave of Adullam for the outcastes of the higher races, and the notorious immoral character of the women of these tribes must have had a powerful effect in modifying the physique and appearance of castes such as these. If the Dom varies in physical character from one part of the Province to another, it is only what might naturally be expected.

[ 1] Institutes, III , 239.

[2] Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, 546, quoted by Risley, Tribes and Castes, I, 240

[3] Supplemental Glossary, s.v.

[4] Buchanan, Eastern India, II., 353 : Archaeological reports, XXII, 65, sq : Carnegy, Notes, 24.

[5] races of the North-Western Provinces, 85.

[6] Windu Tribes and Castes, I, 401.

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On the whole it may perhaps be safer to regard the individual aggregate, but as a more or less mixed body of menials, who have been for ages in a state of the utmost degradation, and whose appearance and physique have been largely modified by the rigour of their occupation and environment.

Deputy Inspector, Schools, Gorakhpur, and the Deputy Inspector of Schools, Bijnor and Dehra Dun have been consulted.

Tradition Of Origin Eastern Doms.

The origin of the Dom to the east of the Province is thus told by themselves. In the good old times all people were equally well-to-do and happy. The Brahmans had no property and built no houses for themselves. When Parameswar desired to appear in the world he took the form of a Brahman. Then intending to divide men into castes, he went about begging as a Brahman, wishing to ascertain what occupation each family followed. As he begged for alms no man gave him aught but silver and gold. At last he reached the house of a man who had killed a cow and was preparing to feed on the beef. He begged for alms. and the cow-killer brought from his house a handful of gold coins. Parameswar refused the money and asked for a little barley. the Domin, or woman of the house, went inside and found a place in the courtyard which had been trampled into mud by the feet of the cow in her death struggle, and there a few of barley had suddenly sprouteed up. The woman plucked the grain and offered it to Parameswar, who asked her where she had found it. She told him how the grain had sprouted in her courtyard. Parameswar asked where was the cow which had prepared the ground in which the grain had grown. She replied that it had been killed by her husband. Then Parameswar was wroth and cursed her husband: "Thou and thy posterity shall kill animals and remain beggars for ever." Then the Domin cursed Parameswar in the form of a Brahman---

Jahan Brahman jawe,

Char dhakka khawe,

Ek pichhari, chhattis gantha.

"Wherever the Brahman goes he shall receive four pushes. Thirty-six knots in a single sheet." So ever since Doms are beggars and slayers of animals, and Brahmans are poor and live on alms. This legend, of course, cannot be of any great antiquity, as the feeling of respect for the cow is of comparatively modern origin.

According to the Panjab legend the ancestor of the Doms was a Brahman named Malludant. He was the youngest of the family, and his elder brothers expelled him. One day the calf of their cow died, and they asked Malludant to take away the carcass and bury it. When he did so he was treated as an outcast, and was obliged ever after to make his living by skinning and burying dead animals. This legend, under a slightly different form, is told also in connection with the Bhangis.

Another story, again, makes the Doms the descendants of Raja Ben or Vena, and from him their sub-castes have taken the name Benbansi. The legend of this king suggests that he was some early reformer who was made obnoxious to Brahmans. When he became king he issued a proclamation, "Men must not sacrifice nor give gifts nor present oblations. Who else but myself is the object of sacrifice? I am for ever the lord of offerings." The sages remonstrated respectfully with him, but in vain. They admonished him in sterner terms, and when he persisted in his piety they slew him with blades of the sacred kusa grass. After his death the sages beheld clouds of dust, and on inquiry found that they arose from the bands of men who had taken to plundering because the land was left without a king. As Vena was childless, the sages rubbed his thigh, and from it there came a man "like a charred log, with flat face and extremely short." The sages told him to sit down (nishada). He did so, and hence was called Nishada, from whom sprang the saying, "Nishadas dwelling in the Vindhyan mountains, distinguished by their wicked deeds." It may be noted that Benbans is the title of a modern Rajput sept which is of obvious Kharwar origin. By another account the name is derived by the Doms from their trade in making fans (bena, Sans. vyajana).

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Internal Structure.

As might have been expected in the case of a tribe which is obviously composed of various elements, their internal structure is most intricate. Under the general term Dom there are in these Provinces at least three distinct classes of people. There are, first, the wandering race of houseless thieves and vagrants who infest Bihar and the eastern districts of the North-Western Provinces. Some of these have gradually raised themselves above the degraded status of their vagabond brethren. Some of them have settled down on the outskirts of towns and villages, and have taken to scavengering or industries connected with cane-work and basket-making. Such are the Dharkar and Bansphor or Basor, whom it is more convenient to discuss separately. Next come the Doms of the Himalayan districts, who deny all connection with the eastern branch of the tribe, and have gained a fairly respectable position as husbandmen and artisans. Lastly come the Dom or Dum Mirasi, who are singers and musicians, and are treated of under the head Mirasi.

The Doms Of The Eastern Districts.

Like so many of the lower castes the Eastern Doms profess to have seven endogamous sub-castes. According to the Mirzapur enumeration these are Magahiya; Bansphor; Litta; Domra or Domra or Domahra; Jallad or Hatyara; Dharkar; and Harehanni; which take their name from the famous Raja Harischandra, whose legend is given in connection with the Bhangis. Again, in Banda, we have a list of so-called exogamous sections or gotras inasmuch as they will not give a bride to a section from which in memory they have taken a bride. These sections are Tarkiya; Gepar; Gemar or Gaymar; Pesadeli, Barhel; Hazariya; Usarbarsa; Kundahor; Dharkal or Dharkar; Chamrel; Chureliya; Satchuliha; Samand; Asrent; Mahtama; Nagarband; Dhaunsiya; Birha; Sarkhiya; Baksariya; Gujariya; Lungtaya or Langotiya. Some of these names probably denote some connection with other tribes, as the Chamrel with Chamars, Kaithel with Kayasths, and Gujariya with Gujrat. Others are perhaps occupational or totemistic; but we know at present too little of the origin or metamorphosis of these section names to make any speculations as to their meaning of any value.

From Gorakhpur, again, we have another enumeration which is thus described by Mr. J. Kennedy: "The Doms say that they formerly cultivated and owned the land, but when pressure came the Magahiyas divided into two great sub-divisions--the Magahiyas and the Bansphors. The Magahiyas took to thieving, while the Bansphors were content to weave baskets and cultivate what land they could. These two sub-divisions do not intermarry, and it must be remembered that my notes relate to the thieving class alone, Magahiyas proper, who count themselves the true, original stock. They always describe themselves as subdivided into seven distinct families; but excluding the Bansphors, of whom I have spoken, there are really six: Sawant; Balgai; Chaudhari; Chauhan; Bihari, and Hazari. Most of these names are taken from the Hindus, and as Hazari is a Muhammadan title of honour, this division into families is probably of a comparatively recent date. Chaudhari and Chauhan are evidently also meant as honorific titles, and at the time the division was first made it must have been purely artificial. The families have no recollection of any common ancestor, nor have they any cult in memory of the founder. The Bansphors, I am told, have no such sub-divisions. The recent and artificial origin of the six sub-divisions is, therefore, tolerably certain; they are imitations of Hinduism, and the only use to which they are put is to regulate marriage. Neither Magahiyas nor Bansphors can marry their first cousins by blood, and this was probably the original rule. Besides this no Sawant can marry a Sawant or a Balgai, but any of the six families can intermarry with any other. The wandering gangs of Magahiyas are composed indiscriminately of men belonging to each clan family; but each gang has its own leader and the office is hereditary in the leader's family. An outsider is never selected unless the family stock has failed." At the same time it may be urged that this form of sectional exogamy is probably much more primitive than Mr. Kennedy is disposed to believe. It is, of course, possible that the names of the exogamous sections may have been changed under Hindu or Muhammadan influence, but it seems also certain that this form of exogamy is one of the primitive institutions of the caste.

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The Magahiya Doms take their name from the ancient kingdom of Magadha or South Bihar. Curiously enough the Mirzapur Magahiyas have lost all traditions on any connection with Magadha, and say that their name means "vagrant" from the Hindi mag, Sanskrit marga, "a 1 road." They have been identified with the Maccocalingae of Pliny, [1] and they are found as far south as Madras. [2] In their original state the Magahiyas are vagrants pure and simple, who have not even mats or tents to cover themselves in rainy or cold weather. In this respect they are in a lower grade than nomads like the Sansyas or Haburas. They frequent the jungles, but seem to have no aptitude for hunting or fishing. They live by burglary and theft, while the women prostitute themselves. In dry weather they sleep under trees, and in the rains or chill of winter they slink into outhouses or crouch under a thatch or any other shelter they can find. In their depredations they never use the sabari or "jemmy" used by the ordinary Indian burglar. Their characteristic weapon is the curved knife (banka), with which they are supposed to split bamboo for making baskets, which with begging are their ostensible occupations. But this knife is generally used for making holes beside doorposts (baghli). In cold weather they carry about at night an earthen pot full of hot coals, over which they crouch and warm themselves; and this when closely beset, they fling with great accuracy at their assailants, often causing severe wounds.

Various attempts have been made to reform this branch of the tribe. To quote a note by Mr. D.T. Roberts, prepared for the last Police Commission: "In Gorakhpur almost every scheme possible to think of has been considered over and over again and rejected as hopeless, the prevailing opinion being that nothing short of confinement between four walls would do any good. In 1873, and again in 1880, the question of bringing them under the Criminal Tribes Act was considered, and the conclusion come to in 1880 was that no special measures for the reclamation of this tribe seem likely to be successful, and there was no use proclaiming them under the Act, because they have no means of earning their livelihood honestly, and the only thing to be done was to keep them under unceasing surveillance, and to punish with severity on commission of crime."

In 1884, Mr. Kennedy, the Magistrate of Gorakhpur, again applied himself to the task. Some of the Doms were collected in the city and employed as sweepers, taught brick-making, and made to work on the roads, and others were settled in larger or smaller groups in different villages, and received assignments of land, and up to date this scheme, supported by an annual grant of Rs. 1,500, is being carried on. Some Doms do regular work as sweepers; none of brick-making. No work can be got out of them except under incessant supervision. Their fields are cultivated only when some one is standing over them, and when assistance is rendered by other cultivators.

"Nevertheless, on a comparison of the earlier with the later reports, a certain advance is observable. The Doms no longer skulk in fields and forests. They are all settled in some village or another which they recognise as their home. Doms said that they take kindly enough to living in houses, and will complain, not of ghosts, but of the roof leaking. It is something to have restrained their wandering propensities to this extent, and to have given them some appreciation of a settled and civilised life.'

Eastern Doms:Tribal Traditions.

According to one story, Mahadeva and Parvati invited all the castes to a feast. Supach Bhagat, the ancestor of the tribe, came late; and being very hungry ate the leftovers of the others. Since that time they have degraded, and eat the leftovers of the other people. Another legend connects them with Raja Ramchandra, in whose camp one of their ancestors committed theft; hence the deity cursed them with a life of theiving and depravity.

[1] Mecrindle, Indian Antiquary, VI, 337.

[2] Mnllaly, Notes, 70, sqq.

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A third legend tells that once upon a time the gods held a council where they refreshed themselves with the nectar of the gods. A demon came and stole some of the nectar and was detected by Vishnu, who severed his head from his body; but as the demon had eaten the nectar he had become immortal, the two pieces of his body became the demons, Rahu and Ketu, who periodically devour the moon and cause eclipses. As the Doms, who worship these demons, are able to induce them to release the moon, pious people give alms to this caste at eclipses in order to secure their good offices to release the moon. By another story Ramchandra once blessed Supach Bhagat, and said that if any one were cremated with fire, received from him or any of his descendants he would go straight to heaven. Since then the descendants of Supach supply fire at cremation grounds. Lastly, a story explains the hatred of the Magahiya Doms for Dhobis. Supach Bhagat once put up at the house of a Dhobi who, when he was drunk, fed his guest on the dung of his ass. Supach Bhagat cursed him and his kin for ever, and since that time no Dom will touch an ass or a Dhobi. In the form of the legend, as told by Mr. Risley, Supach Bhagat had a quarrel with a Dhobi who killed and ate his ass. He subsequently cursed the Dhobi. Mr. Risley suggests that the legend may perhaps be a distorted version of some primitive taboo in which Dhobis and donkeys somehow played a part, but it is perhaps equally possible that the story may have been invented to explain why the general Hindu taboo against the Dhobi and his ass is followed by a caste so unscrupulous as the Dom.

The Bansphor Doms.

The Bansphor branch of the Eastern Doms forms the subject of a special article, and they need not be discussed more specially here.

The Litta Doms.

The Litta branch of the Doms are said to derive their name from some word which means "wanderer." They may perhaps be connected with the Doms. These people have no home and live by begging.

The Domra Branch Of The Eastern Doms.

The term Domra or Domahra, which is applied to the whole tribe, is also apparently sometimes used in the more restricted sense as a designation.

The Jallad Or Hatyara Branch Of The Eastern Doms.

The term Jallad, which is an Arabic term for "a public flogger," and Hatyara (sans. hatya, "murder") is more specially applied to those Doms who are employed in cities to kill ownerless dogs and to act as public executioners.

The Dharkar Branch Of The Eastern Doms.

The Dharkar branch of the Eastern Doms has been treated in a separate article.

The Harebanni Branch Of The Eastern Doms.

