The traditional occupation of the Pasis, as already stated, is the
extraction of the sap of palm trees. But some of them are hunters
and fowlers like the Pardhis, and like them also they make and mend
grindstones, while others are agriculturists; and the caste has also
strong criminal propensities, and includes a number of professional
thieves. Some are employed in the Nagpur mills and others have taken
small building contracts. Pasis are generally illiterate and in poor
circumstances, and are much addicted to drink. In climbing [431]
palm trees to tap them for their juice the worker uses a heel-rope,
by which his feet are tied closely together. At the same time he has a
stout rope passing round the tree and his body. He leans back against
this rope and presses the soles of his feet, thus tied together,
against the tree. He then climbs up the tree by a series of hitches or
jerks of his back and feet alternately. The juice of the palmyra palm
(_tar_) and the date palm (_khajur_) is extracted by the Pasi. The
_tar_ trees, Sir H. Risley states, [432] are tapped from March to
May, and the date palm in the cold season. The juice of the former,
known as _tari_ or toddy, is used in the manufacture of bread, and an
intoxicating liquor is obtained from it by adding sugar and grains
of rice. Hindustani drunkards often mix _dhatura_ with the toddy to
increase its intoxicating properties. The quantity of juice extracted
from one tree varies from five to ten pounds. Date palm _tari_ is
less commonly drunk, being popularly believed to cause rheumatism,
but is extensively used in preparing sugar.