The tribe will eat pork, but abstain from beef and the flesh of
monkeys. Notwithstanding their strictness of social observance, they
rank lower than the Gonds, and only the Kamars will accept food from
their hands. A man who has got maggots in a wound is purified by
being given to drink water, mixed with powdered turmeric, in which
silver and copper rings have been dipped. Women are secluded during
the menstrual period for as long as eight days, and during this time
they may not enter the dwelling-hut nor touch any article belonging to
it. The Bhunjias take their food on plates of leaves, and often a whole
family will have only one brass vessel, which will be reserved for
production on the visit of a guest. But no strangers can be admitted
to the house, and a separate hut is kept in the village for their
use. Here they are given uncooked grain and pulse, which they prepare
for themselves. When the women go out to work they do not leave their
babies in the house, but carry them tied up in a small rag under the
arm. They have no knowledge of medicine and are too timid to enter a
Government dispensary. Their panacea for most diseases is branding the
skin with a hot iron, which is employed indifferently for headache,
pains in the stomach and rheumatism. Mr. Pyare Lal notes that one
of his informants had recently been branded for rheumatism on both
knees and said that he felt much relief.