The Harchanni branch of the Eastern Doms claim their name and descent from the celebrated Raja Harischandra who, as told in connection with the Bhangis, gave away all his wealth in charity and was reduced to become the slave of a Dom. In return for the kindness of his master the Raja converted the whole tribe to his religion, which they followed ever since.

The Tribal Council Of The Eastern Doms.

Writing of the Magahiyas of Gorakhpur Mr. Kennedy says: "All disputes are settled by the panchayat, but the longest term of exclusion from the brotherhood is twelve years. During that period no companionship can be held with the outlaw even in a theft. Outlawry is, however, redeemable by a fine and feast. The abduction of a Domra girl by force and the introduction of foreign women into the camp are a frequent causes of panchayats.

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I am told that murder of any human being or of a cow is also severely punished; but this is about the boundary line of Domra morality with regard to outsiders. Strangers are occasionally adopted by the Magahiyas. Two or three Chamars, a Muhammadan, an Ahir, and a Teli, who had turned Domras, were lately among the inmates of the jail. It is the women who chiefly attract these recruits." Another frequent cause of meetings of the Domra council is interference with the begging beat of one camp. These beats are carefully regulated, and are sometimes given as a dowry at marriage. Any strange Domra who begs or steals in the beat of another is liable to excommunication, and the Domra of that beat will have no hesitation in giving up to the Police a stranger of the tribe who steals within his jurisdiction.

Marriage Rules. Among the Doms of Mirzapur the endogamous sub-castes have exogamous sections, some of which are territorial or titular, and some apparently totemistic; but no Dom can give even an approximately correct list of his sections. If he is asked all he says is, "The Panch knows." This rule of exogamy is reinforced by the prohibition of marriage in the family of the maternal uncle, the father's sister, or their own sisters, as long as there is any memory of relationship, which is usually about three or perhaps four generations. Polygamy is prohibited except the first wife be barren, in which case a man, with the previous sanction of the council, may take a second wife. Bur there seems no restriction in regard to concubinage. Sahay, the famous Dom executioner at Gorakhpur, used to keep four women. In Mirzapur if an unmarried girl is detected in an intrigue with a member of the tribe, her lover has to pay a fine of five rupees and a sheet to her father, and he then takes her over as his recognised wife with the sanction of the council. They practise adult marriage, the usual age for the marriage of a girl being eleven or twelve. The marriage is arranged by the Chharidar or "wandsman," who is the assistant of the Chaudhari or headman. The consent of the parents is said to be necessary, but runaway matches appear not to be uncommon. The bride-price among the settled Doms of Mirzapur is five rupees, five sers of treacle, a sheet five lumps of tobacco, and five packets of betel leaf. The persons of both bride and bridegroom are carefully examined, and any physical defects which may subsequently appear are not sufficient grounds for annulling the marriage. After betrothal if the bride's friend refuse to make her over they are obliged to refund the bride-price, and if the man fail to perform the engagement he is severely punished by the council. Divorce is allowed when habitual adultery is proved to the satisfaction of the council, but, as rule, only the direct evidence of eye-witnesses is considered sufficient. Divorced women can marry again by the lower or Sagai form. Bastard children follow the caste of the tribe, if the union has not been recognised, must pay a fine of two-and-a-half rupees and give a feast of pork and rice to the clansmen. Widows can marry by the Sagai, form and are generally married to widowers. The bridegroom has to make over eight rupees and one hundred cakes (puri) to the father of the woman. He then gives a feast to the clansmen, in the course of which the relatives of the deceased husband come forward and claim the woman. Then the assembled clansmen direct the woman's father to make over the compensation he has received to the relatives of her first husband. When this is done the man takes the woman home, puts red lead on the parting of her hair and palm leaf ornaments (tarki) in her ears. After he does this and feeds the clansmen on rice and pork the marriage is considered valid. The levirate under the usual restrictions is admitted; but there is no fiction that the children of the levir are attributed to the deceased brother. Adoption is, of course, unusual; but if a man adopts, he generally adopts the son of his brother.

In Gorakhpur it appears that the bride-price is always spent on the marriage, and it is alleged that if either party become blind, crippled, or leprous, the marriage may be annulled.

Fastern Doms: Birth Ceremonies.

Among the Doms of Mirzapur the mother is attended by the Chamarin midwife and the ceremonies of purification common to the menial castes are performed. On the twelfth day after birth the hair of the baby is shaved by the senior man in the family.

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When a man's children have died in succession the next baby is sold to someone for a nominal sum; and then is called Pachkauri, Chhakauri, " he that was sold for five or six cowries," or by some other opprobrious epithet. In Gorakhpur the services of the Chamarin midwife are dispensed with on the sixth day. The Barahi or twelfth-day ceremony is done on the tenth day. The mother and child are bathed; her hair is smeared with vermilion, and the relatives are feasted, then a little liquor is sprinkled over the woman, and after that she is considered pure.

Of the Magahiyas of Gorakhpur Mr. Kennedy writes: "The birth of a Domra is always celebrated by a sacrifice to Gandak and Samaiya. Marriages are contracted when the boy is about ten years old. The matter is settled by a go-between. The boy's father pays for the marriage feast and gives presents to the father of the girl; but the Magahiyas deny that there is any idea of purchase. No religious ceremony accompanies the marriage. A panchayat is assembled, a feast held, and the girl henceforth resides with her father-in-law. A man is not restricted in the number of his wives, and concubinage is also permitted, but the concubine is held in somewhat less esteem than the wife. A woman is apparently allowed to leave her husband and transfer herself to another; but in that case she becomes a concubine. The panchayat will not restore a wife who has decamped, but they will give back any property she took away. The frequent residence of the Magahiyas in jail often obliges women to transfer themselves to other husbands for support, and makes polygamy advantageous. Polyandry is unknown.

Marriage Ceremonies: Eastern Doms.

In Mirzapur the marriage is arranged by the sister's husband of the boy's father. The betrothal (barrekhi) is done in the usual way by the interchange of two leaf platters full of liquor, into one of which the boy's father puts a couple of rupees, which he passes on to the representative of the bride. They have the ordinary matmangara ceremony, with the difference that the lucky earth brought from the village claypit is used for constructing a large fireplace with a single opening on which the women of the family cook a mess of rice and pulse, which is placed on a leaf mat in the place where the marriage is performed. This is an offering to the Manes, and the Phrase used is pitr charhana. The usual anointing of bride and bridegroom follows, which is begun by the two fathers, who sprinkle a little turmeric and oil on the marriage to bring it to a successful conclusion. It is a peculiarity of the tribe that both men and women join in the marriage procession. No Brahman is employed. The boy's father repeats the names of his ancestors for five generations, and the father of the bride does the same for her. Then the pair are seated close together on a mat made of leaves. The husband of the sister of the bride's father drops water on her hands and says:-"Bar kanya chiranjiva rahen " -"May the bride and bridegroom live long." This is done five times . The prominent part taken by the sister's husband is possibly a survival of the matriarchate. Then the garments of the pair are knotted together, and they walk round a branch of the cotton tree (semal), planted in the middle of the company, five times. After this the boy puts red lead on the parting of the bride's hair, and this constitutes the binding part of the ceremony. They then go into a retiring room (kohabar) or behind some bushes close by, and there a good deal of coarse merriment goes on--an obvious survival of the habit of immediate consummation of the marriage. Besides this, the respectable form of marriage among the settled Doms, which is known as charhauwa, there is another form called gurawal, where two persons exchange sisters, and a still lower form of the dola type, where the girl is merely taken by her father to the house of her husband and lives with him as his wife after a dinner has been given to the brethren. The temporary connections of women whose husbands are in jail with other men are also fully recognised. In addition to this almost any kind of runaway match is allowed; in fact it would be hard to say what form sexual intercourse is not recognised as a marriage.

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Death Ceremonies: Eastern Doms.

"According to Dr. Wise it is universally believed in Bengal that Doms do not burn or bury their dead, but dismember the corpse at night, like the inhabitants of Tibet, placing the pieces in a pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir." [1] This idea does not seem to prevail in these Provinces. The Doms appear to have no settled usage as regards the disposal of the corpse. Those who are fairly will off cremate the corpse, but unlike Hindus, take with them from the house the fire which is applied to the pyre. The poorer and vagrant Doms either bury, or sometimes cremate in a very rude and perfunctory way, or, when it is more convenient, throw the corpse into running water. Bodies of unmarried children are always thrown into a river or buried. The Magahiya Doms of Gorakhpur often leave the body in the jungle. Among the settled Doms of Mirzapur after a cremation they return to the house of the deceased, light a little oil in the courtyard and warm their feet in the smoke, the object apparently being to bar the return of the ghost. Some of them, once the corpse is burnt, do not take any trouble about the ashes, but leave them where the cremation took place. Others who are more scrupulous collect them on the third day and throw them into a neighbouring stream. Then they fix upon the bank a few blades of grass as a refuge for the wandering spirit, on which a little water is poured daily. Others lay out a little platter of food for the use of the departed during the days of mourning. On the tenth day they assemble at a tank, shave themselves, bathe, and offer three balls (pinda) of flour. At these ceremonies the sister's husband of the chief mourner officiates as priest. This seems to be another survival of the matriarchate. The same rule applies in the Bihar branch of the tribes: "The son of a deceased man's sister or of his female cousin officiates as priest at his funeral and recites appropriate texts (mantra) receiving a fee for his services when the inheritance to be divided. Some Doms, indeed, assured me that the sister's son used formerly to get a share of the property, and that rule had only recently fallen into disuse; but their statements did not seem to be definite enough to carry entire conviction, and I have met with no corroborative evidence bearing on the point. So also in marriage the sister's son or occasionally the sister (snasins) repeats mantras and acts generally as priest. Failing either of these the head of the household officiates. No other indications of an extinct custom of female kinship appear to exist, and the fact that in Western Bengal the eldest son gets an extra share on the division of an inheritance seems to show that kinship by males must have been in force for a very long time past." [2]

Religion Eastern Doms.

The religious practices of the tribe very with the social status of the sub-castes, and there is no standard type of worship because they are not controlled by Brahmans. Of the Magahiya Doms of Gorakhpur Mr. Kennedy writes: "The Magahiya Doms have two special divinities of their own; the chief is Gandak, whose grave is to be found at Karmaini Garhi, two day's journey to the east of Motihari, in Bengal. According to their traditions Gandak was hanged for theft a long time ago, and when dying he promised always to help the Magahiyas in trouble. He is worshipped by the whole tribe and is invoked on all important occasions; but he is pre-eminently the patron god of thefts. A successful theft is always celebrated by a sacrifice and feast in his honour. They also worship Samaiya, a female divinity. She is without any special history, and there is no sharp distinction between her sphere and Gandak's. Her functions apparently relate chiefly to birth and illness, etc. The Magahiyas sacrifice young pigs and wine with sugar and spices to these two deities. Every Magahiya is capable of performing the sacrifice, and the remains are divided among the company, when a vow is made to Samaiya, e.g., on the birth of a child or when it is teething, or in the occasion of an illness a special pig is chosen and devoted to her, and is sacrificed in the fulfilment of the vow. The Magahiyas have neither altars nor idols, nor do they erect any platform (chabutra) for worship. A spot is cleared and plastered in the middle of a field, and the sacrifice is then offered. The Magahiyas naturally believe in ghosts and spirits. When a man dies, my informant told me, he turns into an evil spirit (shaitan). The godlings (deola) also, he added, were innumerable. In most villages of this district there is a special altar for all the local ghosts and deities, which may reside within the village boundaries, and the Magahiyas are always ready to share in the sacrifices of the villagers to them.

[1] Risley, Tribes and Castes, I. 248.

[2] Risley, loc cit.

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They also revere trees and platforms consecrated by Hindus in passing, by pay no further homage. They acknowledge Kali and sometimes sacrifice to her; but the sacrifices do not differ from those of the Hindus. They do not acknowledge Mahadeva or any other divinity, but they share the general Hindu belief in Parameswar, the giver and destroyer of life and the author of good and evil. He created the Magahiyas, they say, and ordered them to be filth and outcasts among the Hindus. They somehow resort to a Brahman for the reading of the Vedas (katha). My informant had given a katha in this way on the last occasion of his release from jail. In these cases the Magahiyas go to the Brahman's house, but I could not find any other trace of special reverence for the Brahmans, nor have they any necessity for them."

In Mirzapur, Doms of the better class worship Bhawani, to whom at the Nauratra of Chait they make an offering of hogs, cakes (puri), gruel (lapsi), and wreaths of flowers. The Bhawani, if appeased, keeps off illness from her votaries. They have a vague idea of an all-powerful deity, Parameswar, who punishes the guilty, and of a hell, but what it is and how sinners are punished they know not. The scavenger Doms, like the Jallad, have a special female deity called Kukarmari, "the killer of dogs," to whom a sacrifice of a young pig and some spirits is offered outside the village as a propitiation for the death of these animals. In the same way when a Dom hangman is tying the rope round the neck of a criminal, he shouts out Dohai Maharani, Dohai Sarkar, Dohai Judge Sahib. "Help O great Queen! Government! Help Mr. Judge!' in order to free himself from any guilt attaching to the death. They worship the collective local gods (deohar) at marriages; but the wandering, vagrant habits of the tribe prevent them possessing any real respect for the village deities. Women have no worship special to themselves. On the last day of the first fortnight of Kuar they make ten lumps (pinda) of flour and throw them into a river, and when they come home they put some cakes and sweetened rice on a leaf-platter, and lay it in a field to propitiate the dead. Some fast on Sunday in the name of the Sun god Suraj Narayan, but these practises prevail only among the more Hinduised Domes in the neighbourhood of towns.

In Gorakhpur, besides the worship described above, they also venerate their Guru who is said to have had his headquarters at Bhojpur, in the Ballia District, and to his shrine they make occasional pilgrimages and make an offering of a pig at least four years old, wine, and flowers. To a goddess named Juthiaya Bhawani, of whose functions they can give no account, they offer a young pig and some red lead, with a lock of their hair, a forehead spangle, and a cake of flour boiled with pulse.

Demonology.

Their demonology is much of the usual type common to the lower castes by whom they are surrounded. They believe that trees are inhabited by evil spirits, and unless they bow down to tress of this kind, their ghost revenge themselves by bringing disease and death upon them. To such malignant ghosts they offer a young pig, which is eaten by the worshippers. In Mirzapur the chief Dom festivals are the Kajari and Phagua or Holi. At the Kajari in the month of Sawan they get drunk, dance, and sing. It is the regular woman's saturnalia, and on this occasion gross sexual license is tolerated. At the Phagua or Holi the same is the case. In Gorakhpur, besides the Holi they observe the Jiutiya on the eighth of the dark half of Kuar, and the Khichari on the day sun enters the sign of Makar. On the Jiutiya the women fast in order to ensure long life to their husbands, and the Khichari they beg boiled rice and pulse from door to door.

The Eastern Doms are particularly afraid of the ghosts of drowned people who are called Burna (burna " to be drowned"). These malignant ghosts drag under the water and drown boys who bathe in tanks and rivers infested by them. [1] Fields are in charge of Mari Masan, the deity which haunts cremation grounds, and Kukarmari, the dog goddess, already mentioned.

[1] On this see Tylor, Primitive Culture, I 109.

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They are ever in dread of the ghosts of the dead, which torment them in dreams if not propitiated with an annual sacrifice. If neglected they appear in their original shapes and demand a sacrifice. Women are tattooed on the arms, wrists, breasts, and cheeks. If a woman not tattooed attempts to enter heaven the gate-keeper of Parameswar pitches her down to the earth again. They have the usual omens of meeting. Many of their women, as in the case of all solitary and uncanny races such as they are, said to practise witchcraft. One way such persons acquire influence over a man is by throwing a cowry shell at him. They believe firmly in the Evil Eye. When children have been overlooked and pine away, the cure is to wave some garlic and pepper pods round the child's head on a Tuesday or Sunday, and then to throw them into the fire. The evil influence is supposed to pass away with the filthy smoke.

Occupations And Social Position Of The Eastern Doms.

The occupation and social position of the Eastern Doms differ much according to the sub- castes. One duty of the ordinary Dom is to supply fire for cremation. Mr. Sherring [1] describes the custom at Benares as follows: "On the arrival of the dead body at the steep stairs (ghat) called the Burning Ghat, leading down from of the streets above to the bed of the River Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the family of the deceased. When the pile is ready for burning, a handful of lighted fire is brought by the Dom, and applied by the one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the only person who can furnish the light for this purpose; and if, from any circumstance, the services of one cannot be obtained, great delay and inconvenience are apt to occur. The Dom exacts his fee for three things, namely, first, for the five logs, secondly, for the bunch of straw, and thirdly, for the light." There is no fixed fee, and as the Dom naturally makes the best of his position and raises his demands according to the position and wealth of his customers, this class of Dom, who is known as Kashiwala or "he of Benares," has a bad reputation for insolence and extortion.

From by all his business and environment the Dom is, of course, regarded by all respectable Hindus with contempt, fear, and abhorrence. No one will touch food or water from his hands. the Magahiya Dom of Gorakhpur will eat anything except the flesh of the monkey, serpent, and lizard. Mr. Kennedy says that they eat most things, including carrion; but certain animals, beasts of prey, cats, and dogs, etc., they will not eat. In Mirzapur I have seen them squabbling over the carcass of a dead horse in an obvious condition of advanced decomposition. They are always on the look out for tiger flesh, but they say that they stew it down more than once, as it is very healthy. They will, as already stated, refuse the leavings of a Dhobi, and to this the more settled Doms of Mirzapur add those of the Hela, Musahar, and Chamar. Doms who have adopted more clean occupations than their vagrant and scavenger brethren, such as basket-making, are naturally becoming more Hinduised and more careful in matters of diet. Those Doms who have settled down, like the Bansphor and the Dharkar, to working in cane, and the Jallad to scavenging and acting as public executioners, are fairly respectable, industrious people. Those who work in cane use a peculiar curved knife known as banki. They make fans (bena), baskets, (dauri), boxes (petara), scales (tarazu), winnowing fans (sup), lampstands (diwat), irrigation baskets (dala), and betel boxes (belhara). These workers in cane are known in cities by the Persian title of Bedbaf [2] (Pers. bed, " cane; " baftan " to weave"). They split the cane into eight strips (tar), with an instrument (taraunthi) like a lemon-slicer. The outside cuttings he sells to barkers for making the mould (sancha) used for applying cakes to the walls of the ovens. The Bedbaf weaves the backs and seats of chairs and makes baskets, etc. The Bansphor makes baskets, but works only in bamboo. He splits the bamboo into strips (patta), which are socked and woven into baskets. The allied people known as Kori Chhapparband make door-screens (chiq, tatti) and thatches (chappar). They work in bamboos and the reed grass knows as sentha (saccharum sara).

[1] Hindu Tribes and Castes, I. 401.

[2] For a good sccount of this industry, see Hoey, Monograph on Tribes 72.

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The Parchhatti and Gudariya make stools (mondha), and the Dharkar fine furniture, fine door-screens, baskets, fans, etc., from bamboo, but he works in bamboo and they in reed.

Of the Gorakhpur Magahiyas Mr. Kennedy writes; "They eat cow's flesh readily, but they will not kill the cow. They also offer milk, like Hindus, to snakes at the Nagpanchami, but have no reverence for tigers or other animals. They express some reverence for the great rivers, Ganga and Narayani, etc. This, I suspect, nearly marks the extent to which they have been Hinduised. The pipal is the only sacred tree, and no Magahiya will pluck its leaves. They hold this superstition so firmly that I suspect it is aboriginal. No reverence is paid to the banyan or any other sacred Hindu tree or plant. They have a special superstition about iron, and will not use it for certain purposes. A Magahiya who commits burglary with an iron instrument will not only be excluded from the brotherhood, but his eyes will some day start out of his head. Their most solemn oath is taken in the following fashion: A piece of ground is cleared and plastered as if for sacrifice. A piece of iron, a dish of water, some leaves of the papal, and a particular kind of Tarai grass with some lighted charcoal are all put separately on the ground. On the top a pice is placed, and the oath is taken over it. An oath by the Dhobi is also particularly binding."

Others oaths of the Eastern Doms are on the alter of the deities they worship, on a pipal leaf, on a knife stuck in the ground, with fingers of the right hand resting on a vessel full of spirits, or with some cow-dung fixed on the horn of a dead cow. They use none of the ordinary forms of salutation, but simply join their hands as a mark of respect.

The Doms Of The Himalayas.

The Doms of Kumaun have been thought to be akin to the aboriginal Rajis; but the latter repudiate the idea and profess the very greatest contempt for the Doms; so that if one of that class enter the Dwelling of a Raji, the place must be purified with water brought from twenty-two different sources. They are supposed to be the original inhabitants of the country, corresponding to the Dhiyar, the ore-smelters of Jammu, the Batal of the Kashmir Valley, the Bem of Ladakh, the Newar of Nepal. In Garhwal they appear to have been enslaved by the 1 immigrant Khasiyas. Under the name of Dum they are described in Jammu [1] as "dark in colour, small in limb, and their countenance is of a much lower type than that of the Dogras generally, though one sees exceptions, due no doubt to a mixture of blood, for, curiously, the separation of them from the daily life of the others does not prevent an occasional intercourse that tends in some degree to assimilate the races." In the Himalayan Districts of these Provinces the Dom has been recognised as a descendant of the Dasyus of the Veda, who are supposed to have held Upper India before the advent of the Naga or Khasa race.

Sub-Castes Of The Himalayan Doms.

The complete Census Returns show as the main sections of the Hill Doms the Auji, Badhai, Bera, Baroda, Chamar, Chunara, Darzi, Das Dhaki, Dhobi, Dholi, Dhunar, Kamar, Koli, Lohar, Mochi, Nath, Pahariya, Sahiya, Tamoli, Tamta, and Teli, most of which are occupational. In Garhwal, according to Mr. Atkinson, [2] they are divided in popular estimation into four classes. To the first belong the Kolis, Tamotas, Lohars, Orhs, and Dharhis. The Kolis weave cloth, keep pigs and fowls, and are agricultural labourers. The Tamotas or Tamtas represent the Thatheras of the plains, and are workers in brass and copper. The Lohars are workers in iron. The Orhs comprise both masons and carpenters. Dharhis, though socially ranked with Doms, do not belong to them, for they properly include only those Khasiyas who have been put out of caste for some offence, and their offspring form a new caste with the addition of the fresh avocation. To the second class belong the Bhuls, Chunyaras, Ruriyas, Agaris, and Pahris. The Bhuls represent the Telis of the plains, but also do field work. They are also called Baryas.

[1] Loc cit, II., 319.

[2] Himalayan Gazetteer, III, 277, sq.

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The Chunyaras are turners, and make wooden vessels and the bottoms of huqqas. The Ruriyas make various kinds of bamboo baskets and sieves. The Agaris are iron smelters, and must be carefully discriminated from the Dravidian Agariyas of Mirzapur. They are Doms attached to the service of the mines by the former Rajas, but are gradually exchanging a very ill-paid and dangerous avocation for that of road-making and other profitable work. The Pahris are village messengers, and are the same as the Chamar village watchmen of the plains. To the third class belong the Mallahs, Daryas, and Chamars. The Mallahs are also called Dhunars, and are for the most part engaged in agriculture. The Daryas are village sorcerers, and conjure away hailstorms and the like, for which service they receive annual dues of grain. The Chamar call themselves Bairsawa, and will never acknowledge the name of Chamar. They sew leather and perform all the usual service duties of the Dom.

The fourth class includes the professional beggars and vagrant musicians of the Hills: the Badi, Hurkiya, Darzi, and Dholi. The Badi is the village musician; in the plains he is considered to be a Nat. He plays on various instruments and sings at festivals. He goes from village to village begging from door to door, and belongs to the Class of sturdy beggars who, if they do not get what they expect, lampoon the people of the house and abuse them. For these reasons they are, to some extent, feared, and are also to maintain themselves at the expense of their neighbours. They also snare fowl and fish. The Hurkiya are so called from the small double drum (huruk, huruka) shaped like an hourglass which he carries. This is an archaic musical instrument like the damaru, which is one Siva's emblems. They never take to agriculture, and wander about with their women, who dance and sing. The Darzi, also called Auji and Suji, live by tailoring, though often solely by agriculture. To the Darzi class belongs the Dholi so called from beating the drum(dholak). This is done by way of incantation to cause sprites and ghosts to enter or leave the person of any one, and so induce that person to give money to the performer. The Darya, Badi, Hurkiya, and Dholi are all Doms, and "are in the hills the recognised priests of the malignant spirits of the hill and glen, whose aid is always sought after before anything serious is undertaken or any difficult task is attempted. It is the Doms who preserve to the present day the pure demonism of the aborigines, while the Khasiyas temper it with the worship of the village deities, the named local divine entities, and furnish from their ranks the priests. Most of the Barhais belong to the Orh division oft he Doms, and the Chunapaz or lime-burners belong to the Agari and Lohar branches of the Doms. Finally there is a class known as Domjogi, who are beggars. The portion of the village site assigned to Doms is in the hills known as Domaura or Domtola, like the Chamrauti where the Chamars of the plains congregate."

Most of these division of the Doms of the hills are thus purely occupational, and, as might have been expected, the enumeration varies. Thus Pandit Juala Dat Joshi writing of the Doms of Kumaun says that Doms usually do not use the term Dom in speaking of themselves, but call themselves Bairsawa, or Tallijati or Baharjati, "outcasts," or they call themselves by their occupation Orh, Lohar, and so on. He enumerates the Kumaun Doms under the heads of Sarki Dotiwala, who work in leather; Tamta, workers in brass; Lohar, workers in iron; Orh and Barele, masons; Tirua, who do tinning and making of horse shoes; Bhul, oilmen; Mochi, workers in leather; Koli, cloth-weavers; Baruri, makers of bamboo baskets, Dhuni, Dhuni Dom, and ordinary Doms who are said to be a mixed race of men, and ordinary Hill Doms who work as ploughmen and day labourers; Dholi, who play on drums at festivals; Hurkiya, who play and sing and prostitute their women; Chamar, who skin animals; Badi, who play on drums and work as tailors. He adds that the reason of the increase of this caste is that they admit outcaste from the superior tribes. The Baura are separate from the Dom, and say that they were originally Jats. According to the same authority, the Orh, Tamta, Lohar, Bare, Bhul, Tirua, Mochi, Dhuni, Koli, and Baruri are exogamous, but as they advance in wealth, they show a tendency to break up into endogamous groups.

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The Chamar, Dholi, Badi, and Hurkiya are endogamous, and will eat kachchi and pakki only from members of their own sub-caste. Their rule of exogamy is simply that the recognised descendants of one common ancestor will not intermarry. Some of them, as they are becoming more Hinduised, have adopted the rule of not intermarrying within five generations on the side of the mother and seven on the side of the father. They can marry as many wives as they please, of whom the youngest and best-looking is regarded as head. He says that the Doms do not prostitute their women before marriage; but that among the Bhotiyas it used to be the habit for young men and girls to meet in a special house in the village, where, after drinking, each youth selected a girl and cohabited with her in perfect freedom. The custom is now disappearing. We have here a good example of that form of promiscuity before marriage, of which Dr. Westermarck has collected numerous instances.

Girls, he goes on to say, are married between the age of eight or ten. When the parties are of that age, their relatives arrange the marriage for them; but when a girl has passed the age of puberty she may choose a husband for herself. There are two recognised forms of marriage, the superior, in which the father of the bride gives her away with a dowry, and the less respectable form in which the relatives of the bridegroom pay one-third of the expenses of the marriage.

They put away a woman when she is attacked with leprosy, becomes a lunatic or loses caste. A divorced woman, provided she has not been divorced on account of disease, may be taken on as a concubine, but she cannot be married again by any of the regular forms. The levirate and widow-marriage are recognised, and the children of a widow regularly married and of a widow rank equally; but the children of a concubine hold a lower rank, as they cannot join in the worship of deceased ancestors. A widow taken over by a man is known as rakhui, and it is said to be the custom of widows not to live with a man unless they have no one to support them.

Domestic Ceremonies: Himalayan Doms.

When a woman comes to the seventh month of pregnancy she is forbidden to cook for her family or to perform the domestic worship. When the child is born, a lump of coarse sugar is distributed to those present; the child is bathed, and red powder (rori) applied to its head and to that of the mother and all the women of the house. For eleven days the male members of the family are considered impure. In the case of the birth of twins, they perform a propitiatory ceremony.

The marriage ceremony is in the form usual among the lower castes. No Brahman officiates, and his place is taken by the sister's son who receives a fee for his services. The binding portion of the ceremony is the feeding of the brethren.

They burn their dead and dispose of the ashes into a neighbouring stream. In this case also the sister's son or the son-in-law of the dead man officiates and is given a loin cloth and some money. The death impurity lasts for eleven days.

Religion Of The Himalayan Doms.

According to Mr. Atkinson, [1] "their montane and non-Brahmanical origin is sufficiently shown by the names of the deities worshipped by them- Ganganathe, Bholanath, Masan Khabish, Goril, Kshetrpal, Saim, Airi Kalbisht or Kaluwa, Chaumu, Badhan, Haru, Latu, Bheliya, the Katyrui Rajas, Runiya, Balchan, Kalchan, Bhausi, Chhurmal. Ganganath is the favourite deity of the Doms and his origin is thus accounted for. The son of Bhabieland, Raja of Doti, quarrelled with his family and became a religious mendicant. In the course of his wanderings he arrived at Adoli, a village in Patti Salam, and there saw and fell in love with the wife of one Krishna Joshi.

[1] Loc cit., II. 319.

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This Joshi was a servant at Almora, and the Jogi disguised himself and took service in the house in which the woman lived. When Krishna heard of the intrigue, he set out for Adoli, and, with the aid of one Jhaparna Lohar, murdered his wife and her lover. Like Bholanath and his companions, the Jogi, his mistress, and the unborn child became goblins and vexed the people so that they built a temple and instituted a regular service in honour of the three sprites. From Adoli the cult Ganganath spread over Kumaun, and at Takuriya Lwali and Narai in his home we have temples in his honour. He is supposedly especially to harass the young and beautiful, if they do not propitiate him. When any one is aggrieved by the wicked or powerful, he goes to Ganganath for aid, who invariably punishes the evil-doer. He sometimes possesses a follower, and through him promises all that they desire to those who offer the following articles: to Ganganath himself a kid, cakes, sweetmeats, beads, a bag and a pair of Jogi's ear rings; to his mistress, a petticoat, a sheet, and a nose ring; and to the child a coat and amulets- altogether forming a fair spoil to the Ghantuwa or astrologer who conducts the ceremonies.

"The current legend regarding the origin of the local deity Bholanath and his consort Barhini forms one of the connecting links between the Brahmanical system of the present day and the universal hierarchy of sprites and goblins common to all mountainous countries. With the better classes Bholanath is recognised as a form of Mahadeva, and Barhini as a form of his Sakti, thus meeting the requirements of the popular worship and the demands of the orthodox school, but it is evident that the idea of deifying mortals is an old one, and in this case merely localised to explain the origin of a class of temples which are acknowledged not to belong to the orthodox forms of Mahadeva. One story tells us how Uday Chand, Raja of Almora, had two queens, each of whom bore him a son. When the children arrived at man's estate, the elder of the two took to evil courses and was disinherited and left Kumaun. The younger in course of time succeeded his father as Gyan Chand, and his administration gave great satisfaction and relief to the people. Gyan Chand had been some years on the throne when his elder brother returned to Almora, and took up his quarters there in the guise of a religious mendicant. In spite of his disguise several recognised the disinherited prince, and conveyed the news of his arrival to his brother Gyan Chand. He became alarmed and gave orders for the assassination of his brother which was carried out by a man of the Bariya or gardener caste. The elder prince and his pregnant mistress were both slain near the temple of Sitala devi. The mistress was the wife of a Brahman, and her connection with the Chand prince was considered something more than adulterous. After death the elder brother became a bhut. A small iron trident is sometimes placed in the corner of a cottage as an emblem of Bholanath, and is usually resorted to when any sudden or unexpected calamity attacks the residents.

"The demon Masan is usually found at burning grounds. He is supposed to be of black colour and hideous appearance. He comes from the remains of a funeral pyre and chases people passing by who sometimes die of fright, others linger for a few days and some even go mad. When a person becomes possossed by Masan, the people invoke the beneficent spirit of the house to come and take possession of some member of the family, and all begin to dance. At length some one works himself into a state of frenzy and commences to torture and belabour the body of the person possessed by Masan, until at length a cure is effected or the patient perishes under this drastic treatment.

"Khabish resembles Masan in his malignant nature and fondness for charnel grounds. He is also met with in dark glens and forests in various shapes. Sometimes he imitates the bellow of a buffalo, or the cry of a goat-herd or neat-hard, and sometimes he grunts like a wild pig. At other times he assumes the guise of a religious mendicant and joins travellers on their way, but his conversation (like that of all the Indian bhuts who speak through their nose) is always unintelligible. Like Masan he often frightens people and sometimes possesses unfortunate travellers who get benighted."

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Goril, Goriya, Gwall or Gol is another delfied mortal of whom the legend is given by Mr. Atkinson. He was beaten out of Grahwal by Sudarsan Sah. The idea that a bhut can be driven out by beatings embodies in two well-known Hindi proverbs-Mar ke age bhut bhagta hai, "A thrashing makes a bhut run;" and Laton ke bhut baton se nahin mante, "Goblins that want kicking won't mind words."

Khetrpal is the same as Bhumiya, the protector of field and homestead, extensively worshipped in the western districts. Saim or Sayam, "the black one" (Sans. shyama) is another form of the same deity. He sometimes possesses people, and his sign is that the hair of the scalp-lock becomes hopelessly entangled.

Kalbisht or Kaluwa is said to have been a shepherd who lived some two hundred years ago. His enemies persuaded his brother-in-law Himmat to drive a peg into the hoof of one of Kalibisht's buffaloes, intending that he should be killed in attempting to extract it, but no harm ensued. Himmat next-attacked him from behind with an axe, and so wounded him on the neck that he died, but not before he had torn the treacherous Himmat limb from limb. He has now become a benevolent sprite, and his name is used by herdsmen as a charm against wild beasts, and oppressed persons resort to his temple for justice against their oppressors.

Chaumu is also a deified mortal and a god of cattle; so is Badhin. On the eleventh day after the birth of a calf his linga is washed first with water and then milk and cakes, rice and milk are offered at his temples. Haru is the deified Haris Chandra Raja of Champawat who built the sacred bathing place at Hardwar. Latu was his brother. The Katyuri Rajas are the deified last independent Rajas of Katyr. Runiya is a malignant bhut who wanders from village to village on coursers formed of huge boulders, and at night especially exercises his noisy steeds. He attacks only females, and should any woman attract his attentions she invariably wastes away, haunted by her ghostly lover and joins him in the spirit land. Balchan, Kalchan, Bhasni, and Chhurmal are malignant bhuts of the same kind.

Religious And Social Customs Of The Himalayan Doms.

To quote again Mr. Atkinson's excellent account of this caste: "Doms do not wear the sacred thread or the bracelet (rakhi) nor do they have caste marks nor wear, as a rule, the top-knot (sikha) and in a rough way they imitate the customs of the better classes, especially those who have made money in their contracts with Government. Their offerings to deceased ancestors (sraddha) when made at all, are performed at the Amawas or last day of the Kanyagat of Kuar. The sister's son younger sister's husband or son-in-law act as Brahmans on the occasion and receive gifts as such. Doms eat the flesh of all animals, use their skins, and eat food from all classes except the Bhangi, Musalman, and Christian. There is no fixed time for marriage. When an elder brother dies the younger takes the widow to wife whether she has children or not; hence the proverb Mal bhir adhari ber, talai chir men onchhi "when the upper walls fall they come in the lower wall." When the elder brother dies, the burden falls upon the younger. The elder brother cannot, however, take to wife the widow of a deceased younger brother, and contracts a stain if even her shadow crosses his path. He transfers her to some other of the brotherhood, but if during the lifetime of her second husband he or she be dissatisfied, another may take her by paying the cost of her marriage. This may be repeated several times."

To this may be added from the notes of Pandit Juala Dat Joshi that their greatest oath is to place the hand on the head of their son; others say: "If I swear falsely may I eat your flesh." They also swear by placing their hands on the grain mortar (okhli), flour mill (chakki) or paper and holding it on the head of a son recite the words which run as follows: "If the land in dispute be mine may I and my children enjoy it, if it be not mine Parameswar prevent me from enjoying it." They believe in the Evil Eye and remove it by waving some mustard over the patient and then burning it near him in a pan.

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They fully believes in the demonical theory of disease, and patients are treated by an exorcisor known as Gannua. They salute one another by the term palagan; Brahmans by the word seva and English and Musalman by salam. Many of them in addition cultivate and some practise a kind of nomadic cultivation by burning down patches of jungle.

Connection Between The Doms And Gypsies.

There seems reason to believe that some at least of the Gypsy tribes of Europe are akin to the Magahiya Doms; and a connection has been traced between their languages. Much speculation has been devoted to the term Romani, the designation of the European gypsies. According to one theory it means Roman or Roumanian. According to another "the word Rom in all the gypsy dialects of Europe has a twofold meaning signifying " man" and "husband" as well as "gypsy." A satisfactory connection has still to be found for it, that connected with Rama, the incarnate Vishnu of the Hindus being discountenanced by the authority of Professor Ascoli of Milan. By a curious and unexplained coincidence the identical word Rom or Rome occurs with the meaning "man" in modern Coptic, and according to Herodotus belonged also to the language of the ancient Egyptians. Although this isolated fact in no way affects the general bearing of the question, it is worth noting as an etymological curiosity. It is not impossible that among the original elements of the Aryan mother speech may have existed a root or or rom, expressive of power, the survival of which we can discern in the Greek rome, 'strength,' the Latin robur, and perhaps in the illustrious name of Rome itself." On the other hand, Dr. Schrader [1] suggests that the word robur in the sense of "oak" is the equivalent of arbor "a tree." At the same time there seems some reason for believing that 2 Romani in the sense of "a gypsy" may be connected with our Indian terms Dom and Domra. [2]

Dom.: - Domra, sometimes called Chandal [3] by outsiders, a Dravidian menial caste of Bengal, Behar, and the North-Western Provinces, regarding whose origin much has been said. Dr. Calwell [4] considers the "Doms and other Chandanlas of Northern India and the Pareiyas and other low tribes of the Peninsula" to be the surviving representatives of an older, ruder, and blacker race, who preceded the Dravidians in India. Some of these were driven by the Dravidian invasion to take refuge in mountain refuges and postilential jungles, while others were reduced to perpetual servitude like the Doms of Kumaon, whom Mr. Atkinson [5] describes as having been for ages the slaves of the Khasiyas- thought less of than the cattle, and, like them, changing hands from master to master. Sir Henry Elliot [6] says they "seem to be one of the aboriginal tribes of India. Tradition fixes their residence to the north of the Gogra, touching the Bhars on the east, in the vicinity of Rohini. several old forts testify to their former importance, and still retain the names of their founders; as, for instance Domdiha and Domangarh [7] Ramgarh and Sahankot on the Rohini are also Dom forts.

[1] Prehistoric Antiquities, 272.

[ 2] Edinburgh Review, 1878,p. 140 ; Grierson, Indian Antiquary, XV. 14, sq. XVI. 35, sqq. Encyclopadia Britannia, 9th edition, article Gypsies : Leland, Academy, 19th June 1875. In the life of Edward Henry Palmer by Walter Besant ( p. 184), Mr. Leland writes-" Several times I interviewed, in his company in London, a native of India who had been a Rom, that is to say, a gypsy. Palmer examined the man long and closely in his native language, that is to say as a shrewd lawyer would examine a man whose assertions he wished to discredit. The result of the interview was that there is, in Palmer's opinion, one distinctive race of gypsies, who call themselves Rom, who speak a language which is identical with any Indian tongue,

though much like Panjabi, but which is identical with Romany. The man assured me subsequently that hewould never have knows from his language that Palmer was not a born Hindu."

