==============+=======
District. |Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 58
Muzaffarnagar | 902
Meerut | 255
Bijnor | 1,626
Morâdâbâd | 2,748
Cawnpur | 7
Bânda | 5
+~~~~~~~
Total | 5,601
==============+=======
Biyâr, Biâr.—A tribe of labourers and cultivators in the Eastern
Districts.
[Origin and characteristics of the tribes.] 1. The word Biâr means “a
seed-bed,” and it is suggested that this may be the origin of the name
on account of their occupation, which is principally rice cultivation
and the construction of tanks and embankments. They may possibly be of
aboriginal origin, but the tribe appears to be very mixed, and while
they have to a great extent lost the broad nose characteristic of the
pure Dravidian races, like the Majhwârs or Korwas, they are not
noticeably different in appearance from the Chamârs and other menial
Hindu castes which surround them. They may perhaps be connected with
the Bhoyars of Betul, “who are said to have come originally from Upper
India: they are hard-working and industrious cultivators, thoroughly
alive to the advantages of irrigation, and generally expending much
labour and capital in the sinking of wells.” [130] The idea which at
one time prevailed that they were in some way connected with the great
Bhar race seems groundless. They consider themselves autochthones of
Pargana Barhar, in Mirzapur, and have no traditions of emigration. They
are slight, dark, wiry men, noted for their skill in earth-work, and
habitually employed on excavations of all kinds: a quiet, rather
depressed race, occasionally addicted to petty theft. In Mirzapur they
have now formed themselves into two endogamous divisions, the
Barhariya, who take their name from Pargana Barhar, north of the river
Son, and the Dakkhinâha or “Southerners,” who live south of the river.
Those north of the Son have begun to imitate Hindus so far as to start
one sub-division or sept (Kuri), the Chamanawa or Chandanawa, who say
they are descended from the chandan or sandal tree, and to this is
attached one gotra, that of Kâsip. These sub-divisions, however, do not
restrict marriage, the rules of exogamy within the two endogamous
sub-divisions being of a very elementary kind. They say that when a
girl is married into a family they do not permit another alliance with
that family for at least three generations. Others say that only the
family of the mother’s brother (mâmu) and the father’s sister’s husband
(phûpha) are barred. The tendency, however, seems to be to extend the
restriction to the orthodox limit fixed in many of these tribes and to
include the family of the father’s brother (chacha) and the maternal
aunt (mâosi). Other members of the caste, however, name seven
septs,—Kanaujiya, Sarwâr, Barwâr, Mahto, Kahto, Kâshi, and Barhar.
These are exogamous, and hypergamy is said to prevail to this extent
that the Kanaujiya intermarry only with the Barwâr, Sarwâr and Mahto.
Three of these are purely local sub-divisions, Kanaujiya (from Kanauj),
Kâshi (from Benares), Barhar (from the pargana of that name in
Mirzapur). The others are probably all occupational—Sarwâr “archer;”
Barwâr, “carrier of loads;” Mahto, “leader;” Kahto, “spokesman.”
[Tribal organisation.] 2. They have a caste council (panchâyat) which
meets on occasions of marriages and funerals, and disposes of tribal
business. The president (Mukhiya) is a hereditary officer, and he has
an assistant known as Chaudhari. Offences against morality are punished
by fine or castigation. The castigation is in the form of a
shoe-beating, which is administered by two strong young men at the
orders of the president. The fine takes the form of two or four days
feeding of the clansmen. When the offender agrees to do this he is
restored to caste privileges. If a man marries into a family already
excommunicated he has to give a two days’ feast of goat flesh and
liquor to the clan. If a poor man pleads poverty, the fine is sometimes
reduced, but if he disregards the sentence he is excommunicated for
two, four, or even ten years. If the Mukhiya or Chaudhari is a minor,
the council select some relative to act for him. The Chaudhari is
always appointed by the council.
[Rules of marriage.] 3. Difference in wealth or social station is no
bar to marriage. A man may marry as many wives as he can support. The
senior wife is mistress of the house, is respected among the relations,
and joins in the family worship. If a man marries a second time, and he
or she annoy or ill-treat the first wife, the council interferes in her
favour. As a matter of fact the senior wife generally selects the
junior wives, and urges her husband to polygamy, as their labour saves
her trouble. If there are more wives than one they live in separate
huts in the same enclosure, but, as a rule, they get on well together
and live in common. Concubinage, if the concubine (rakhui) is a member
of the tribe, is permitted. The abhorrence with which they regard even
the idea of polyandry is sufficient to show that it could never have
been an institution of the tribe. Women have considerable freedom both
before and after marriage. If a woman is caught in an intrigue with a
stranger to the tribe she is expelled. If her lover be a member of the
tribe, the fathers of both have to feed the clansmen: but it is a
peculiarity of this tribe that they will not allow the lovers to marry.
