rents and does
not rejoin her husband until she attains maturity. The remarriage
of widows is permitted, and in Native States is not less costly to
the bridegroom than the regular ceremony. In Sonpur the suitor must
proceed to the Raja and pay him twenty rupees for his permission,
which is given in the shape of a present of rice and nuts. Similar
sums are paid to the caste-fellows and the parents of the girl, and
the Raja's rice and nuts are then placed on the heads of the couple,
who become man and wife. Divorce may be effected at the instance of the
husband or the wife's parents on the mere ground of incompatibility of
temper. The position of the caste corresponds to that of the Koshtas;
that is, they rank below the good cultivating castes, but above the
menial and servile classes. They eat fowls and the flesh of wild pig,
and drink liquor. A _liaison_ with one of the impure castes is the
only offence entailing permanent expulsion from social intercourse. A
curious rule is that in the case of a woman going wrong with a man of
the caste, the man only is temporarily outcasted and forced to pay a
fine on readmission, while the woman escapes without penalty. They
employ Brahmans for ceremonial purposes. They are considered
proverbially stupid, like the Koris in the northern Districts, but
very laborious. One saying about them is: "The Kewat catches fish
but himself eats crabs, and the Bhulia weaves loin-cloths but himself
wears only a rag"; and another: "A Bhulia who is idle is as useless
as a confectioner's son who eats sweetmeats, or a moneylender's son
with a generous disposition, or a cultivator's son who is extravagant."

Bhunjia

1. Origin and traditions.

_Bhunjia. [377]_--A small Dravidian tribe residing in the
Bindranawagarh and Khariar zamindaris of the Raipur District, and
numbering about 7000 persons. The tribe was not returned outside this
area in 1911, but Sherring mentions them in a list of the hill tribes
of the Jaipur zamindari of Vizagapatam, which touches the extreme
south of Bindranawagarh. The Bhunjias are divided into two branches,
Chaukhutia and Chinda, and the former have the following legend of
their origin. On one occasion a Bhatra Gond named Bachar cast a net
into the Pairi river and brought out a stone. He threw the stone back
into the river and cast his net again, but a second and yet a third
time the stone came out. So he laid the stone on the bank of the
river and went back t