The caste are employed on all kinds of earthwork, such as building
walls, excavating trenches, and making embankments in fields. Their
trade implements consist of a pickaxe, a basket, and a thin wooden hod
to fill the earth into the basket. The Murha invokes these as follows:
"Oh! my lord the basket, my lord the pickaxe shaped like a snake,
and my lady the hod, come and eat up those who do not pay me for my
work!" The Murhas are strict in their rules about food and will not
accept cooked food even from a Brahman, but notwithstanding this,
their social position is so low that not even a sweeper would take
food from them. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain
from fowls, pork and beef. They engage Brahmans on the occasion of
births and marriages, but not usually for funerals. The women tattoo
their bodies after marriage, and the charge for this should always be
paid by the maternal uncle's wife, the paternal aunt, or some other
similar relation of the girl. The fact that among most Hindus a girl
must be tattooed before leaving for her husband's house, and that
the cost of the operation must always be paid for by her own family,
seems to indicate that tattooing was formerly a rite of puberty for
the female sex. A wife must not mention the name of her husband or of
any person who stands in the relation of father, mother, uncle or aunt
to him. Parents do not call their eldest son by his proper name, but
by some pet name. Women are impure for five days during menstruation
and are not allowed to cook for that period. The Murhas have a caste
_panchayat_ or committee, the head of which is known as Patel or
Mukhia, the office being hereditary. He receives a part of all fines
levied for the commission of social offences. In appearance the caste
are dark and short of stature, and have some resemblance to the Kols.