The reason is because such cases give rise to a feud between the girl’s
family and that of her lover, which is usually so serious that a
marriage alliance between them is out of the question. In such cases of
incontinence the girl’s father has to feed the tribesmen on pakki
rasoi, that is to say, butter cakes (pûri) and goat’s flesh, and the
next day on kachchi rasoi, that is, boiled rice and pulse (dâl, bhât).
The tribal punishment for the lover used to be fifty stripes with a
cane, but British law has put a stop to this, and he now gets fifty
blows of a shoe. After the beating is over he has, in addition, to give
the same feast as the girl’s father.
[Marriage and divorce.] 4. The marriage age for boys and girls is from
six to twelve. The headman arranges the match: the consent of the
parents is essential, and the parties have no right of choice. The
bride-price fixed by invariable custom is four rupees in cash, two
cloths (dhoti), four sers coarse sugar (gur), and a little turmeric. No
physical defect which appears in either party after marriage is
sufficient to break the tie; but this is not the case if fraud is
established against the parents of either party: and it is understood
that a woman may refuse to live with her husband if he is unable to
support her, or is impotent. A man can divorce his wife for adultery:
in fact, if after adultery is established, a man does not discard his
wife, he is punished by the council. But all separations must be by the
sanction of the headman, and he will not give leave until he has
enquired and heard evidence in the case. If a man marries a woman who
has been divorced for adultery he is put out of caste. The sons of the
senior wife are called jethri or superior: those of the second lauhri
or inferior. These two sets of children succeed equally, while the
children of a concubine have no rights, and receive only whatever their
father may please to give them during his lifetime. If the concubine
was a woman of the tribe, the children receive full caste rights and
can be married in the tribe: not so, if the mother was of another
tribe. Her children are called Biyâr after their father, but have no
rights of marriage or commensality.
[Widow marriage.] 5. A man may take a widow to live with him without
any ceremony. For a while the clansmen will not eat with him, but when
he feeds them he is generally restored to caste on condition that he
goes to bathe at Benares or Gaya. The levirate is allowed under the
usual restriction that the younger brother can marry his elder
brother’s widow, and not vice versâ. If the levir abandon his claim to
her she may marry an outsider. She takes with her only children at the
breast; the others remain with her late husband’s brother. Once she
marries again she loses all rights in her husband’s estate. Their uncle
manages the property for his nephews, and they succeed when they come
of age. So in the case of the levirate the mother manages the property
for her sons by the first marriage. Her second family has no claim to
share. There is no fiction by which the sons of the levir are
attributed to the first husband.
[Adoption.] 6. Only a sonless man can adopt, and that only with the
consent of his brethren and the council. A man usually adopts his
brother’s son, though occasionally the adoption of a daughter’s son is
allowed. A man may adopt if his only son is a permanent outcast. During
the life of one adopted son a second cannot be adopted. Curiously
enough a bachelor can adopt, but not a blind man, or a cripple, or an
impotent man, or a Jogi, or a woman, except a widow following distinct
instructions from her late husband given before witnesses. But in any
case she can adopt only one of her husband’s brother’s sons. A man
cannot give his only or eldest son or only brother in adoption. A boy
once married cannot be adopted: nor can a girl be adopted: nor a
sister’s son: nor a daughter’s son except in most exceptional
circumstances. As a rule a son adopted by another loses all rights to
his father’s estate, but cases are quoted to the contrary. If he be his
father’s only son he inherits in both houses. If a natural son be born
after adoption he and the adopted son share equally.
[Beena marriage.] 7. The custom of Beena marriage or gharjaiyân does
not prevail.
[Succession.] 8. In all cases the sons of a man are his heirs.
Primogeniture is so far observed that the eldest gets a tenth in excess
of everything, and the children of the first or senior wife get
something more than the others. The shares go by the sons, not by the
mothers. A man cannot select a special son in his lifetime to be heir
in excess of the others. Even if one son be better off than the others
by self-acquired property, dowry, etc., he gets his usual share.
