Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven continues, are allowed
to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the tribal pipe (huqqa). The
proceedings begin with the outspreading (usually symbolic) of
a carpet and the smoking of a water-pipe handed in turn to each
clansman. For this purpose the members sit on the carpet in three
lines, the officers in front and the private soldiers behind. The
parties and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision
is pronounced. The punishments imposed consist of fines, compulsory
dinners and expulsion from the caste; expulsion being inflicted for
failure to comply with an order of fine or entertainment. The formal
method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground
and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is
removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a
few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful
women were formerly tied naked to trees and flogged with birch brooms,
but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such
punishment, as in the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners)
and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among
Dhobis (washer men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon
these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission,
whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart
from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his
hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies,
is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by
all the officers and Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the
culprit the council's order, and informs him that should he again
offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands
him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the offender is admitted
to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense.