The Chasas do not marry within the same _varga,_ but a man may usually
take a wife from his mother's _varga_. A girl must always be wedded
before arriving at adolescence, the penalty for breach of this rule
being the driving out of the girl to seclusion in the forest for a
day and a half, and a feast to the caste-fellows. If no husband is
available she may be married to an arrow or a flower, or she goes
through the form of marriage with any man in the caste, and when a
suitable partner is subsequently found, is united with him by the
form of widow-marriage. Widows may marry again and divorce is also
allowed. The dead are usually buried if unmarried, and burnt when
married. The Chasas worship the Hindu deities and also the village
god Gramsiri, who is represented by a stone outside the village. At
festivals they offer animal sacrifices to their agricultural
implements, as hoes and hatchets. They employ Brahmans for religious
ceremonies. They have an aversion to objects of a black colour, and
will not use black umbrellas or clothes woven with black thread. They
do not usually wear shoes or ride horses, even when they can afford
these latter. Cultivation is the traditional occupation of the caste,
and they are tenants, farmservants and field-labourers. They take food
from Rajputs and Brahmans, and sometimes from Koltas and Sudhs. They
eat flesh and fish, but abjure liquor, beef, pork and fowls. Their
social position is a little below that of the good agricultural castes,
and they are considered somewhat stupid, as shown by the proverb:
Chasa, ki jane pasar katha,
Padili bolai dons;
or 'What does the Chasa know of the dice? At every throw he calls out
"twenty."'