Grandsons get their proportionate share in the inheritance of their
fathers. If there are no sons the associated brothers inherit equally.
The widow has a right to maintenance so long as she continue chaste: if
she becomes unchaste her husband’s brothers can expel her. A daughter
has no rights, but it seems to be usual for the brothers to give her
some of the family jewelry, etc., and if she is badly treated by her
husband or his friends she has a right to come back to her original
home and claim maintenance there. If a man die without a son or widow
his associated brothers succeed. If a widow marries while pregnant, and
a son is born, he will succeed to his real not to his step-father. If
the widow on remarriage takes little children with her the step-father
is bound to support them until they grow up and get them married. If a
man become an ascetic his sons get his estate: but a remarkable rule
prevails that in such case the sons get only the acquired property of
their father, while the ancestral property goes to his brothers.
Village and tribal offices such as that of mahto are ancestral: but if
the eldest son of the deceased proves unfit, the duty is made over to
one of his elder brothers.
[Relationship.] 9. Families in which sons are married or from which
sons-in-law come are considered relations. There is nothing peculiar in
the general system of relationship. They do not, as a rule, remember
the names of ancestors beyond the grandfather.
[Birth ceremonies.] 10. When a woman is being delivered she sits on the
ground facing east. She is attended by the Chamâin midwife, who cuts
the cord with a sickle and buries it in the place where the child was
born, lighting a fire on the spot, which is kept burning while the
woman remains in seclusion. After birth the child is rubbed with a
mixture of barley flour and oil. The first day the mother is fed on
halwa, which is made of wheat flour, coarse sugar (gur), and ghi. After
this she is given butter cakes (pûri), but in poor families only rice
and pulse. Every morning and evening she is given a mixture of gur,
ghi, and turmeric, which is known as kâra. On the sixth day the Chamâin
bathes mother and child, the Dhobi takes her clothes to the wash, the
barber’s wife cuts her finger and toe nails and colours her feet with
lac dye (mahâwar). On that day the men of the family shave and put on
clean clothes, and the woman’s husband’s sister (nanad) cleans the
delivery room (saur), for which she receives a present in cash,
clothes, or jewelry. The wives of the barber and Dhobi get four annas
each, and the Chamâin the same with her food for the days she has been
in attendance. That evening the clanspeople, male and female, are fed.
From that date the attendance of the Chamâin ceases. On the twelfth day
(barahi) the mother bathes in warm water, and the barber’s wife cuts
her nails and those of all the other women of the family. From that
time the mother is considered pure, and cooks for the family. On this
day the old earthen vessels of the family are replaced. The couvade so
far prevails that on the day the child is born the father does no work,
and has to take the first sip of the draught given to his wife. The
husband does not cohabit with his wife till the child is six months
old, and is first fed on grain (annaprâsana).
[Adoption ceremony.] 11. No adoption is valid unless the adoptive
father and the boy appear before the Mukhiya, Chaudhari and council and
make mutual engagements.
[Marriage ceremony.] 12. There is nothing very remarkable about the
marriage ceremony. The bride is selected by the boy’s father and
approved of by the Mahto. The boy’s father then on a date (lagan) fixed
by a Brâhman sends or takes to the bride’s father a present which fixes
the betrothal. This is known as neg bharna, and in some places consists
of four rupees in cash, two sers turmeric, two sers oil, and two sers
coarse sugar (gur); in others of one and-a-quarter sers turmeric, one
and-a-quarter sers sugar, and one and-a-quarter sers of oil. The
marriage pavilion (mânro) has the middle post of siddh wood (Hardwickia
binata). It is erected by the sister or paternal aunt of the bride, who
receives a small present for doing this. Five days before marriage the
matmangar ceremony is performed in the usual way as described in the
case of the Bhuiyas, except that the earth is dug by the father’s
sister’s husband (phûpha) of the bride, and is brought home by five
unmarried girls of the bride’s sept, who make out of it a rude altar
(bedi) in the marriage shed, on which is placed the lucky water jar
(kalsa), and a rude representation of parrots (suga) sitting on a tree,
which is made by the village carpenter out of the wood of the
cotton-tree (semal). On this day the family priest (purohit) sprinkles
the bride and bridegroom with a bunch of dûb grass soaked in turmeric
and oil (haldi charhâna). This is done five times. Before the
procession starts the bridegroom’s mother does the “waving” ceremony
(parachhan), as described in connection with the Bhuiyârs. The
bridegroom’s procession is met by the bride’s friends outside the
village, and they embrace (meli jholi). On reaching the reception place
(janwânsa) the bridegroom’s father takes the wedding present
