aily.

4. 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 from smallpox, leprosy, cholera and snake-bite are also
buried. At the pyre the widow breaks her bangles and throws her glass
beads on to her husband's body. On returning from the burning _ghat_
the funeral party drink liquor. Some ganja, 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 Brahman for the purpose. On this day the child must not see a lamp,
as it is feared that if he should do so he will afterwards have a
squint. Only one name is given as a rule, but subsequently when the
child comes to be married, if the Brahman 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 employ Brahmans 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, Phulmali or a Sunar, 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 carcase of
a dog or cat, and 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.

5. 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 waste land where grazing is available. Sheep are
kept in 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 b