The Beldars of Saugor say that their ancestors were engaged in
refining salt from earth. A divine saint named Nona Rishi (_non_,
salt) came down on earth, and while cooking his food mixed some
saline soil with it. The bread tasted much better in consequence, and
he made the earth into a ball or _goli_ and taught his followers to
extract the salt from it, whence their descendants are known as Goli
Beldars. The customs of these Beldars are of the ordinary low-caste
type. The wedding procession is accompanied by drums, fireworks and,
if means permit, a nautch-girl. If a man puts away his wife without
adequate cause the caste _panchayat_ may compel him to support her
so long as she remains of good conduct. The party seeking a divorce,
whether husband or wife, has to pay Rs. 7 to the caste committee
and the other partner Rs. 3, irrespective of where the blame rests,
and each remains out of caste until he or she pays.
These Beldars will not take food from any caste but their own, and will
not take water from a Brahman, though they will accept it from Kurmis,
Gujars and similar castes. Sir H. Risley notes that their women always
remove earth in baskets on the head. "The Beldars regard this mode of
carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account
transport it in baskets slung from the shoulders. They work very
hard when paid by the piece, and are notorious for their skill in
manipulating the pillars (_sakhi_, witness) left to mark work done,
so as to exaggerate the measurement. On one occasion while working
for me on a large lake at Govindpur, in the north of the Manbhum
District, a number of Beldars transplanted an entire pillar during
the night and claimed payment for several thousand feet of imaginary
earthwork. The fraud was most skilfully carried out, and was only
detected by accident." [255] The Beldars are often dishonest in their
dealings, and will take large advances for a tank or embankment, and
then abscond with the money without doing the work. During the open
season parties of the caste travel about in camp looking for work,
their furniture being loaded on donkeys. They carry grain in earthen
pots encased in bags of netting, neatly and closely woven, and grind
their wheat daily in a small mill set on a goat-skin. Butter is made
in one of their pots with a churning-stick, consisting of a cogged
wheel fixed on to the end of a wooden rod.