(charhauwa) to the bride. This consists of some jewelry and a sheet for
the girl and her mother. When the bridegroom arrives he and the bride
are seated on leaf mats or stools in a square (chauk) made under the
marriage shed: the bride’s father washes the feet of the bridegroom,
and her mother does the same for the bride. Then the hands of the pair
are joined, and the bride’s father pours water over them, while the
Pandit [131] reads the sankalpa or “verses of donation.” They then walk
five times round the parrot images and water jar, the girl’s brother
pouring a handful of parched rice (lawa) over them each time they pass;
while some parched grain is thrown on the sacred fire (hom), which is
kept burning in the shed. Then the pair sit down, and the bridegroom
marks the right foot of the bride with red lead, and taking five
pinches of it between the thumb and the first finger of his right hand
rubs it in the parting of her hair. This is the binding portion of the
ceremony. Then the wife of the bride’s brother (bhaujâi) sprinkles some
red lead (sendur chhirakna) over the bridegroom and gets a small
present. She then escorts the pair into the retiring room (kohabar),
the walls of which are marked with rude figures drawn in red clay
(geru). Over these the bridegroom pours some oil, and has to submit to
a good deal of coarse practical jokes from the female relations of the
bride. [132] Next morning is the khichari or ceremony of confarreatio,
when the bridegroom and bride eat together. After this is the mânro
hilâi or “shaking of the marriage shed.” The father of the bridegroom
pulls up and pitches away one of the poles of the pavilion amid the
shouts of his party. This may possibly be a survival of marriage by
capture. On the bridegroom arriving at his house his sister, apparently
with the same idea, blocks the door, and will not admit the bride until
she gets a present. At the bridegroom’s house the kohabar ceremony, as
above described, is again performed. A day or two after this, on a day
fixed by the Pandit, some woman of the family takes the wreaths of
mango leaves (bandanwâr) which decorated the door and the sacred water
jar (kalsa), and throws them into a stream. The deities that preside
over marriages are Gauri (Devi) and Ganesa. Images of them made of
cow-dung are placed in the marriage shed, and are rubbed with a little
of the red lead before it is applied to the head of the bride. A
marriage can be broken off after the first embassage (puchhâwa) of the
headman, but once the red lead is applied it is final.
[Forms of marriage.] 13. The three forms of recognized marriage are the
charhauwa and the sagâi for widows. There is also the gurâwat, or
marriage by exchange, when two persons exchange sisters. [133]
[Death ceremonies.] 14. The dying person is removed into the open air
before death. [134] The ceremonies are performed in the ordinary way.
After cremation a stalk of the tall reed-like grass (jhurai) is planted
on the edge of a tank. This is apparently like the vessel (ghant) hung
on a pîpal tree, intended as an abode for the spirit (pret) during the
time which elapse before the funeral ceremonies are complete. [135]
During the next ten days the man who fired the pyre goes daily to the
tank and pours ten vessels (lota) of water over the grass-stalk. When
the mourners return from the pyre they sit and lament the deceased for
a short time, and each touches with his big toe a little vessel of
water which is laid in the court-yard. For ten days mourning goes on.
The man who fired the pyre cooks his food in an earthen vessel without
salt, eats only once a day out of a leaf platter (dauna), and the
relations do not eat pân or turmeric or put oil on their heads. The
chief mourner goes about with a knife and brass lota in his hands to
keep off ghosts. On the day after the cremation the women of the family
go to the tank. The dead man’s mother walks in front of the widow, and
all sing songs of mourning. When they arrive at the tank the widow
washes the red lead off the parting of her hair and pours ten handfuls
of water on the stalk of grass which embodies the spirit of her
husband. All the women do the same, and the same ceremony is performed
daily for ten days. On the tenth day (daswân) all the male relations
shave at the tank and get a Brâhman to offer up three balls (pinda) of
barley flour, which are thrown into the water in the name of the
deceased. They then return to the house, where the funeral priest
(Mahâpâtra, Mahâbrâhman) attends and receives the bed, clothes, and
vessels of the dead man, and one and-a-quarter rupee in cash from the
person who fired the pyre. These, it is believed, will pass on for the
use of the deceased in the next world (svarga). [136] “How could he get
on in the next world without these things?” is what they say; but of a
future in which felicity awaits the good and retribution meets the
evil-doer they have only the very vaguest idea. [137] On that day his
brother-in-law binds a turban on the head of the dead man’s successor,
and pân and betel-nut are distributed and the clansmen fed. On this
day, to mark her abandonment of married life, the widow floats away
(serwa dena) her little box which contains the red lead for the parting
of her hair (sendûra) and forehead spangles into the water.