[3] See Risley.

[4] Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. 546.

[5] North-Western Provinces Gazetteer. vol. xi, p. 370.

[6] Races of the North-Western Provinces, i, 84.

[7] Buchanan, Eastern India, ii, p. 353, calls this the " Domingar or the castle of the Dom lady." It should be noted that Sir henry Elliot misunderstands Buchanan, who nowhere gives it as his own opinion that the Doms are the same as the Domkatar section of the Babhan caste, though he mentions (ii, 471) without comment a popular tradition to that effect.

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Mr. Carnegy [1] observes that the fort of Domangarh was the stronghold of the Domar, a degenerate clan of Rajputs, and suggests in a note that these Domar or Donwar may themselves have been a family of Doms who had risen to power locally and got themselves enrolled in "the conveniently elastic fraternity of Rajputs." In support of this theory he refers to the case of Ali Baksh Dom, who became Governor of Ramlabad, one of the districts of Oudh, and mentions that it was not uncommon for men of this class to rise to high office under kings by whom they were employed as musicians.

Out of this somewhat profitless discussion there seems to emerge a general consensus of opinion that the Doms belong to one of the races whom, for convenience of expression, we may call the aborigines of India. Their personal appearance bears out this opinion. Mr. Beames describes the Magahiya Doms of Champaran as "small and dark, with long tresses of unkempt hair, and the peculiar glassy eye of the non-Aryans;" [2] and Mr. Sherring remarks that "dark-complexioned, low of stature, and somewhat repulsive in appearance, they are readily distinguishable from all the better castes of Hindus." [3] The type, however, as is the case with most widely-diffused castes, seems to display appreciable variations. In Eastern Bengal, according to Dr. Wise, the Dom's hair is long, black, and coarse, while his complexion is oftener of a brown rather than a black hue; and among the Magahiya Doms whom I have seen in Behar only a small proportion struck me as showing any marked resemblances to the aborigines of Chota Nagpur, who are, I suppose, among the purest specimens of the non-Aryan of India. On the whole, however, the prevalent type of physique and complexion seems to mark the caste as not Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to connect it with any compact aboriginal tribe of the present day. The fact that for centuries past they have been condemned to the most menial duties, and have served as the helots of the entire Hindu community, world of itself be sufficient to break down whatever tribal spirit they may once have possessed, and to obliterate all structural traces of their true origin.

Internal Structure: Endogamy.

The Dom community is a large one, and the intricacy of its internal organization is doubtless due for the most part to the large area over which the caste is distributed. The sub-castes and sections are given in a tabular form in Appendix I. About most of these there is very little to be said. Enquiry into the origin of sub-castes is usually a difficult and unfruitful process, and it is attended with peculiar difficulties in the case of a caste regarded by all Hindus with extreme repulsion, and destitute of the social pride which delights to recall the reasons for minute internal divisions. The Magahiya Doms of Behar have a legend that once upon a time Mahadeva and Parvati invited all the castes to a feast. Supat Bhakat, the ancestor of the Doms, came late, and being very hungry, mixed up and ate the food which the others had left. His behaviour was deemed so scandalous that he and his descendants were straightway degraded and condemned to eat the leavings of all other castes. Even at the present day if a Dom who comes to beg is asked to what caste he belongs, the answer will invariably be "Jhuta-khai," or eater of leavings. This myth is unknown to the Doms of Central and Western Bengal, who trace their origin to a common ancestor called Kalubir, the son of a Chandal woman by her Let [4] husband. From his four sons, Pranbir, Manbir, Bhanbir, and Shanbir, the sub-castes Ankuria, Bisdelia, Bajunia, and Magahiya are said to be descended. The two elder sons, Pranbir and Manbir, it is said, were sent out to gather flowers for a sacrifice. Pranbir, who was lazily inclined, tore the flowers from the tress with a bamboo hook (ankuli) and picked them up as they fell on the ground; while Manbir climbed tress and gathered flowers carefully from branch to branch.

[ 1] Notes on the Races of Avadh ( Oudh),p.24.

[ 2] Races of the North-Western Provinces, p. 85.

[ 3] Hindu Tribes and Castes, i,401. 288

[ 4] Let is a sub-caste of the Bagdis in Murshedabad.

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The flowers brought in by Manbir were accepted, and he received the title of Bisdelia (his, 'twenty,' and dal, 'a branch'), because he had climbed twenty branches in the service of the gods.

The elder brother's offering was rejected as unclean, and he and his descendant were named Ankuria in reference to the hook. On hearing this decision the third brother was greatly pleased, and drummed on his stomach in token of satisfaction. He and his offspring therefore were entitled Bajunia, or musician Doms. The Dhakal Dhesia or Tapaspuria Doms, who remove dead bodies and dig the cross trench which forms the base of the funeral pyre, also claim descent from Kalubir. One of his sons, they say; was sent by Mahadeva to fetch water from the Ganges. At the river bank he found a dead body waiting to be burned, and was tempted by offers of money from the friends of the deceased to dig the necessary trench. On his return to Mahadeva the god cursed him and his descendants to minister to the dead for all time. No special legend is given to account for the name Magahiya, which doubtless originally denoted the Doms of south Behar. The Sai sub-caste owe their name to the circumstance that their women act as midwives in parts of the country where Chamains are not numerous enough to perform this function. The men are day-labourers. The Bansphor or 'bamboo-splitter' sub-caste derive their name from the material out of which they make baskets; while the Chapariya seem to be so called from building the bamboo frame-work by which a roof (chapar) is supported. The Uttariya Doms of South Behar work in sirki, and regard this as an important distinction between themselves and the Magahiya, who in that part of the country till the soil and make mats and baskets of bamboo.

Internal Structure: Exogamy.

The exogamous sections of the caste are very numerous. In Behar they seem to be territorial or titular; while in Bankura the names are totemistic, and the members of particular sections refrain from injuring the animals after which they are called. In Central Bengal traces of totemism may perhaps be found, but the tendency is to borrow the Brahmanical gotras, while in the eastern districts all exogamous groups seem to have disappeared, and marriages are regulated by the more modern system of counting prohibited degrees down to and including the fifth generation in descent from a common ancestor. The Magahiya Doms of Behar affect to observe a very elaborate method of working the rule of exogamy. They lay down that a man may not marry a woman belonging to the same section as his own (1) father, (2) paternal grandmother, (3) paternal great-grandmothers, (4) paternal great-great-grandmothers, (5) mother, (6) maternal grandmother, (7) maternal great-grandmothers. In applying the rule to a particular case, all the sections on both sides are taken into account in the manner described in the article on Bais, so that a marriage would be barred if one of the great-grandmothers of the proposed bride happened to have belonged to the same section as one of the great-great-grandmothers of the proposed bridegroom, even though the parties themselves belonged to different muls. This mode of calculation appears to be confined to Behar; and in Bengal wherever sections exist, the only rule observed is that a man may not marry a woman of the same section as himself. The standard formula for reckoning prohibited degrees is in general use. In Bankura it is ordinarily calculated to three generations in the descending line; but where bhaiadi, or mutual recognition of relationship, has been kept up between two families, the prohibition extends to five generations. The Doms of the 24-Parganas affect to prohibit marriage between sapindas, but this is a palpable imitation of the customs of the higher castes. Members of other castes may be received into the Dom community by paying a fee to the panchayat and giving a feast to the Doms of the neighbourhood. At this feast the proselyte is required to wait upon his new associates and to eat with them. He must also have his head shaved and undergo a sort of baptism with water at the hands of the caste panchayat in token of his adoption of the Dom religion. Instances of men of other castes thus joining themselves to the Doms are very rare, and occur only when a man has been ejected from his own caste for living with a Dom woman. Some say, however, that in these cases the proselyte, though ordinarily spoken of as a Dom, is not admitted to complete equality with the original members of the caste. His children, however, will be Doms of the same sub-caste as their mother.

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Marriage.

In Central Eastern Bengal Doms, following the example of the higher castes, nearly always marry their daughters as infants, and regard it as wrong for a girl over ten years of age to remain unmarried in her fathers house. A small bride-price (pan), varying from Rs. 5 to Rs. 10, is paid to the parents of the girl. In Behar and Western Bengal adult-marriage still holds its ground for those who cannot afford the more fashionable practice, and sexual intercourse before marriage is said to be tolerated. Among the Doms of the Dacca district the marriage service is peculiar. The guests being assembled on a propitious day fixed by a Brahman, the bridegroom's father takes his son on his knee, and, sitting down in the centre of the "Marocha" opposite the bride's father, who is holding his daughter in a similar posture, repeats the names of his ancestors for seven generations, while the bride's father runs over his for three. They their call God to witness the ceremony, and the bridegroom's father addressing the other asks him, "Have you lost your daughter?" The answer being in the affirmative, a similar interrogation and reply from the opposite party terminates the service. The boy-bridegroom then advances, smears the bride's forehead with sindur or red lead- the symbol of married life- and takes her upon his knee, and finally carries her indoors. Like all aboriginal races, Doms are very fond of gaudy colours; the bridal dress consisting of yellow or red garments for the female, and a yellow cloth with a red turban for the male.

In the 24-Parganas a more Hinduised ritual is in vogue. The marriage takes place on a raised earthen platform (bedi), to which a branch of a banian-tree is fixed. An earthen vessel full of Ganges water is placed in the centre. On this vessel the bride and bridegroom lay their hands, one above the other, and the ceremony is completed by exchanging garlands of flowers. The Dom priest, Dharma-Pandit, presides and mutters words which purport to be sacred texts, and the actual marriage service is preceded by offerings to ancestors and the worship of Surya, Ganesa, Durga, Mahadeva, and Anti Kuldevata. Further west again, in the districts of Bankura and Manbhum, the ritual appears to differ little from that already described in the article on the Bagdi caste. There is, however, no marriage with a tree and no symbolic capture of the bride, as in the case of the Bagdis; while in the joining of the hands which precedes sindurdan, the bride presents her right hand if she is given away by a male, and her left if by a female relative. On the night before the wedding the ceremony of adhibas is performed in the houses of both parties by anointing the body with turmeric and oil and tying a thread soaked in this mixture and knotted with a few blades of durva grass on the right wrist of the bridegroom and the left wrist of the bride. The ritual followed in Behar is of the simplest character, consisting mainly of sindurdan, which is often performed in the open air under a tree. The wealthier Doms, however, erect a wedding canopy (marwa), and a generally copy the Hindu ceremony with more or less accuracy of detail.

Polygamy is everywhere permitted, and poverty forms the only restriction on the number of wives a man may have. The standard of living, however, is low, and it is unusual to find a Dom with more than two wives, and most men content themselves with one. A widow may marry again, and in Behar it is deemed right for her to marry her late husband's younger brother; but a widow may marry any one she pleases provided that she does not infringe the prohibited degrees binding on her before her first marriage. The ritual (sanga or sagai) observed at the marriage of a widow consists mainly of sindurdan and the present of a new cloth. A pan is rarely paid, and never exceeds a rupee or two. In Murshedabad there is no sindurdan, and a formal declaration of consent before representatives of the caste is all that is required. Considerable license of divorce is admitted, and in some districts at any rate it can be exercised by either husband or wife; so that a woman, by divesting herself of the iron bracelet given to her at marriage, can rid herself of a husband who ill-treats her or is too poor to maintain her properly. Dom women have a reputation for being rather masterful, and many of them are conspicuous for their powerful physique. It may be by virtue of their characteristics that they have establishes a right very rarely conceded to women in Bengal. A husband, on the other hand, can divorce his wife for infidelity or persistent ill-temper.

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In either case the action of the individual required the confirmation of the panchayat, which however is usually given as a matter of course, and is expressed in Bhagalpur by solemnly pronouncing the pithy monosyllable jao. In North Bhagalpur the husband takes in his hand a bundle of rice straw and cuts it in half before the assemblage as a symbol of separation. Divorced wives may marry again by the same ritual as widows. Their children remain in the charge of their first husband. In Monghyr the second husband must give the panchayat a pig to form the basis of a feast, and if convicted of having seduced the woman away from her first husband must pay the latter Rs. 9 as compensation. A husband, again, who divorces his wife had to pay a fee of 10 annas to the panchayat for their trouble in deciding the case.

Most of the sub-castes seem to have a fairly complete organization for deciding social questions. The system of panchayats is everywhere in full force, and in Behar these are presided over by hereditary headmen, variously called sardar, pradhan, manjhan, marar, gorait, or kabiraj, each of whom bears rule in a definite local jurisdiction, and had under him a chharidar or rod-bearer to call together the panchayat and to see that its orders are carried out.

Religion.

