circular net weighted with pieces of iron
is let down over the stone. Then the upper end is drawn tight and
the fishermen put their hands inside and seize the little fish. The
Dhimar is also regularly employed as a worker on ferries. His primitive
boat made from the hollowed trunk of a tree and sometimes lashed in
couples for greater stability may still be seen on all rivers. He makes
his own fishing-nets, knitting them on a stick at his leisure while
he is walking along or sitting down to smoke and talk. He worships
his fishing-nets at the Diwali festival, and his reverence for the
knitted thread is such that he will not touch or wear a shoe made of
thread, because he thinks that the sacred article is debased by being
sewn into leather. When engaged in road-work the Dhimars have unsewn
sandals secured to the feet with strips of leather. It is a special
degradation to a Dhimar to be struck with a shoe. He has a monopoly
of growing _singara_ [544] or water-nuts in tanks. The fruit of this
plant has a taste somewhat between a cocoanut and a potato, with a
flavour of soap. It can be taken raw and is therefore a favourite
comestible for fast days when cooked food is forbidden. It is also
sold at railway stations and the fresh fruit is prescribed by village
doctors as easy of digestion. The Dhimar grows melons, cucumbers and
other vegetables on the sandy stretches along the banks of streams,
but at agriculture proper he does not excel.

9. Water-carrier.

The Dhimar's connection with water has led to his becoming the
water-carrier for Hindus, or that section of the community which
can afford to employ one. This is more especially the case in the
Hindustani Districts where women are frequently secluded and therefore
cannot draw water for the household, while in the Maratha Districts
where the women go to the well no water-bearer is required. In this
capacity the Dhimar is usually the personal servant of the village
proprietor, but in large villages every house has a _ghinochi_, either
an earthen platform or wooden stand just outside the house, on which
four or five earthen water-pots are kept. These the Dhimar fills up
morning and evening and receives two or three annas or pence a month
for doing so. He also brings water for Government servants when they
come to the village, and cleans their cooking-vessels and prepares
the hearth with fresh cowdung and water in order to cleanse it.

If he cleans the malguzar's vess