The Banjara caste is not closed to outsiders, but the general rule
is to admit only women who have been married to Banjara men. Women
of the lowest and impure castes are excluded, and for some unknown
reason the Patwas [216] and Nunias are bracketed with these. In
Nimar it is stated that formerly Gonds, Korkus and even Balahis [217]
might become Banjaras, but this does not happen now, because the caste
has lost its occupation of carrying goods, and there is therefore no
inducement to enter it. In former times they were much addicted to
kidnapping children--these were whipped up or enticed away whenever an
opportunity presented itself during their expeditions. The children
were first put into the _gonis_ or grain bags of the bullocks and so
carried for a few days, being made over at each halt to the care of
a woman, who would pop the child back into its bag if any stranger
passed by the encampment. The tongues of boys were sometimes slit or
branded with hot gold, this last being the ceremony of initiation into
the caste still used in Nimar. Girls, if they were as old as seven,
were sometimes disfigured for fear of recognition, and for this
purpose the juice of the marking-nut [218] tree would be smeared
on one side of the face, which burned into the skin and entirely
altered the appearance. Such children were known as Jangar. Girls
would be used as concubines and servants of the married wife, and
boys would also be employed as servants. Jangar boys would be married
to Jangar girls, both remaining in their condition of servitude. But
sometimes the more enterprising of them would abscond and settle down
in a village. The rule was that for seven generations the children
of Jangars or slaves continued in that condition, after which they
were recognised as proper Banjaras. The Jangar could not draw in
smoke through the stem of the huqqa when it was passed round in the
assembly, but must take off the stem and inhale from the bowl. The
Jangar also could not eat off the bell-metal plates of his master,
because these were liable to pollution, but must use brass plates. At
one time the Banjaras conducted a regular traffic in female slaves
between Gujarat and Central India, selling in each country the girls
whom they had kidnapped in the other. [219]