on was born from a
Chandal woman; at that time none were aware of his descent or rank,
and so he was called Bhulia (one who is forgotten). He took the loom
in his hands and became the brother-in-law of the Ganda." The object
here is obviously to relegate the Bhulia to the same impure status
as the Ganda. Again the Bhulias affect the honorific title of Meher,
and another saying addresses them thus: "Why do you call yourself
Meher? You make a hole in the ground and put your legs into it and
are like a cow with foot-and-mouth disease struggling in the mud." The
allusion here is to the habit of the weaver of hollowing out a hole for
his feet as he sits before the loom, while cattle with foot-and-mouth
disease are made to stand in mud to cool and cleanse the feet.

The caste have no subcastes, except that in Kalahandi a degraded
section is recognised who are called Sanpara Bhulias, and with whom
the others refuse to intermarry. These are, there is little reason
to doubt, the progeny of illicit unions. They say that they have two
_gotras_, Nagas from the cobra and Kachhap from the tortoise. But these
have only been adopted for the sake of respectability, and exercise
no influence on marriage, which is regulated by a number of exogamous
groups called _vansa_. The names of the _vansas_ are usually either
derived from villages or are titles or nicknames. Two of them, Bagh
(tiger) and Kimir (crocodile), are totemistic, while two more, Kumhar
(potter) and Dhuba (washerman), are the names of other castes. Examples
of titular names are Bankra (crooked), Ranjujha (warrior), Kodjit
(one who has conquered a score of people) and others. The territorial
names are derived from those of villages where the caste reside at
present. Marriage within the _vansa_ is forbidden, but some of the
_vansas_ have been divided into _bad_ and _san_, or great and small,
and members of these may marry with each other, the subdivision having
been adopted when the original group became so large as to include
persons who were practically not relations. The binding portion of
the wedding ceremony is that the bridegroom should carry the bride
in a basket seven times round the _hom_ or sacrificial fire. If he
cannot do this, the girl's grandfather carries them both. After the
ceremony the pair return to the bridegroom's village, and are made to
sleep on the same bed, some elder woman of the family lying between
them. After a few days the girl goes back to her pa