The Dhanwars are fervent believers in all kinds of magic and
witchcraft. Magic is practised both by the Baiga, the village priest
or medicine-man, who is always a man and who conducts the worship of
the deities mentioned above, and by the _tonhi_, the regular witch,
who may be a man or woman. Little difference appears to exist in the
methods of the two classes of magicians, but the Baiga's magic is
usually exercised for the good of his fellow-creatures, which indeed
might be expected as he gets his livelihood from them, and he is also
less powerful than the _tonhi_. The Baiga cures ordinary maladies and
the bites of snakes and scorpions by mesmeric passes fortified by the
utterance of charms. He raises the dead in much the same manner as a
witch does, but employs the spirit of the dead person in casting out
other evil spirits by which his clients may be possessed. One of the
miracles performed by the Baiga is to make his wet cloth stand in the
air stiff and straight, holding only the two lower ends. He can cross
a river walking on leaves, and change men into beasts. Witches are
not very common among the Dhanwars. A witch, male or female, maybe
detected by a sunken and gloomy appearance of the eyes, a passionate
temperament, or by being found naked in a graveyard at night, as
only a witch would go there to raise a corpse from the dead. The
Dhanwars eat nearly all kinds of food except beef and the leavings
of others. They will take cooked food from the hands of Kawars, and
the men also from Gonds, but not the women. In some places they will
accept food from Brahmans, but not everywhere. They are not an impure
caste, but usually live in a separate hamlet of their own, and are
lower than the Gonds and Kawars, who will take water from them but
not food. They are a very primitive people, and it is stated that at
the census several of them left their huts and fled into the jungle,
and were with difficulty induced to return. When an elder man dies
his family usually abandon their hut, as it is believed that his
spirit haunts it and causes death to any one who lives there.