As already stated, the Deswalis of the Central Provinces have
abandoned the wild life of their ancestors and settled down as
respectable cultivators. Only a few particulars about them need be
recorded. Girls are usually married before they are twelve years old
and boys at sixteen to twenty. A sum of Rs. 24 is commonly paid for
the bride, and a higher amount up to Rs. 71 may be given, but this
is the maximum, and if the father of the girl takes more he will be
fined by the caste and made to refund the balance. A triangle with
some wooden models of birds is placed on the marriage-shed and the
bridegroom strikes at these with a stick; formerly he fired a gun
at them to indicate that he was a hunter by profession. A Brahman
is employed to celebrate the marriage. A widow is usually taken by
her late husband's younger brother, but if there be none the elder
brother may marry her, contrary to the general rule among Hindus. The
object is to keep the woman in the family, as wives are costly. If
she is unwilling to marry her brother-in-law, however, no compulsion
is exercised and she may wed another man. Divorce is allowed, and
in Rajputana is very simply effected. If tempers do not assimilate
or other causes prompt them to part, the husband tears a shred from
his turban which he gives to his wife, and with this simple bill of
divorce, placing two jars of water on her head, she takes whatever
path she pleases, and the first man who chooses to ease her of her
load becomes her future lord. '_Jehur nikala_,' 'Took the jar and went
forth,' is a common saying among the mountaineers of Merwara. [269]
The dead are cremated, the corpse of a man being wrapped in a white
and that of a woman in a coloured cloth. They have no _shraddh_
ceremony, but mourn for the dead only on the last day of Kartik
(October), when they offer water and burn incense. Deswalis employ
the Parsai or village Brahman to officiate at their ceremonies, but
owing to their mixed origin they rank below the cultivating castes,
and Brahmans will not take water from them. In Jaipur, however,
Major Powlett says, their position is higher. They are, as already
seen, the trusted guards of the palace and treasury, and Rajputs will
accept food and water from their hands. This concession is no doubt
due to the familiarity induced by living together for a long period,
and parallel instances of it can be given, as that of the Panwars
and Gonds in the Central Provinces. The Deswalis eat flesh and drink
liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. When they are invited to a
feast they do not take their own brass vessels with them, but drink
out of earthen pots supplied by the host, having the liquor poured
on to their hands held to the mouth to avoid actual contact with the
vessel. This is a Marwari custom and the Jats also have it. Before the
commencement of the feast the guests wait until food has been given to
as many beggars as like to attend. In Saugor the food served consists
only of rice and pulse without vegetables or other dishes. It is said
that a Mina will not eat salt in the house of another man, because
he considers that to do so would establish the bond of _Nimak-khai_
or salt-eating between them, and he would be debarred for ever from
robbing that man or breaking into his house. The guests need not
sit down together as among other Hindus, but may take their food in
batches; so that the necessity of awaiting the arrival of every guest
before commencing the feast is avoided. The Deswalis will not kill
a black-buck nor eat the flesh of one, but they assign no reason
for this and do not now worship the animal. The rule is probably,
however, a totemistic survival. The men may be known by their manly
gait and harsh tone of voice, as well as by a peculiar method of tying
the turban; the women have a special ornament called _rakhdi_ on the
forehead and do not wear spangles or toe-rings. They are said also
to despise ornaments of the baser metals as brass and pewter. They
are tattooed with dots on the face to set off the fair-coloured skin
by contrast, in the same manner as patches were carried on the face
in Europe in the eighteenth century. A tattoo dot on a fair face is
likened by a Hindu poet to a bee sitting on a half-opened mango.