s. A Pardhi has also
theoretically a care for the preservation of game. When he has caught
a number of birds in his trap, he will let a pair of them loose so
that they may go on breeding. Women are not permitted to take any part
in the work of hunting, but are confined strictly to their household
duties. A woman who kicks her husband's stick is fined Rs. 2-8. The
butt end of the stick is employed for mixing vegetables and other
purposes, but the meaning of the rule is not clear unless one of its
uses is for the enforcement of conjugal discipline. A Pardhi may not
swear by a dog, a cat or a squirrel. Their most solemn oath is in the
name of their deity Guraiya Deo, and it is believed that any one who
falsely takes this oath will become a leper. The Phans Pardhis may
not travel in a railway train, and some of them are forbidden even
to use a cart or other conveyance.

5. Dress, food and social customs

In dress and appearance the Pardhis are disreputable and dirty. Their
features are dark and their hair matted and unkempt. They never wear
shoes and say that they are protected by a special promise of the
goddess Devi to their first ancestor that no insect or reptile in
the forests should injure them. The truth is, no doubt, that shoes
would make it impossible for them to approach their game without
disturbing it, and from long practice the soles of their feet become
impervious to thorns and minor injuries. Similarly the Langoti Pardhis
are so called because they wear only a narrow strip of cloth round
the loins, the reason probably being that a long one would impede
them by flapping and catching in the brushwood. But the explanation
which they themselves give, [409] a somewhat curious one in view of
their appearance, is that an ordinary _dhoti_ or loin-cloth if worn
might become soiled and therefore unlucky. Their women do not have
their noses pierced and never wear spangles or other marks on the
forehead. The Pardhis still obtain fire by igniting a piece of cotton
with flint and iron. Mr. Sewell notes that their women eat at the same
time as the men, instead of after them as among most Hindus. They
explain this custom by saying that on one occasion a woman tried
to poison her husband and it was therefore adopted as a precaution
against similar attempts; but no doubt it has always prevailed, and
the more orthodox practice would be almost incompatible with their
gipsy life. Similar reasons of convenience account for