466] tree over the child and taking ashes in his hand
blows them at it; he is also consulted for hysterical women. When
a Chamar has had something stolen and wishes to detect the thief,
he takes the wooden-handled needle used for stitching leather and
sticks the spike into the sole of a shoe. Then two persons standing
in the relation of maternal uncle and nephew hold the needle and shoe
up by placing their forefingers under the wooden handle. The names
of all suspected persons are pronounced, and he at whose name the
shoe turns on the needle is taken to be the thief.

The caste do not employ Brahmans for their ceremonies, but consult
them for the selection of auspicious days, as this business can be
performed by the Brahman at home and he need not enter the Chamar's
house. But poor and despised as the Chamars are they have a pride of
their own. When the Dohar and Maratha Chamars sell shoes to a Mahar
they will only allow him to try on one of them and not both, and this,
too, he must do in a sitting posture, as an indication of humility. The
Harale or Maratha Chamars of Berar [467] do not eat beef nor work with
untanned leather, and they will not work for the lowest castes, as
Mahars, Mangs, Basors and Kolis. If one of these buys a pair of shoes
from the Chamar the seller asks no indiscreet questions; but he will
not mend the pair as he would for a man of higher caste. The Satnamis
of Chhattisgarh have openly revolted against the degraded position to
which they are relegated by Hinduism and are at permanent feud with
the Hindus; some of them have even adopted the sacred thread. But this
interesting movement is separately discussed in the article on Satnami.

17. Character.

In Chhattisgarh the Chamars are the most criminal class of the
population, and have made a regular practice of poisoning cattle with
arsenic in order to obtain the hides and flesh. They either mix the
poison with mahua flowers strewn on the grazing-ground, or make it
into a ball with butter and insert it into the anus of the animal when
the herdsman is absent. They also commit cattle-theft and frequently
appear at the whipping-post before the court-house. The estimation in
which they are held by their neighbours is reflected in the proverb,
'Hemp, rice and a Chamar; the more they are pounded the better they
are.' "The caste," Mr. Trench writes, "are illiterate to a man,
and their intellectual development is reflected in their style of
living.