to some
extent a distinctive group. They have seven _gotras_--Chicharia,
Damaria, Dhalbalki, Purbia, Dhondabalki, Karimki and Kalasia. They
worship two Birs or spirits, Halaila Bir and Sheikh Saddu, to whom
they sacrifice fowls in the months of Bhadon (August) and Baisakh
(April). Hindus of any caste are freely admitted into their community,
and they can marry Hindu girls.

3. Social customs of the Nats. Their low status

Generally the customs of the Nats show them to be the dregs of the
population. There is no offence which entails permanent expulsion from
caste. They will eat any kind of food including snakes, crocodiles
and rats, and also take food from the hands of any caste, even it
is said from sweepers. It is not reported that they prostitute their
women, but there is little doubt that this is the case; in the Punjab
[345] when a Nat woman marries, the first child is either given to
the grandmother as compensation for the loss of the mother's gains
as a prostitute, or is redeemed by a payment of Rs. 30. Among the
Chhattisgarhi Dang-Charhas a bride-price of Rs. 40 is paid, of which
the girl's father only keeps ten, and the remaining sum of Rs. 30
is expended on a feast to the caste. Some of the Nats have taken to
cultivation and become much more respectable, eschewing the flesh
of unclean animals. Another group of the caste keep trained dogs
and hunt the wild pig with spears like the Kolhatis of Berar. The
villagers readily pay for their services in order to get the pig
destroyed, and they sell the flesh to the Gonds and lower castes of
Hindus. Others hunt jackals with dogs in the same manner. They eat
the flesh of the jackals and dispose of any surplus to the Gonds, who
also eat it. The Nats worship Devi and also Hanuman, the monkey god,
on account of the acrobatic powers of monkeys. But in Bombay they say
that their favourite and only living gods are their bread-winners and
averters of hunger, the drum, the rope and the balancing-pole. [346]

4. Acrobatic performances

The tight-rope is stretched between two pairs of bamboos, each pair
being fixed obliquely in the ground and crossing each other at the top
so as to form a socket over which the rope passes. The ends of the rope
are taken over the crossed bamboos and firmly secured to the ground by
heavy pegs. The performer takes another balancing-pole in his hands
and walks along the rope between the poles which are about 12 feet
high. Another man