The religion of the Doms varies greatly in different parts of the country, and may be described generally as a chaotic mixture of survivals from the elemental or animistic cults characteristic of the survivals from the elemental observances borrowed in a haphazard fashion from whatever Hindu sect happens to be dominant in a particular locality. The composite and chaotic nature of their belief is due partly to the great ignorance of the caste, but mainly to the fact that as a rule they have no Brahmans, and thus are without any central authority or standard which would tend to mould their religious usages into conformity with a uniform standard. In Behar, for instance, the son of a deceased man's sister or of his female cousin officiates as priest at his funeral and recites appropriate mantras, receiving a fee for his services when the inheritance comes to be divided. Some Doms, indeed, assured me that the sister's son used formerly to get a share of the property, and that this rule had only recently fallen into disuse; but their statements did not seem to be definite enough to carry bearing on the point. So also in marriage the sister's son, or occasionally the sister (sawasin), repeats mantras, and acts generally as priest. Falling either of these, the head of the household officiates. The possible significance of these facts in relation to the early history of the caste need not be elaborated here. No other indications of an extinct custom of female kinship are now traceable, and the fact that in division of an inheritance seems to show that kinship by males must have been in force for a very long time past. In Bengal the sister's son exercises no priestly functions, these being usually discharged by a special class of Dom, known in Bankura as Degharia, and in other districts as Dharma-Pandit. Their office is hereditary, and they wear copper rings on their fingers as a mark of distinction. In Murshedabad, on the other hand, most Doms, with the exception of the Banukia sub-caste and some of the Ankurias, have the services of low Brahmans, who may perhaps be ranked as Barna-Brahmans. The same state of things appears to prevail in the north of Manbhum. In the Santal Parganas barbers minister to the spiritual wants of the caste.

In Bengal.

With such a motley array of amateur and professional priests, it is clearly out of the question to look for any unity of religious organization among the Doms. In Bankura and Western Bengal generally they seem on the whole to lean towards Vaishnavism, but in addition to Radha and Krishna they worship Dharam or Dharma-raj in form of a man with a fish's tail on the last day of Jaishtha with offerings of rice, molasses, plantain, and sugar, the object of which is said to be to obtain the blessing of the sun on the crops of the season. Every year in the month of Baisakh the members of the caste go into the jungle to offer sacrifices of goats, fruits, and sweetmeats to their ancestral deity Kalubir; and at the appointed season they join in the worship of the goddess Bhadu, described in the article on the Bagdi caste. At the time of the Durga Puja, Bajunia Doms worship the drum, which they regard as the symbol of their craft. This usage has clearly been borrowed from the artisan castes among the Hindus.

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In Central Bengal, Kali appears to be their favourite goddess; and in Eastern Bengal many Doms follow the Panth, or path of Supat, Supan, or Sobhana Bhagat, who is there regarded as a guru rather than as the progenitor of the caste. Others again call themselves Haris Chandis, from Raja Haris Chandra, who was so generous that he gave away all his wealth in charity, and was reduced to such straits that he took service with a Dom, who treated him kindly. In return the Raja converted the whole tribe to his religion, which they have faithfully followed ever since. [1]

The principal festival of the Doms in Eastern Bengal is the Sravannia Puja, observed in the month of that name, corresponding to July and August, when a pig is sacrificed and its blood caught in a cup. This cup of blood, along with one of milk and three of spirits are offered to Narayan. Again, on a dark night of Bhadra (August) of tobacco, and a little Indian hemp to Hari Ram, after which swine are slaughtered and a feast celebrated. A curious custom followed by all castes throughout Bengal is associated with the Dom, and may perhaps be a survival from times when that caste was the recognised priests of the elemental deities worshipped by the non-Aryan races. Whenever an eclipse of the sun or moon occurs, every Hindu householder places at his door a few copper coins, which, though now claimed by the Acharji Brahman, were until recently regarded as the exclusive perquisite of the Dom.

In Behar.

Similar confusion prevails in Behar under the regime of the sister's son, only with this difference, that the advance in the direction of Hindusim seems to be on the whole less conspicuous than in Bengal. Mahadeva, Kali, and the river Ganges receive, it is true, sparing and infrequent homage, but the working deities of the caste are Syam Singh, whom some hold to be the deified ancestor of all Doms, Rakat Mala, Ghihal or Gohil, Goraiya, Bandi, Lakeswar, Dihwar, Dak, and other ill-defined and primitive shapes, which have not yet gained admission into the orthodox pantheon. At Deodha, in Darbhanga, Syam Singh has been honoured with a special temple; but usually both he and the other gods mentioned above are represented by lumps of dried clay, set up in a round space smeared with cow-dung inside the house, under a tree or at the village boundary. Before these them, pigs are sacrificed and strong drink offered up at festivals, marriages, and when disease threatens the family or its live-stock. The circle of these godlings, as Mr. Ibbetson has excellently called them, is by no means an exclusive one, and a common custom shows how simply and readily their number may be added to. If a man dies of snake-bite, say the Magahiya Doms of the Gya district, we worship his spirit as a Samperiya, lest he should come back and give us bad dreams; we also worship the snake who bit him, lest the snake-god should serve us in like fashion. Any man therefore conspicuous enough by his doings in life or for the manner of his death to stand a chance of being dreamed of among a tolerably large circle is likely in course of time to take rank as a god. Judging, indeed, from the antecedents of the caste, Syam Singh himself may well have been nothing more than a successful dacoit, whose career on earth in some sudden or tragic fashion, and who lived in the dreams of his brethren long enough to gain a place in their rather disreputable pantheon. Systematic robbery is so far a recognised mode of life among the Magahiya Doms that it has impressed itself on their religion, and a distinct ritual is ordained for observance by those who go forth to commit a burglary.

[ 1] This is the form of the legend current among the Doms of Dacca. It will be observed that the Chandala of the Markandeya Purana has been turned into a Dom, and the pious king into a religious reformer. According to Dr. Wise Haris Chandra is a well-known figure in the popular mythology of Bengal, and it is of him that native tell the following story, strangely like that narrated in the xviiith chapter of the Koran regarding Moses and Joshua. He and his Rani, wandering in the forest, almost starved, caught a fish and boiled it on a wood fire. She took it to the river to wash off the ashes, but on touching the water the fish revived and swam away. At the present day a fish called kalbosa ( Labeo calbasu), of black colour and yellow flesh, is identified with the historical one, and no low-caste Hindu will touch it. In Hindustan the following couplet is quoted concerning a similar disaster which befell the gambler Nala, the moral being the same as that of the English proverb-" Misfortunes never come singly :-

" Raja Nal par bihat pare,

Bhune machhle jal men tire."

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The object of veneration on these occasions is Sansari Mai, whom some hold to be a form of Kali, but who seems rather to be the earth-mother known to most primitive religions. No image, not even the usual lump of clay, is set up to represent the goddess: a circle one span and four fingers in diameter is drawn on the ground and smeared smooth with cowdung. squatting in front of this the worshipper gashes his left arm with the curved Dom knife (katari), and daubs five streaks of blood with his finger in the centre of the circle, praying in a low voice that a dark night may aid his designs; that his booty may be ample; and that he and his gang may escape detection.[1]

"Labra movet metuens andiri: pulchra Laverna,

Da mihi fallere, da justo sanctoque videri,

Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem." [2]

Funeral ceremonies.

According to Dr. Wise it is universally believed in Bengal that Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the corpse at night, like the inhabitants of Tibet, placing the pieces in a pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir. This horrid idea probably originated from the old Hindu law which compelled the Doms to bury their dead at night. The Doms of Dacca say that the dead are cast into a river, while the bodies of the rich or influential are buried. When the funeral is ended each man bathes, and successively touches a piece of iron, a stone, and a lump of dry cowdung, afterwards making offerings of rice and spirits to the manses of the deceased, while the relatives abstain from flesh and fish for nine days. On the tenth day a swine is slaughtered, and it flesh cooked and eaten, after which quantities of raw spirits are drunk until everybody is intoxicated. In Western Bengal and Behar the usual practice is to burn the dead and present offerings to the spirit of the deceased on the eleventh day, or, as some say, on the thirteenth. Burial is occasionally resorted to, but is not common, except in the case of persons who die of cholera or small-pox and children under three years of age. In these cases the body is laid in the grave face downward with the head pointing to the north.

Habits And Customs.

"By all classes of Hindus," says Dr. wise, "the Dom is regarded with both disgust and fear, not only on account of his habits being abhorrent and abominable, but also because he is believed to have no humane or kindly feelings. To those, however, who view him as a human being, the Dom appears as an improvident and dissolute man, addicted to sensuality and intemperance, but often an affectionate husband and indulgent father. As no Hindu can approach a Dom, his peculiar customs are unknown, and are therefore said to be wicked and accursed. A tradition survives among the Dacca Doms, that in the days of the Nawabs their ancestors were brought form Patna for employment as executioners (jallad) and disposers of the dead- hateful duties, which they perform at the present day. On the paid establishment of each magistracy a Dom hangman is borne, who officiates whenever a sentence of death is carried out. On these occasions he is assisted by his relatives, and as the bolt is drawn shouts of 'Dahai Maharani!' or 'Dohai Judge Sahib!' are raised to exonerate them from all blame."

Attend Hindu Funerals.

The peculiar functions which the caste performs at all Hindu funerals may be observed by all visitors to Benares, and are described by Mr. Sherring as follows: "On the arrival of the dead body at the place of cremation, which in Benares is at the base of one of the steep stairs or ghats, called the Burning ghat, leading down from the streets above to the bed of the river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs of wood, which he lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the family of the deceased.

[ 1] The whole of this business was acted before me in the Buxar Central Jail by a number of Magahiya Doms undergoing sentence there. Several of them had their left arms scarred from the shoulder to the wrist by assiduous worship of the tribal Laverna.

[ 2] Horace, Epist. i. 16, 60.

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When the pile is ready for burning, a handful of lighted straw is brought by the Dom, and is taken from him and applied by one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the only person who can furnish the light for the purpose; and if from any circumstance the services of one cannot be obtained, great delay and inconvenieuce are apt to arise. The Dom exacts for his fee three things, namely, first, for the five logs; secondly, for the bunch of straw; and thirdly, for the light." It should be added that the amount of the fee is not fixed, but depends upon the rank and circumstances of the deceased. In Eastern Bengal, according to Dr. Wise, the services of the Dom at the funeral pyre are not now absolutely essential. Of late years, at any rate in Dacca, household servants carry the corpse to the burning ghat, where the pyre constructed by them is lighted by the nearest relative.

Social Status.

The degraded position forced upon all Doms by reason of the functions which some of them perform is on the whole acquiesced to by the entire caste, most of whom, however, follow the comparatively clean occupation of making baskets and mats. Taking food as the test of social 1 status, it will be seen that Doms eat beef [1], pork, horse-flesh, fowls, ducks, field-rats, and the flesh of animals which have died a natural death. All of them, moreover, except the Bansphor and Chapariya sub-castes, will eat the leftovers of men of other castes. To this last point one exception must be noted. No Dom will touch the leavings of a Dhobi,[2] nor will he take water, sweetmeats of any sort. The reason is obscure. Some people say the Dhobi is deemed impure because he washes women's clothes after childbirth; but this fact, though conclusive enough for the average Hindu, would not, I imagine, count for much with a Dom. Moreover, the Doms themselves say nothing of the kind, but tell a very singular story to account for their hatred of the Dhobis. One upon a time, they say, Supat Bhakat, the ancestor of the Doms, was returning tired and hungry a long journey. On his way he met a Dhobi going along with a donkey carrying a bundle of clothes, and asked him for food and drink. The Dhobi would give him nothing and abused him into the bargain, whereupon Supat Bhakat fell upon the Dhobi, drove him away blows, killed his donkey, and cooked and ate it on the spot. After he had eaten, he repented of what he had done, and seeing that it was all the Dhobi's fault declared him and his caste to be accursed for the Doms for ever, so that a Dom should never take food from a Dhobi or eat in his house. The legend may perhaps be a distorted version of the breach of some primitive taboo in which Dhobis and donkeys somehow played a part. Doms will not touch a donkey, but the animal is not regarded by the caste in the light of a totem. In this connection I may mention the curious fact, that the Ankuria and Bisdelia Doms of Birbhum will not hold a horse or kill a dog, nor will they use a dao with a wooden handle, explaining that their ancestors worked with handleless daos, and that they are bound to adhere to the ancient custom. The prejudice against killing a dog seems at first sight to suggest some connexion with the Bauris; but it may equally arise from the fact that one of the duties of scavenging Doms in towns in to kill ownerless dogs.

Occupation.

Doms believe their original profession to be the making of baskets and mats, and even menial and scavenging sub-castes follow these occupation to some extent. About half of the caste are believed to have taken to agriculture, but none of these have risen above the rank of occupancy raiyats, and a large proportion are nomadic cultivators and landless day-labourers. In the south of Manbhum a small number of rent-free tenures, bearing the name sibottar, and supposed to be set apart for the worshiip of the god Siva, are now in the possession of Doms- a fact of which I can suggest no explanation. The Bajunia sub-caste are employed to make highly discordant music at marriages and festivals. His women-folk, however, only perform as musicians at the wedding of their own people, it being considered highly derogatory for them to do so for children.

[ 1] In Murshedabad and Eastern Bengal they profess to abstain from beef and hold themselves superior to Muchis and Bauris for so doing. In Assam buffalo meat is also forbidden.

[ 2] Some Doms say they will not eat the leavings of Dosadhs and Chamars, but this refinement is not general.

