l may have
died. But a Chamar will not touch the corpse of a pony, camel, cat,
dog, squirrel or monkey, and to remove the bodies of such animals
a Mehtar (sweeper) or a Gond must be requisitioned. In Raipur it is
said that the Chamars will eat only the flesh of four-legged animals,
avoiding presumably birds and fish. When acting as a porter the Chamar
usually carries a load on his head, whereas the Kahar bears it on his
shoulders, and this distinction is proverbial. In Raipur the Chamars
have become retail cattle-dealers and are known as Kochias. They
purchase cattle at the large central markets of Baloda and Bamnidih
and retail them at the small village bazars. It is said that this
trade could only flourish in Chhattisgarh, where the cultivators
are too lazy to go and buy their cattle for themselves. Many Chamars
have emigrated from Chhattisgarh to the Assam tea-gardens, and others
have gone to Calcutta and to the railway workshops at Kharagpur and
Chakardharpur. Many of them work as porters on the railway. It is
probable that their taste for emigration is due to the resentment
felt at their despised position in Chhattisgarh.

16. Social status.

The Chamar ranks at the very bottom of the social scale, and contact
with his person is considered to be a defilement to high-caste
Hindus. He cannot draw water from the common well and usually
lives in a hamlet somewhat removed from the main village. But in
several localities the rule is not so strict, and in Saugor a Chamar
may go into all parts of the house except the cooking and eating
rooms. This is almost necessary when he is so commonly employed
as a farmservant. Here the village barber will shave Chamars and
the washerman will wash their clothes. And the Chamar himself will
not touch the corpse of a horse, a dog or any animal whose feet are
uncloven; and he will not kill a cow though he eats its flesh. It is
stated indeed that a Chamar who once killed a calf accidentally had
to go to the Ganges to purify himself. The crime of cattle-poisoning
is thus rare in Saugor and the other northern Districts, but in the
east of the Provinces it is a common practice of the Chamars. As is
usual with the low castes, many Chamars are in some repute as Gunias or
sorcerers, and in this capacity they are frequently invited to enter
the houses of Hindus to heal persons possessed of evil spirits. When
children fall ill one of them is called in and he waves a branch of
the _nim_ [