hem. The chief _guru_
formerly obtained a large income by the contributions of the Chamars on
his tours, as he received a rupee from each household in the villages
which he visited on tour. He had a deputy, known as Bhandar, in many
villages, who brought the commission of social offences to his notice,
when fines were imposed. He built a house in the village of Bhandar
of the Raipur District, having golden pinnacles, and also owned the
village. But he has been extravagant and become involved in debt, and
both house and village have been foreclosed by his creditor, though
it is believed that a wealthy disciple has repurchased the house for
him. The golden pinnacles were recently stolen. The contributions
have also greatly fallen off.

Formerly an annual fair was held at Bhandar to which all the
Satnamis went and drank the water in which the _guru_ had dipped
his big toe. Each man gave him not less than a rupee and sometimes
as much as fifty rupees. But the fair is no longer held and now the
Satnamis only give the _guru_ a cocoanut when he goes on tour. The
Satnamis also have a fair in Ratanpur, a sacred place of the Hindus,
where they assemble and bathe in a tank of their own, as they are
not allowed to bathe in the Hindu tanks.

5. Social profligacy.

Formerly, when a Satnami Chamar was married, a ceremony called Satlok
took place within three years of the wedding, or after the birth of
the first son, which Mr. Durga Prasad Pande describes as follows:
it was considered to be the initiatory rite of a Satnami, so that
prior to its performance he and his wife were not proper members
of the sect. When the occasion was considered ripe, a committee of
men in the village would propose the holding of the ceremony to the
bridegroom; the elderly members of his family would also exert their
influence upon him, because it was believed that if they died prior to
its performance their disembodied spirits would continue a comfortless
existence about the scene of their mortal habitation, but if afterwards
that they would go straight to heaven. When the rite was to be held
a feast was given, the villagers sitting round a lighted lamp placed
on a water-pot in the centre of the sacred _chauk_ or square made
with lines of wheat-flour; and from evening until midnight they would
sing and dance. In the meantime the newly married wife would be lying
alone in a room in the house. At midnight her husband went in to her
and asked her wh