from a tree because it is considered to resemble a
tortoise. But if they can break it immediately on touching the ground
they may partake of the fruit, the assumption being apparently that
it has not had time to become like a tortoise.

2. Admission of outsiders.

Outsiders are not as a rule admitted. But a woman of equal or higher
caste who enters the house of a Bhatra will be recognised as his wife,
and a man of the Panara, or gardener caste, can also become a member of
the community if he lives with a Bhatra woman and eats from her hand.

3. Arrangement of marriages.

In Raipur a girl should be married before puberty, and if no husband
is immediately available, they tie a few flowers into her cloth and
consider this as a marriage. If an unmarried girl becomes pregnant she
is debarred from going through the wedding ceremony, and will simply
go and live with her lover or any other man. Matches are usually
arranged by the parents, but if a daughter is not pleased with the
prospective bridegroom, who may sometimes be a well-to-do man much
older than herself, she occasionally runs away and goes through the
ceremony on her own account with the man of her choice.

If no one has asked her parents for her hand she may similarly select
a husband for herself and make her wishes known, but in that case she
is temporarily put out of caste until the chosen bridegroom signifies
his acquiescence by giving the marriage feast. What happens if he
definitely fails to respond is not stated, but presumably the young
woman tries elsewhere until she finds herself accepted.

4. The Counter of Posts.

The date and hour of the wedding are fixed by an official known as
the Meda Gantia, or Counter of Posts. He is a sort of illiterate
village astrologer, who can foretell the character of the rainfall,
and gives auspicious dates for sowing and harvest. He goes through
some training, and as a test of his capacity is required by his
teacher to tell at a glance the number of posts in an enclosure which
he has not seen before. Having done this correctly he qualifies as
a Meda Gantia. Apparently the Bhatras, being unable at one time to
count themselves, acquired an exaggerated reverence for the faculty
of counting, and thought that if a man could only count far enough
he could reckon into the future; or it might be thought that as he
could count and name future days, he thus obtained power over them,
and could tell what would