the middle and lower classes wear ornaments of bell-metal,
a mixture of copper and zinc, which are very popular. Some women wear
brass and zinc ornaments, and well-to-do persons have them of silver
or gold.

39. Bathing

Hot water is not used for bathing in Saugor, except by invalids,
but is customary in Betul and other Districts. The bathing-place in
the courtyard is usually a large square stone on which the bather
sits; he has a big circular brass vessel by him called _gangal_,
[76] and from this he takes water either in a cup or with his hands
and throws it over himself, rubbing his body. Where there is a tank
or stream people go to bathe in it, and if there is none the poorer
classes sometimes bathe at the village well. Each man or woman has
two body-or loin-cloths, and they change the cloth whenever they
bathe--going into the water in the one which they have worn from the
previous day, and changing into the other when they come out; long
practice enables them to do this in public without any undue exposure
of the body. A good tank or a river is a great amenity to a village,
especially if it has a _ghat_ or flight of stone steps. Many people
will spend an hour or so here daily, disporting themselves in the
water or on the bank, and wedding and funeral parties are held by it,
owing to the facilities for ceremonial bathing.

40. Food

People who do not cultivate with their own hands have only two
daily meals, one at midday and the other at eight or nine in the
evening. Agriculturists require a third meal in the early morning
before going out to the fields. Wheat and the millets juari and kodon
are the staple foods of the cultivating classes in the northern
Districts, and rice is kept for festivals. The millets are made
into thick _chapatis_ or cakes, their flour not being sufficiently
adhesive for thin ones, and are eaten with the pulses, lentils, arhar,
[77] mung [78] and urad. [79] The pulses are split into half and
boiled in water, and when they get soft, chillies, salt and turmeric
are mixed with them. Pieces of _chapati_ are broken off and dipped
into this mixture. Various vegetables are also eaten. When pulse is
not available the _chapatis_ are simply dipped into buttermilk. If
_chapatis_ cannot be afforded at both meals, _ghorna_ or the flour of
kodon or juar boiled into a paste with water is substituted for them, a
smaller quantity of this being sufficient to allay hunger. Wheat-cakes
are fr