[Ancestor worship.] 15. At the period sacred to the dead (pitra paksha)
in the month of Kuâr they plaster a little space under the eaves of the
house, spread there a little rice and flowers, and a vessel (lota) full
of water and a toothbrush (datwan) for the use of the dead. On the 15th
day of Kuâr they give some dry grain (sîdha) to a Brâhman, and feed a
few of the kinsfolk in the name of the dead. If this is not done, their
spirits beset them in dreams, cause the nightmare, and bring disease
and death.
[Religion.] 16. Their special deity is Mahâdeva in the form of the
lingam. As local deities they worship Sewanriya, the deity of
boundaries, and Dharti Mahâdeva, the earth-god. These local deities
have a shrine on the village boundary consisting of a mud platform
under a semal (bombax heptaphyllum), bahera (terminalia bellerica), or
pîpal (ficus indica) tree. A small red flag marks the shrine, near
which are placed images of elephants. This is the shrine of Sewanriya,
the deity of boundaries. In the name of Dharti and Mahâdeva two stone
pillars are set up in the ground on the outskirts of the village. When
the harvest is cut both these are propitiated by a burnt sacrifice
(hom) of sugar and butter (gur, ghi). People who are in trouble make
vows there, and, when the evil is removed, sacrifice a goat or fowl,
and sprinkle some liquor through the Baiga. For this he receives some
grain and a couple of pice. The women have a special worship to Amina
Devi, [138] in which men do not join. They make a burnt offering and
light a lamp in her honour. If this deity is not worshipped the deity
mounts on their heads and drives them into a fit of ecstacy (abhuâna).
They have the usual custom of boring the ears (kanchhedan) of children
when they are five years old. That day special food is served, and
after this the child must conform to caste usages in the matter of
food. Their religious business is done by a low class of Pânrê
Brâhmans. On the day a child’s ears are bored a goat is offered to
Juâla-mukhi Devi, and the meat is consumed by the worshippers and their
friends.
[Festivals.] 17. On the Râmnaumi of Chait they have the heads of their
children shaved at the shrine of Juâla-mukhi Devi at Kota in the
presence of the priest (panda) in charge of the temple. On that date
they offer a goat and a burnt offering (hom). On the snake festival,
Nâgpanchami, held on the fifth bright half of Sâwan, they will not
plough, and make a white protective mark round the walls of their
houses, oil the horns of the oxen, and give them salt. On the Dasahra,
the tenth light half of Kuâr, they eat specially good food. On the
feast of lamps, Diwâli, in the last day of the dark fortnight in
Kârttik, they plaster the house, light lamps, and on that day the Ahîr
herdsmen come and dance at the houses of their employers, and get some
old clothes and a small money present. At the Til Sankrânt, in the end
of the month of Pûs, they all eat rice boiled with pulse (khichari)
after a Brâhman has first touched the food and blessed it. On the
thirteenth light half of Pûs they bury the old year (Sambat gârna).
There is a regular place outside the village in which a stake of the
wood of the cotton tree (semal) is planted in the ground. Three days
after all the villagers collect fuel round this, and on the day of the
full moon (pûranmâshi) the village Brâhman fixes a time for burning the
old year (Sambat). The fire is lit by the village Baiga, and then all
the people apply fire to it, and parch stalks of barley in the fire and
eat them. They also make small lumps of cowdung and throw them into the
fire. Next morning all collect and sprinkle the ashes of the Sambat
into the air. This is known as râkh urâna. After marking their
foreheads with the ashes they return home. Next day, up to midday, the
men sing abusive songs, and throw earth and cowdung at the women. After
midday they bathe, put on clean clothes, throw about the powder of
ground mica or talc (abîr), eat wheat cakes (pûri) fried in butter, and
drink liquor. The feast winds up with a regular saturnalia in which
decency and order are forgotten. [139]
[Ghosts.] 18. Places like wells and tanks where any one has been
drowned are considered as specially haunted. [140] If any one goes
alone to bathe in such places the ghost pushes him in and drowns him.
