g tasar silk-worms or getting maggots in a wound. This last is
almost as serious an offence as killing a cow, and, in both cases,
before an offender can be reinstated he must kill a fowl and swallow
a drop or two of its blood with turmeric. Women commonly get the lobe
of the ear torn through the heavy ear-rings which they wear; and in
a squabble another woman will often seize the ear-ring maliciously
in order to tear the ear. A woman injured in this way is put out of
caste for a year in Janjgir. To grow turmeric or garlic is also an
offence against caste, but a man is permitted to do this for his own
use and not for sale. A man who gets leprosy is said to be permanently
expelled from caste. The purification of delinquents is conducted
by members of the Sonwani (gold-water) and Patel (headman) septs,
whose business it is to give the offender water to drink in which
gold has been dipped and to take over the burden of his sins by first
eating food with him. But others say that the Hathi or elephant sept
is the highest, and to its members are delegated these duties. And
in Janjgir again the president of the committee gives the gold-water,
and is hence known as Sonwan; and this office must always be held by
a man of the Bandar or monkey sept.

7. Social customs.

The Bhainas are a comparatively civilised tribe and have largely
adopted Hindu usages. They employ Brahmans to fix auspicious days
for their ceremonies, though not to officiate at them. They live
principally in the open country and are engaged in agriculture, though
very few of them hold land and the bulk are farm-labourers. They now
disclaim any connection with the primitive Baigas, who still prefer
the forests. But their caste mark, a symbol which may be affixed to
documents in place of a signature or used for a brand on cattle, is
a bow, and this shows that they retain the recollection of hunting as
their traditional occupation. Like the Baigas, the tribe have forgotten
their native dialect and now speak bad Hindi. They will eat pork and
rats, and almost anything else they can get, eschewing only beef. But
in their intercourse with other castes they are absurdly strict, and
will take boiled rice only from a Kawar, or from a Brahman if it is
cooked in a brass and not in an earthen vessel, and this only from
a male and not from a female Brahman; while they will accept baked
_chapatis_ and other food from a Gond and a Rawat. But in Sambalpur
they will take t