"Some of these precepts are not strictly obeyed. For instance, though
ordinarily they allow no blue in their clothing, yet a Bishnoi,
if he is a police constable, is allowed to wear a blue uniform;
and Bishnois do use bullocks, though most of their farming is done
with camels. They also seem to be generally quarrelsome (in words)
and given to use bad language. But they abstain from tobacco, drugs
and spirits, and are noted for their regard for animal life, which is
such that not only will they not themselves kill any living creature,
but they do their utmost to prevent others from doing so. Consequently
their villages are generally swarming with antelope and other animals,
and they forbid their Musalman neighbours to kill them, and try to
dissuade European sportsmen from interfering with them. They wanted to
make it a condition of their settlement that no one should be allowed
to shoot on their land, but at the same time they asked that they
might be assessed at lower rates than their neighbours, on the ground
that the antelope, being thus left undisturbed, did more damage to
their crops; but I told them that this would lessen the merit (_pun_)
of their actions in protecting the animals, and they must be treated
just as the surrounding villages were. They consider it a good deed to
scatter grain to pigeons and other birds, and often have a large number
of half-tame birds about their villages. The day before the new moon
(Amawas) they observe as a Sabbath and fast-day, doing no work in the
fields or in the house. They bathe and pray three times a day, in the
morning, afternoon and evening, saying 'Bishnu! Bishnu!' instead of
the ordinary Hindu 'Ram! Ram.' Their clothing is the same as that of
other Bagris, except that their women do not allow the waist to be
seen, and are fond of wearing black woollen clothing. They are more
particular about ceremonial purity than ordinary Hindus are, and it is
a common saying that if a Bishnoi's food is on the first of a string of
twenty camels and a man of another caste touches the last camel of the
string, the Bishnoi would consider his food defiled and throw it away."