The caste worship the goddess Parmeshwari, the wife of Vishnu, and
Jagannath, the Uriya incarnation of Vishnu. Parmeshwari is worshipped
by Brahmans, who offer bread and _khir_ or rice and milk to her;
goats are also offered by the Dehri or Mahakul, the caste priest,
who receives the heads of the goats as his remuneration. They believe
in witches, who they think drink the blood of children, and employ
sorcerers to exorcise them. They worship a stick on Dasahra day in
remembrance of their old profession of herding cattle, and they worship
cows and buffaloes at the full moon of Shrawan (July-August). During
Kunwar, on the eighth day of each fortnight, two festivals are
held. At the first each girl in the family wears a thread containing
eighteen knots twisted three times round her neck. All the girls fast
and receive presents of cloths and grain from their brothers. This is
called Bhaijiuntia, or the ceremony for the welfare of the brothers. On
the second day the mother of the family does the same, and receives
presents from her sons, this being Puajiuntia, or the ceremony for the
welfare of sons. The Dumals believe that in the beginning water covered
the earth. They think that the sun and moon are the eyes of God, and
that the stars are the souls of virtuous men, who enjoy felicity in
heaven for the period measured by the sum of their virtuous actions,
and when this has expired have to descend again to earth to suffer the
agonies of human life. When a shooting star is seen they think it is
the soul of one of these descending to be born again on earth. They
both burn and bury their dead according to their means. After a body
is buried they make a fire over the grave and place an empty pot on
it. Mourning is observed for twelve days in the case of a married
and for seven in the case of an unmarried person. Children dying
when less than six days old are not mourned at all. During mourning
the persons of the household do not cook for themselves. On the third
day after the death three leaf-plates, each containing a little rice,
sugar and butter, are offered to the spirit of the deceased. On the
fourth day four such plates are offered, and on the fifth day five,
and so on up to the ninth day when the Pindas or sacrificial cakes
are offered, and nine persons belonging to the caste are invited, food
and a new piece of cloth being given to each. Should only one attend,
nine plates of food would be served to him, and he would be given
nine pieces of cloth. If two or more persons in a family are killed
by a tiger, a Sulia or magician is called in, and he pretends to be
the tiger and to bite some one in the family, who is then carried as
a corpse to the burial-place, buried for a short time and taken out
again. All the ceremonies of mourning are observed for him for one
day. This proceeding is believed to secure immunity for the family from
further attacks. In return for his services the Sulia gets a share
of everything in the house corresponding to what he would receive,
supposing he were a member of the family, on a partition. Thus if
the family consisted of only two persons he would get a third part
of the whole property.
The Dumals eat meat, including wild boar's flesh, but not beef,
fowls or tame pigs. They do not drink liquor. They will take food
cooked with water from Brahmans and Sudhs, and even the leavings of
food from Brahmans. This is probably because they were formerly the
household servants of Brahmans, though they have now risen somewhat
in position and rank, together with the Koltas and Sudhs, as a good
cultivating caste. Their women and girls can easily be distinguished,
the girls because the hair is shaved until they are married, and the
women because they wear bangles of glass on one arm and of lac on the
other. They never wear nose-rings or the ornament called _pairi_ on
the feet, and no ornaments are worn on the arm above the elbow. They
do not wear black clothing. The women are tattooed on the hands, feet
and breast. Morality within the caste is lax. A woman going wrong
with a man of her own caste is not punished, because the Dumals live
generally in Native States, where it is the business of the Raja to
find the seducer. But she is permanently excommunicated for a _liaison_
with a man of another caste. Eating with a very low caste is almost
the only offence which entails permanent exclusion for both sexes. The
Dumals have a bad reputation for fidelity, according to a saying:
'You cannot call the jungle a plain, and you should not call the
Dumal a brother,' that is, do not trust a Dumal. Like the Ahirs they
are somewhat stupid, and when enquiry was being made from them as to
what crops they did not grow, one of them replied that they did not
sow salt. They are good cultivators, and will grow anything except
hemp and turmeric. In some places they still follow their traditional
occupation of grazing cattle.