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At home the Domni manufactured baskets and rattles for children. A single wandering branch of the Magahiya sub-caste has earned for itself a reputation which has extended to the whole of that group. "The Magahiya Doms of Champaran," says Mr. Beames, "are a race of professional thieves. They extend their operations into the contiguous districts of Nepal. They are rather dainty in their operations, and object to committing burglary by digging through the walls of houses: they always enter a house by the door; and if it is dark, they carry a light. Of course all this is merely done by way of bravado. Magahiyas never live long in one place. They move about constantly, pitching their ragged little reed tents or sirkis outside a village or on a grassy patch by the roadside, like our gipsies, till they have done all the plundering that offers itself in the neighbourhood, when they move off again." The popular belief that all Magahiya Doms are habitual criminals is, however, a mistake. Burglary is followed as a profession only by the wandering members of that sub-caste. The Magahiyas of Gya are peaceable basket-makers and cultivators, who regard thieving with as much horror as their neighbours, and know nothing of the Laverna cult of Sansari Mai, whom they identify with Jagadamba, the smallpox goddess, one of group of seven sisters presiding over various diseases. There seems, indeed, reason to believe that the predatory habits of the gipsy Magahiyas of Champaran are due rather to force of circumstances than to an inborn criminal instinct; and the success of the measures introduced for their reclamation by Mr. E.R. Henry while Magistrate of Champaran affords grounds for the hope that they may in course of time settle down as peaceable cultivators.

Dóm: - The ¸óms are a menial caste [1] belonging to what Sir Herbert Risley calls the Dravidian type. It is not uniform but comprises several variations and sub-castes. Some ¸óms supply fire at cremation or act as executioners; others are scavengers, and some have taken to basket and cane working. The Dóms in the Himalayan districts have gained a fairly respectable position as husbandmen and artisans, while the wandering Magahiyâ ¸óms of Bihar are professional thieves.

The Dóms are numerous in Assam, Bengal, the United Provinces and Kashmir. The following are the figures returned at the Census of 1911:-

Assam 30,412

Bengal 173,991

Bihar and Orissa 241,903

Central Provinces and Berar 9,344

Panjab 79,916

United Provinces 333,781

Kashmir State 52,099

Elsewhere 4,374

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total 925,820

To these may be added the following, shown in the Census under the names of Bansphór and

Basór:-

Central Provinces and Berar 52,947

United Provinces 23,095

Baroda State 9

Central India Agency 52,465

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total 128,516

Giving a grand total for ¸óms under all names of 1,054,336.

[ 1[ Motilal Banarsidass ,Gipsy Languages, In Linguistic Survey Of India,G. A. Grierson, Vol. Xi Page 143-146.

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Name.

The common name of the caste is ¸óm or ¸óm®â, a word of uncertain origin. According to the Brahmavaivartapurâna a ¸ama is the son of a lé†a and a chândâlí, and ¸ama is perhaps the same word as ¸óma. The πómas or πómbas are mentioned in Sanskrit literature as living by singing and music. The form πómba seems to be the oldest one, It occurs in Varâhamihira's B®ihatsamhitâ (lxxvii. 33), which belongs to the sixth century, and several times in Sanskrit works hailing from Kashmir such as the Kathâsaritsâgara of Sómadéva and the Râjatarangin of Kalhana. There cannot be any doubt that these πómbas are identical with the ¸óms, and the name of the caste is accordingly old. The base from which it is derived is perhaps onomatopoeic; compare Sanskrit πam, to sound; πamaru, drum. It is probably not Aryan.

The late Professor Hermann Brockhaus of Leipzig was the first to suggest that the word πóm might be identical with the name róm, which the European Gipsies use to denote themselves.[1] This suggestion has been adopted by Charles G. Leland [ 2] and Sir George Grierson, [ 3] and it may now be considered as established, after we have learnt to know that the Nawar or Zutt, a Gipsy tribe of Palestine, call themselves ¸óm and their language ¸Dómârí. [ 4]

Language.

So far as can be judged from the materials available, the ¸óms do not possess a dialect of their own, but use the speech of their neighbours. The words and phrases given by Abdul Ghafur belong to an argot of the same kind as that used by the Sêís. A similar remark applies to the ¸óm dialect mentioned by Dr. Leitner. Neither his materials nor the sentences published by Abdul Ghafur are, however, sufficient for judging with certainly. According to information collected for the purposes of this Survey a dialect called Dóm®â was spoken in the following districts of Bilhar and Orissa:--

Saran 9,500

Champaran 4,000

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total 13,500

These figures refer to the argot of the Magahiyâ Dóms, who derive their name Magahiyâ from Magah, Magadha, where they assert that their original home was, or from mâg, road. They are notoriously bad characters and do not cultivate or labour if they can help it. Their women only make occasional basket work as a pretence, their part being that of the spy, informer and disposer of stolen property.

These estimates of the number of speakers of ¸ómrâ in Saran are certainly exaggerated. At the Census of 1911 the ¸Dóms of Saran numbered only 8,606, and only a portion of these used the ¸óms of Champaran numbered 7,662, and the estimates for that district are perhaps correct. ¸óms is an argot based on the current Bhójpurí of the districts, with a tissue of Râjasthâní and Hindóstâní.

To the latter belong forms such as the case suffixes, dative kó, genitive kâ, kí, .ké; strays verbal forms such as kihuas-nâ, say; tikuné-sé, from eating; kahâ, said; lagâ, began etc.

[1] See A. F. Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien , Vol. i. Halle, 1844, p. 42 ; Chr. Lassen, Indische. Alterthumskunde, Vol.

i, Second edition, p. 460, note 1; Franz Miklosich, Ueber die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas, viii, p.

57= Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Classe, Vol. xxvii.

Vienna, 1810.

[2] Academy, Vol. vii, 1875, p. 637.

[3] Indian Antiquary, Vol. xv, 1886. p. 15.

[4] See R. A. Stewart Macalister, The Language of the Nawar or Zutt, the Nomad Smiths of Palestine. Gipsy Lore-Society.

Monographs, No. 3. Edinburgh, 1914.

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Of Râjasthâní similarities we may note the termination â in the oblique singular and in the plural of strong masculine bases; thus, kâjwâ-ké du ché†â, two sons a man. Most verbal forms and, generally speaking, the whole grammatical system, however, are Bhójpurí. Compare forms such as khuré, am; karulí, I did; kahlak, said; kahab, shall say; birurab, we shall became; tiguarihé, they will see, and the common base bar, bâr, to be

As in the case of other similar argots there is a certain number of peculiar words. Such are: buu®â, boy; †épar, cloth; kâjwâ, cultivator; ruguar, dead; tigun, eating; †awâ, went; khîrkâ, horse; πaulâ, house; bhóth, chóchkâ, a ¸óm; bhubhur, pig; ghóméyâ, óban, rupee; gém, thief, and so forth. Commonly, however, ordinary Aryan words are used but disguised by means of various changes and additions. Occasionally we find transposition of letters, as in πhanarphul=karanphul, eardrop. More commonly we see that a consonant is prefixed or substituted for the beginning of a word. The gutturals k and kh are used in this way; thus, kóg-âg, fire; kóhath=hâth, hand; kâhathí=hâthí, elephant; khék-ék, one; khakâl=kâl, famine; khi©gîr=sindîr, red lead; khikuar-ké=nikâl-ké, having taken out; khuré, khóré=rahé, am. It will be seen that the original word is sometimes also abbreviated and changed in other ways at the same time.

The palatals ch and chh are most frequently substituted for labials; thus, chap-khaiê=pâp, sin; chagrí, pagrí; ché†â=bé†â, son; chaikun†h=baikun†h, heaven; châchhrí=machhlí, fish; chibantu=ban, forest; chhiruarké=phir, again, etc. Sometimes, however, ch is also used before or instead of other sounds; compare chabhí=kabhí, ever; chayâ=dayâ, compassion; chókarkhaiê=naukar, servant; chiró†í=ró†í, bread. πh is used as a substitute in words such as πhanarphul=karanphul, eardrop; πhasilí=kasailí, betel nut; πhasbin=harlot; πhém=gém, thief; πhasí=kha∆í, goat.

N is used in several words such as nó†, coat; nétkaiê=khét, fields; naui†hê=góe†hâ, cowdung; nutâ=jutâ, shoe; narí=darí, carpet; néwâní=pâní, water; nahar=shahr, town, etc.

Finally we find r in words such as rópí=†ópí, hat; rélí=téií, oilman, and so forth.

In addition to such devices the Magahiyâ ¸óms show a marked predilection for changing their words by means of additions after them. The numerals two and following thus add an ém, and we get dulém, two tidrém, four; pañchém, five; chhalém, six; satém, seven; cha†ém, eight; navém, nine; dasém, ten; bisém, twenty. Gó is also commonly added to numerals; thus, khégó,one; dulémgó, two; salémgó, hundred.

A common addition is also tu; thus, górtu, foot; jaπatu, cold, winter; níraklu=chirâgh, lamp; jawabtu, an answer; dhantu, property; chicharty=bichâr, deliberation; baptu=bâp, father; naléhatu=∆alâ÷, counsel. Compare Sêsí tâ.

Other common additions are khaiê, khaihe in the Saran specimen, and hilâ, hilé in the Champaran texts. Thus, nétkhaiê=khét, field; chumkhaiê=chumâ, kissed; chapkhaiã=pâp, sin; bhaikhaiê, brother; sa©gkhaiê, with; samankhaih§e=sâmné, before; chaskhae=pâs, towards; bapkhailâ=bâp, father; chétkhailâ, sense; nétkhailâ=khét, field; garahilâ=galâ, neck; jutahilâ and nótahilâ=jutâ, shoe; sa©gahilâ, with; sunahilâ, heard; samanahil¡é, before. Note the frequent abbreviation of the vowel of the original word in such cases.

Many different additions are made to verbal bases, and the conjugation of verbs therefore has a very puzzling appearance. If we abstract from stray forms such as khasuaitâ=âtâ, comes; charsaitâ=barsâtâ, it rains; déghluarsé=diyé, gave; tigun-gharuaré, ate, and others, the most characteristic addition is u. This u can be added alone; thus, kih-u-âté, I will say; kar-u-lí, I did; keh-u-lé and kah-u-alak, said; kir-u-wé, to make; kih-uw-és, kih-u-as, kih-u-ésâ, said.

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In other cases it is preceded by an s; thus, di-su, gave; li-su, took; di-su-âtâ, gives; kha-su-âté, coming; kha-su-sitâ, comes (with kh added in front); ki-swu-até, have done; a-su-ân, a-su-âné, a-su-âel, and kha-su-ân, came; chal-so-âel, went; di-suw-é, had given; di-suw-és, gavest; di-suw-as, gave; di-su-alan, gave; di-su-alin, gavest.

A very common addition is uar; thus, char-uar-é, to graze; kah-uar-é, to say; dékh-uar-ké, having seen, cha†-uar (disu), dividing (gave); rah-uar-â, remained; ho-wr-é, it may be; mar-nar-thí, I am dying; kir-nar-té, I did; di-suar-tahâ, gave; chah-uar-tarhâ, he was wishing; rah-uar-†wâ, rah-uar-ªoâel, stayed; rah-uar-al, was; bach-uar-al, was saved; lag-uar-alé, began; tar-uar-lí, I transgressed; rah-uar-alhâ, was; chuchh-uar-alak, asked; mar-uar-alas, has beaten, and so forth; compare Kanjarí wâr, bâr, etc.

The l-suffix of many of these forms is the suffix of the past participle. It also occurs in the present in forms such as bar-u-ala, is; hó-war-al, am, is; khó-war-lí, we are; sul-war-al, sleeps, and so on. Compare Bhóhójpurí.

The preceding remarks only explain the most common ¸óm devices for disguising common words. There are probably numerous similar ones.

Domb: - The name Domb or Dombo [1] is said to be derived from the word dumba, meaning devil, in reference to the thieving propensities of the tribe. The Dombas, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [2] "are a Dravidian caste of weavers and menials, found in the hill tracts of Vizagapatam. This caste appears to be an offshoot of the Dom caste of Bengal, Behar, and the North-Western Provinces. Like the Doms, the Dombas are regarded with disgust, because they eat beef, pork, horse-flesh, rats, and the flesh of animals which have died a natural death, and both are considered to be Chandalas or Pariahs by the Bengalis and the Uriyas. The Dombs weave the cloths and blankets worn by the hill people but, like the Pariahs of the plains, they are also labourers, scavengers, etc. Some of them are extensively engaged in trade, and they have, as a rule, more knowledge of the world than the ryots who despise them. They are great drunkards." In the Census Report of 1871, it was noted that "in many villages, the Doms carry on the occupation of weaving, but, in and around Jaipur, they are employed as horse-keepers, tom-tom beaters, scavengers, and in other menial duties. Notwithstanding their abject position in the social scale, some signs of progress may be detected amongst them. They are assuming the occupation, in many instances, of petty hucksters, eking out a livelihood by taking advantage of the small difference in rates between market and market."

"The Dombs," Mr. F. Fawcett writes, [3] "are an outcast jungle people, who inhabit the forests on the high lands fifty to eighty or a hundred miles from the east coast, about Vizagapatam. Being outcast, they are never allowed to live within a village, but have their own little hamlet adjoining a village proper, inhabited by people of various superior castes. It is fair to say that the Dombs are akin to the Panos of the adjoining Khond country, a Pariah folk who live amongst the Khonds, and used to supply the human victims for the Meriah sacrifices. Indeed, call them Dombas as a sort of alternative title to Panos. The Paidis of the adjoining Savara or Saora country are also, doubtless, kinsmen of the Dombs. [The same man is said to be called Paidi by Telugus, Dombo by the Savaras, and Pano by the Khonds. It is noted in the Census Report, 1881, that the Pano quarters in Khond villages are called Dombo Sai.] In most respects their condition is a very poor one. Though they live in the best part of the Presidency for game, they know absolutely nothing of hunting, and cannot even handle a bow and arrow.

