can afford it, by Gosains and other religious mendicants, who
thus dwell literally in the odour of sanctity. Muhammadans generally
patronise the shades of green or purple, the latter being often used
as a lining for white coats. Fakirs or Muhammadan beggars wear light
green. Marwari Banias and others from Rajputana like the light yellow,
pink or orange shades. A green or black head-cloth is with them a
sign of mourning. Cloths dyed in yellow or scarlet are bought by
Brahmans and other castes of Hindus for their marriages. Blue is not
a lucky colour among the Hindus and is considered as on a level with
black. It may be worn on ordinary occasions, but not at festivals
or at auspicious periods. Muhammadans rather affect black and do not
consider it an unlucky colour. I have seen a Rangrez dye a piece of
cloth in about twenty colours in the course of two or three hours,
but several of these dyes are fugitive and will not stand washing. The
trade of the Rangrez is being undermined by the competition of cheap
chemical dyes imported from Germany and sold in the form of powders;
the process of dyeing with these is absolutely simple and can be
carried out by any one. They are far cheaper than safflower, and this
agent has consequently been almost driven from the market. People buy
a little dyeing powder from the bazar and dye their own cloths. But
men will only wear cloths dyed in this manner, and known as _katcha
kapra_, on their heads and not on their bodies; women sometimes wear
them also on their bodies. The decay in the indigenous art of dyeing
must be a matter for regret.

Rautia

1. Origin of the tribe

_Rautia._ [595]--A cultivating caste of the Chota Nagpur plateau. In
1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all
of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sarguja. These states
lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and hence no regular
inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is
mainly taken from the account of the caste in Sir H. Risley's _Tribes
and Castes of Bengal_. He describes the caste as, "refined in features
and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men
hold estates on quit-rent from the Maharaja of Chota Nagpur, and the
bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and often paying
only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment." These favourable
tenures may probably be explained by the fact that