The people still show great hospitality, and it is the custom of
many malguzars, at least in Chhattisgarh, to afford food and a
night's rest to all travellers who may require it. When a Brahman
comes to the village such malguzars will give him one or two annas,
and to a Pandit or learned man as much as a rupee. Formerly it is
said that when any stranger came through the village he was at once
offered a cup of milk and told to drink it or throw it away. But
this custom has died out in Chhattisgarh, though one has met with
it once or twice in Sambalpur. When District Officers go on tour,
well-to-do landowners ask to be allowed to supply free provisions
for the whole camp at least for a day, and it is difficult to refuse
them gracefully. In Mandla, Banias and malguzars in villages near
the Nerbudda sometimes undertake to give a pound of grain to every
_parikramawasi_ or pilgrim perambulating the Nerbudda. And as the
number of these steadily increases in consequence, they often become
impoverished as a result of such indiscriminate charity.