tions to them. Though not impure, the caste occupy a
low social position, and are said to prostitute their married women
and tolerate sexual licence on the part of unmarried girls. Mr. Kitts
[482] describes them as "Wandering mendicants, sometimes suspected
of associating with Kaikaris for purposes of crime; but they seem
nevertheless to be a comparatively harmless people. They travel about
in little huts like those used by the Waddars; the men occasionally
sell buffaloes and milk; the women beg, singing and accompanying
themselves on the _thali_. The old men also beg, carrying a flag in
their hand, and shouting the name of their god, Hari Vithal (from
which they derive their name of Hardas). They are fond of spirits,
and, when drunk, become pot-valiant and troublesome." The _thali_
or plate on which their women play is also known as _sarthada_, and
consists of a small brass dish coated with wax in the centre; this is
held on the thigh and a pointed stick is moved in a circle so as to
produce a droning sound. The men sometimes paint their own pictures,
and in Bombay they have a caste rule that every Chitrakathi must have
in his house a complete set of sacred pictures; this usually includes
forty representations of Rama's life, thirty-five of that of the sons
of Arjun, forty of the Pandavas, forty of Sita and Rawan, and forty
of Harishchandra. The men also have sets of puppets representing the
above and other deities, and enact scenes with them like a Punch and
Judy show, sometimes aided by ventriloquism.

Cutchi

1. General notice.

_Cutchi_ or _Meman, Kachhi, Muamin._--A class of Muhammadan merchants
who come every year from Gujarat and Cutch to trade in the towns of
the Central Provinces, where they reside for eight months, returning to
their houses during the four months of the rainy season. In 1911 they
numbered about 2000 persons, of whom five-sixths were men, this fact
indicating the temporary nature of their settlements. Nevertheless a
large proportion of the trade of the Province is in their hands. The
caste is fully and excellently described by Khan Bahadur Fazalullah
Lutfullah Faridi, Assistant Collector of Customs, Bombay, in the
_Bombay Gazetteer_. [483] He remarks of them: "As shopkeepers and
miscellaneous dealers Cutchis are considered to be the most successful
of Muhammadans. They owe their success in commerce to their freedom
from display and their close and personal attention to and k