is her special vocation. She also carries with her a bundle of herbs
and other real or pretended charms against sickness of body or mind;
and she is much sought after by village maidens for the sake of
the philtre with which she restores to them their estranged lovers;
while she foretells the date when absent friends will return and the
sex of unborn children. They practise cupping with buffalo horns,
pretend to extract worms from decayed teeth and are commonly employed
as tattooers. At home the Beria woman makes mats of palm-leaves,
while her lord alone cooks.... Beria women are even more circumspect
than European gipsies. If a wife does not return before the jackal's
cry is heard in the evening, she is subject to severe punishment. It
is said that a _faux pas_ among her own kindred is not considered
reprehensible; but it is certain that no Berini has ever been known to
be at fault with any one not of her own caste." This last statement
is not a little astonishing, inasmuch as in Central India and in
Bundelkhand Berni is an equivalent term for a prostitute. A similar
diversity of conjugal morality has been noticed between the Bagris
of northern India and the Vaghris of Gujarat. [259]

2. Criminal tendencies in the Central Provinces.

In other respects also the Berias of Bengal appear to be more
respectable than the remainder of the caste, obtaining their livelihood
by means which, if disreputable, are not actually dishonest; while
in Central India the women Berias are prostitutes and the men
house-breakers and thieves. These latter are so closely connected
with the Sansias that the account of that caste is also applicable
to the Berias. In Jubbulpore, Mr. Gayer states, the caste are expert
house-breakers, bold and daring, and sometimes armed with swords and
matchlocks. They sew up stolen property in their bed-quilts and secrete
it in the hollow legs of their sleeping-cots, and the women habitually
conceal jewels and even coins in the natural passages of the body, in
which they make special _saos_ or receptacles by practice. The Beria
women go about begging, and often break open the doors of unoccupied
houses in the daytime and steal anything they can find. [260] Both
Sansia and Beria women wear a _laong_ or clove in the left nostril.

3. Social customs.

As already stated, the women are professional prostitutes, but these
do not marry, and on arrival at maturity they choose the life which
they prefer.