1 See E. Thurston.

2. Madras Census Report, 1891.

3. Man., 1901.

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They have, however, one respectable quality: industry, and are the weavers, traders, and money-lenders of the hills, being very useful as middlemen between the Khonds, Sauras, Gadabas, and other hill people on the one hand, and the traders of the plains on the other. I am informed, on good authority, that there are some Dombs who rise higher than this, but cannot say whether these are, or are not crosses with superior races. Most likely they are, for most of the Dombs are thieves. It was this propensity for thieving, in fact, which had landed some hundreds of them in the jail at Vizagapatam when I visited that place, and gave me an opportunity of recording their measurements.' The averages of the more important of these measurements are as follows:

cm.

Stature 161.9

Cephalic length 18.8

Cephalic breadth 14.3

Cephalic index 75.6

Nasal index 86.5

It is noted by the Missionary Gloyer [1] that the colour of the skin of the Dombs varies from very dark to yellow, and their height from that of an Aryan to the short stature of an aboriginal, and that there is a corresponding variation in facial type.

For the following note on the Dombs, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. They are the weavers, traders, musicians, beggars, and money-lenders of the hills. Some own cattle, and cultivate. The hill people in the interior are entirely dependent on them for their clothing. A few Domb families are generally found in each village. They act as middlemen between the hill people and the Komati traders. Their profits are said to be large, and their children are, in some places, found attending hill schools. As musicians, they play on the drum and pipe. They are the hereditary musicians of the Maharaja of Jeypore. A Domb beggar, when engaged in his professional calling, goes about from door to door, playing on a little pipe. Their supposed powers over devils and witches result in their being consulted when troubles appear. Though the Dombs are regarded as a low and polluting class, they will not eat at the hands of Komatis, Bhondaris, or Ghasis. Some Dombs have become converts to Christianity through missionary influence.

In the Madras Census Report, 1891, the following sections of the Dombs are recorded: Onomia, Odia, Mandiri, Mirgam, and Kohara. The sub-divisions, however, seem to be as follows: Mirigani, Kobbiriya, Odiya, Sodabisiya, Mandiri, and Andiniya. There are also various septs, of which the following have been recorded among the Odiyas:-Bhag (tiger), Balu (bear), Nag (cobra), Hanuman (the monkey god), Kochchipo (tortoise), Bengri (frog), Kukra (dog), Surya (sun), Matsya (fish), and Jaikonda (lizard). It is noted by Mr. Fawcett that "monkeys, frogs, and cobras are taboo, and also the sunari tree (Ochna squarrosa). The big lizards, cobras, frogs, and the crabs which are found in the paddy fields may not be eaten."

When a girl reaches puberty, she remains outside the hut five days, and then bathes at the nearest stream, and is presented with a new cloth. In honour of the event, drink is distributed among her relatives. Girls are usually married after puberty. A man can claim his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage. When a proposal of marriage is to be made, the suitor carries some pots of liquor, usually worth two rupees, to the girl's house, and deposits them in front of it. If her parents consent to the match, they take the pots inside, and drink some of the liquor. After some time has elapsed, more liquor, worth five rupees, is taken to the girl's house. A reduction in the quantity of liquor is made when a man is proposing for the hand of his paternal aunt's daughter, and, on the second occasion, the liquor will only be worth three rupees. A similar reduction is made in the jholla tonka, or bride price.

[1] Jeypore, Breklum, 1901.

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On the wedding day the bridegroom goes, accompanied by his relations, to the bride's home, where, at the auspicious moment fixed by the Desari, his father presents new cloths to him and the bride, which they put on. They stand before the hut, and on each is placed a cloth with a myrabolam (Terminalia) seed, rice, and a few copper coins tied up in it. The bridegroom's right little finger is linked with the left little finger of the bride, and they enter the hut. On the following day, the newly married couple repair to the home of the bridegroom. On the third day, they are bathed in turmeric water, a pig is killed, and a feast is held. On the ninth day, the knots in the cloths, containing the myrabolam, rice, and coins, are untied, and the marriage ceremonies are at an end. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a younger brother usually marries the widow of his elder brother.

It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that "some of the Dombus of the Parvatipur Agency follow many of the customs of the low-country castes, including menarikam (marriage with the maternal uncle's daughter), and say they are the same as the Paidis (or Paidi Malas) of the plains adjoining, with whom they intermarry."

The corpses of the more prosperous Dombs are usually cremated. The wood of the sunari tree and relli (Cassia fistula) may not be used for the pyre. The son or husband of a deceased person has his head, moustache, and armpits shaved on the tenth day.

Domb women, and women of other tribes in the Jeypore Agency tracts, wear silver ear ornaments called nagul, representing a cobra just about to strike with tongue protruded. Similar ornaments of gold, called naga pogulu (cobra-shaped earrings), are worn by women of some Telugu castes in the plains of Vizagapatam.

Concerning the religion of the Dombs, Mr. Fawcett notes that "their chief god- probably an ancestral spirit- is called Kaluga. There is one in each village, in the headman's house. The deity is represented by a pie piece (copper coin), placed in or over a new earthen pot smeared with rice and turmeric powder. During worship, a silk cloth, a new cloth, or a wet cloth may be worn, but one must not dress in leaves. Before the mangoes are eaten, the first-fruits are offered to the moon, at the full moon of the month Chitra."

"When," Gloyer writes, "a house has to be built, the first thing is to select a favourable spot, to which few evil spirits (dumas) resort. At this spot they put, in several places, three grains of rice arranged is such a way that the two lower grains support the upper one. To protect the grains, they pile up stones round them, and the whole is lightly covered with earth. When, after some time, they find on inspection that the upper grain has fallen off, the spot is regarded as unlucky, and must not be used. If the position of the grains remains unchanged, the omen is regarded as auspicious. They drive in the first post, which must have a certain length, say of five, seven, or nine ells, the ell being measured from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow. The post is covered on the top with rice straw, leaves, and shrubs, so that birds may not foul it, which would be regarded as an evil omen. [In Madras, a story is current with reference to the statue of Sir Thomas Munro, that he seized upon all the rice depots, and starved the people to death by selling rice in egg-shells at one shell for a rupee, and, to punish him, the Government erected the statue in an open place, so that the birds of the air might insult him by polluting his face.] In measuring the house, odd numbers play an important part. The number four (pura, or full number), however, forms the proper measurement, whereby they measure the size of the house, according to the pleasure of the builder. But now the Dissary (Desari) decides whether the house shall be built on the Nandi, dua, or tia system, nandi signifying one, dua two, and tia three. this number of ells must be added to the measurement of the house. Supposing that the length of the house is twelve ells, then it will be necessary to add one ell according to the nandi system, so that the length amounts to thirteen ells. The number four can only be used for stables."

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"The Dumas," Gloyer continues, "are represented as souls of the deceased, which roam about without a home, so as to cause to mankind all possible harm. At the birth of a child, the Duma must be invited in a friendly manner to provide the child with a soul, and protect it against evil. For this purpose, a fowl is killed on the ninth day, a bone (deinknochen) detached, and pressed into the hand of the infant. The relations are seated in solemn silence, and utter the formula: 'When grandfather, grandmother, father, or brother comes, throw away the bone, and we will truly believe it.' No sooner does the sprawling and excited infant drop the bone, than the Dumas have arrived, and boisterous glee prevails. The Dumas occasionally give vent to their ghostly sounds, and cause no little consternation among the inhabitants of a house, who hide from fear. Cunning thieves know how to rob the superstitious by employing instruments with a subdued tone (dumpftonende), or by emitting deep sounds from the chest. The yearly sacrifice to a Duma consists of a black fowl and strong brandy. If a member of a family falls ill, an extraordinary sacrifice has to be offered up. The Duma is not regarded only as an evil spirit, but also as a tutelary deity. He protects one against the treacherous attacks of witches. A fishing net, wherein he lives, is prepared for him in the door-hinge, and is placed over the door. The witches must count all the knots of the net before they can enter. Devil worship is closely connected with that of the Duma. The devil's priests, and in rare cases priestesses, effect communion between the people and the Dumas by a sort of possession, by which the spirit enters into them. This condition, which is produced by intoxicating drink and the fumes of burning incense, gives rise to revolting effects. In this state, they are wont to communicate what sacrifices the spirits require. On special occasions, they fall into a frenzied state, in which they cut their flesh with sharp instruments, or pass long, thin iron bars through the tongue and cheeks, during which operation no blood must flow. For this purpose, the instruments are rubbed all over with some blood-congealing material or sap. They also affect sitting on a sacred swing, armed with long iron nails. The devil called Jom Duto, or 'messenger of the going,' is believed to be a one-eyed, limping, black individual, whose hair is twisted into a frightfully long horn, while one foot is very long, and who makes his appearance at the death-bed in order to drag his victim to the realm of torture.'

Children are supposed to be born without souls, and to be afterwards chosen as an abode by the soul of an ancestor. The coming of the ancestor is signalised by the child dropping a chicken bone which has been thrust into its hand, and much rejoicing follows among the assembled relations. [1]

Mr. Paddison tells me that some Dombs are reputed to be able to pour blazing oil over their bodies, without suffering any hurt; and one man is said to have had a miraculous power of hardening his skin, so that any one could have a free shot at him, without hurting him. He further narrates that, at Sujanakota in the Vizagapatam district, the Dombs, notwithstanding frequent warnings, put devils into two successive schoolmasters.

Various tattoo devices, borne by the Dombs examined by Mr. Fawcett, are figured and described by him. "These patterns," he writes," were said to be, one and all, purely ornamental, and not in any way connected with totems, or tribal emblems." Risley, however, [2] regards "four out of the twelve designs as pretty closely related to the religion and mythology of the tribe; two are totems and two have reference to the traditional avocations. Nos. 11 and 12 represent a classical scene in Dom folk-lore, the story of King Haris-Chandra, who was so generous that he gave all he had to the poor and sold himself to a Dom at Benares, who employed him to watch his cremation ground at night. While he was thus engaged, his wife, who had also been sold for charitable purposes, came to burn the body of her son. She had no money to pay her fees, and Haris-Chandra, not knowing her in the darkness, turned her away.

[1] Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district.

[2] Ma.,1902

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Fortunately the sun rose; mutual recognition followed; the victims of promiscuous largesse were at once remarried, and Vishnu intervened to restore the son to life. Tatu No. 11 shows Haris-Chandra watching the burning-ground by moonlight; the wavy line is the Ganges; the dots are the trees on the other side; the strokes on either side of the king are the logs of wood, which he is guarding. In No. 12 we see the sun rising, its first ray marked with a sort of fork, and the meeting of the king and queen."

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that "throughout the Jeypore country proper, the Dombus (and some Ghasis) are by far the most troublesome class. Their favourite crime is cattle-theft for the sake of the skins, but in 1902, a Dombu gang in Naurangpur went on a crime spree in the country, and defied all attempts at capture for some months. The loss of their cattle exasperated the other hill folk to the last degree, and, in 1899, the Naiks (headmen) of sixteen villages in the north of Jeypore Taluk headed an organized attack on the houses of the Dombus, which, in the most deliberate manner, they razed to the ground in some fifteen villages. The Dombus had fortunately got scent of what was coming, and made themselves scarce, and no bloodshed occurred. In the next year, some of the Naiks of the Ramagiri side of Jeypore Taluk sent round a jack branch, a well-recognised form of the fiery cross, summoning villagers other than Dombus to assemble at a fixed time and police. The Agent afterwards discussed the whole question with the chief Naiks of Jeypore and Naurangpur. They had no opinion of the deterrent effects of mere imprisonment on the Dombus. "You fatten them, and send them back," they said, and suggested that a far better plan would be to cut off their right hands. [It is noted, in the Vizagapatam Manual, 1869, that in cases of murder, the Rajah of Jeypore generally had the man's hands, nose, and ears cut off, but, after all that, he seldom escaped the deceased's relatives.] They eventually proposed a plan of checking the cattle-thefts, which is now being followed in much of that country. The Baranaiks, or heads, of groups of villages, were each given brands with distinctive letters and numbers, and required to brand the skins of all animals which had died a natural death or been honestly killed; and the possession by Dombus, skin merchants, or others, of unbranded skins is now considered a suspicious circumstance, the burden of explaining which lies upon the possessor. Unless this, or some other way of checking the Dombus' depredations proves successful, serious danger exists that the rest of the people will take the matter into their own hands and, as the Dombus in the Agency number over 50,000, this would mean real trouble." It is further recorded [1] that the Paidis (Paidi Malas), who often commit dacoities on the roads, "are connected with the Dombus of the Rayagada and Gunupur taluks, who are even worse. These people dacoit houses at night in armed gangs of fifty or more, with their faces blacked to prevent recognition. Terrifying the villagers into staying quiet in their huts, they force their way into the house of some wealthy person (for choice the local Sondi, liquor-seller and sowcar, usually the only man worth looting in an agency village, and a shark who gets little pity from his neighbours when forced to disgorge). tie up the men, rape the women, and go off with everything of value. Their favourite method of extracting information regarding concealed property is to sprinkle the houseowner with boiling oil."

[1] Ibid. Money-lender.