re distinctive in that
neither men nor women practise tattooing, though in some localities
this rule is not observed by the women. To keep themselves warm at
night they kindle two fires and sleep between them, and this custom
has given rise to the saying, 'Wherever you see a Bhuiya he always has
a fire.' In Bamra the Bhuiyas still practise shifting cultivation,
for which they burn the forest growth from the hillsides and sow
oilseeds in the fresh soil. This method of agriculture is called
locally Khasrathumi. They obtain their lands free from the Raja in
return for acting as luggage porters and coolies. In Bamra they will
not serve as farm-servants or labourers for hire, but elsewhere they
are more docile.

15. Social customs.

A woman divorced for adultery is not again admitted to caste
intercourse. Her parents take her to their village, where she has
to live in a separate hut and earn her own livelihood. If any Bhuiya
steals from a Kol, Ganda or Ghasia he is permanently put out of caste,
while for killing a cow the period of expulsion is twelve years. The
emblem of the Bhuiyas is a sword, in reference to their employment as
soldiers, and this they affix to documents in place of their signature.

Bhulia

_Bhulia, [376] Bholia, Bhoriya, Bholwa, Mihir, Mehar._--A caste of
weavers in the Uriya country. In 1901 the Bhulias numbered 26,000
persons, but with the transfer of Sambalpur and the Uriya States to
Bengal this figure has been reduced to 5000. A curious fact about the
caste is that though solely domiciled in the Uriya territories, many
families belonging to it talk Hindi in their own houses. According to
one of their traditions they immigrated to this part of the country
with the first Chauhan Raja of Patna, and it may be that they are
members of some northern caste who have forgotten their origin and
taken to a fresh calling in the land of their adoption. The Koshtas of
Chhattisgarh have a subcaste called Bhoriya, and possibly the Bhulias
have some connection with these. The caste sometimes call themselves
Devang, and Devang or Devangan is the name of another subcaste of
Koshtis. Various local derivations of the name are current, generally
connecting it with _bhulna_, to forget. The Bhulias occupy a higher
rank than the ordinary weavers, corresponding with that of the Koshtis
elsewhere, and this is to some extent considered to be an unwarranted
pretension. Thus one saying has it: "Formerly a s