The caste beat drums at village festivals, and castrate cattle,
and they also make brooms and mats of date-palm and keep leeches for
blood-letting. Some of them are village watchmen and their women act
as midwives. As soon as a baby is born, the midwife blows into its
mouth, ears and nose in order to clear them of any impediments. When
a man is initiated by a _guru_ or spiritual preceptor, the latter
blows into his ear, and the Mangs therefore say that on account of
this act of the midwife they are the _gurus_ of all Hindus. During
an eclipse the Mangs beg, because the demons Rahu and Ketu, who
are believed to swallow the sun and moon on such occasions, were
both Mangs, and devout Hindus give alms to their fellow-castemen in
order to appease them. Those of them who are thieves are said not to
steal from the persons of a woman, a bangle-seller, a Lingayat Mali
or another Mang. [184] In Maratha villages they sometimes take the
place of Chamars, and work in leather, and one writer says of them:
"The Mang is a village menial in the Maratha villages, making all
leather ropes, thongs and whips, which are used by the cultivators;
he frequently acts as watchman; he is by profession a thief and
executioner; he readily hires himself as an assassin, and when he
commits a robbery he also frequently murders." In his menial capacity
he receives presents at seed-time and harvest, and it is said that the
Kunbi will never send the Mang empty away, because he represents the
wrath of Mahadeo, being made from the god's sweat when he was angry.