azan,
and it is said that the dread of loss operates powerfully upon a
class of men who are particularly penny-wise. The money collected
thus is transmitted by the Ujjain Mullah to his chief at Surat,
who devotes it to religious purposes such as repairing or building
mosques, assisting the needy of his subjects and the like. Several
other offences have the same characteristic punishment, such as
fornication, drunkenness, etc. But the cunning Bohras elude many of the
fines and daily indulge in practices not sanctioned by their creed;
thus in their shops pictures and figures may be purchased though it
is against the commandments to sell the likeness of any living thing."

It has been seen that when a Bohra is buried a prayer for pity on his
soul and body is laid in the dead man's hands, of which Mr. Faridi
gives the text. But other Muhammadans tell a story to the effect that
the head Mullah writes a letter to the archangel Gabriel in which he
is instructed to supply a stream of honey, a stream of milk, water
and some fruit trees, a golden building and a number of houris, the
extent of the order depending on the amount of money which has been
paid to the Mullah by the departed in his lifetime; and this letter
is placed beneath the dead man's head in the grave, the Bohras having
no coffins. The Bohras indignantly repudiate any such version of the
letter, and no doubt if the custom ever existed it has died out.

6. Occupation.

The Bohras, Captain Forsyth remarks, though bigoted religionists,
are certainly the most civilised and enterprising and perhaps also
the most industrious class in the Nimar District. They deal generally
in hardware, piece-goods and drugs, and are very keen traders. There
is a proverb, "He who is sharper than a Bohra must be mad, and he
who is fairer than a Khatri must be a leper." Some of them are only
pedlars and hawkers, and in past times their position seems to have
been lower than at present. An old account says: [394] "The Bohras are
an inferior set of travelling merchants. The inside of a Bohra's box
is like that of an English country shop; spelling-books, prayer-books,
lavender-water, soap, tapes, scissors, knives, needles and thread make
but a small part of the variety." And again: "In Bombay the Bohras go
about the town as the dirty Jews do in London early and late, carrying
a bag and inviting by the same nasal tone servants and others to fill
it with old clothes, empty bottles, scra