The social status of the Turis is very low, and their touch is regarded
as impure. They must live outside the village and may not draw water
from the common well; the village barber will not shave them nor
the washerman wash their clothes. They will eat all kinds of food,
including the flesh of rats and other vermin, but not beef. The
rules regarding social impurity are more strictly observed in the
Uriya country than elsewhere, owing to the predominant influence of
the Brahmans, and this is probably the reason why the Turis are so
severely ostracised. Their code of social morality is not strict, and
a girl who is seduced by a man of the caste is simply made over to him
as his wife, the ordinary bride-price being exacted from him. He must
also feed the caste-fellows, and any money which is received by the
girl's father is expended in the same manner. Members of Hindu castes
and Gonds may be admitted into the community, but not the Munda tribes,
such as the Mundas themselves and the Kharias and Korwas; and this,
though the Turis, as has been seen, are themselves an offshoot of the
Munda tribe. The fact indicates that in Chota Nagpur the tribes of the
Munda family occupy a lower social position than the Gonds and others
belonging to the Dravidian family. When an offender of either sex is
to be readmitted into caste after having been temporarily expelled for
some offence he or she is given water to drink and has a lock of hair
cut off. Their women are tattooed on the arms, breast and feet, and
say that this is the only ornament which they can carry to the grave.