They also have the same idea about deaths by a fall from a tree, which
are regarded as the work of the offended tree spirit. If they happen to
walk under a tree where such an accident has happened they bend their
heads and bow. To keep off such ghosts people take a piece of iron
about with them, such as a knife, a key, etc. They believe that if you
can succeed in catching one of these malicious Bhûts and cutting off
his scalp-lock, he will serve you for the rest of your life.
[Tattooing.] 19. The women tattoo themselves in the usual way among
these jungle tribes. [141] They believe that if they are not tattooed
God (Bhagwân) brands them in the next world with a torch of dry grass.
[142]
[Various superstitions, omens, oaths, witchcraft, etc.] 20. The lucky
days are Sunday and Monday and Friday; Tuesday and Saturday are
unlucky. Among numbers 5 and 3 are lucky, 13 unlucky. They take omens
from the kurli bird, whose song on commencing a journey or business is
lucky. A jackal crossing the road is inauspicious. The house door may
face the North, East, or West, but not the South. Every one has two
names, that fixed by astrology (râs), and that in ordinary use. They
swear by putting the hand on their son’s head or touching a Brâhman’s
feet. In the first place if they tell a lie the son dies, in the second
they lose their property or life. They are much in dread of witchcraft
(tona). Such cases are treated by the Ojha, who has power to drive off
or summon Bhûts, and can thus revenge himself on an enemy. Dreams only
mean the displeasure of the sainted dead at inattention, and are not
specially interpreted. Some women, particularly those born on a
Saturday, can cast the Evil Eye. When a child is thus affected its
eyelashes stand out straight, and when babies are struck they refuse
the mother’s breast. Even big children are affected. The sign of the
arrival of a person with this power is that the person affected if
eating immediately vomits. All disease is due to demoniacal influence.
It is only Ojhas who can recognise the particular Bhût which is at the
bottom of the mischief, and having marked him down they are able to
prescribe the appropriate offering or expel the evil spirit by bringing
the victim into a state of ecstacy (abhuâna).
[Social customs.] 21. Their dress presents no peculiarities. The women
wear jewelry, the satua on the fore-arm, rings (mundari) on the
fingers, the bahunta on the upper arm, the palm leaf ornament (tarki)
in the ears, necklaces (hansuli) and strings of beads on the neck,
heavy anklets (pairi). They do not wear the nose-ring. They use liquor
and tobacco freely. They will not eat the flesh of monkeys, cows,
buffaloes, horses, camels, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, jackals, or
rats. They eat pigs, goats, sheep, fowls, and all kinds of fish. Women
do not eat pork. Children eat first, then the men, and last of all the
women. They will not touch a Dom, Chamâr, Dharkâr, or Bhangi; nor the
wife of the younger brother, the wife’s elder sister, and a connection
(samdhin) through the marriage of children. They will not speak by name
of the wife or mother, or of the dead if it can be avoided. In the
morning they will not speak of death, disease, or quarrels, or of a
lame man or a cripple, or of a village where bad characters live or
where there was in former days a murder or a fight. They sow, if
possible, on the tenth light half of Jeth. Fields for the spring crop
are ploughed five times, for the autumn crop twice. They salute by the
pâêlagi form, and seniors give the blessing nîkê raho, “Live happily!”
If a woman’s relation visits her she seizes him by the feet and weeps.
Then in a sort of sing-song she describes all her troubles to him, and
ends by washing his feet and giving him tobacco. [143] When a guest
comes he is expected to bring with him some parched grain and coarse
sugar for the children. Then if he is a clansman the householder seats
him in the cooking place (chauka) and feeds him. Women are respected,
as they work very hard. Men who ill-treat their wives are divorced by
the tribal council, and put out of caste for a year or two as a
punishment. Old people are taken care of and given only light work. In
the hot weather they all collect in the evening under a tree, and chat
on village business. In the cold weather they assemble at each other’s
houses, sit round a fire of rubbish (kaura), and the house master finds
them in chewing tobacco. They are very clannish and detest and distrust
strangers. They will eat both kinds of food (pakki and kachchi) only
from a Brâhman. No one but a Dom will eat or drink from their hands.
[Occupation.] 22. Their business is ploughing (halwâhi) and doing
earthwork on embankments and tanks, in which men, women, and children
join. When they take service as ploughmen they get on the first day a
pot (hânri) full of grain and a rupee in cash, and the same when sowing
is over. Their daily wages are three sers of barley or sâwân millet.
The Biyârs are a very quiet, respectable tribe, and are very seldom
seen in our Courts.
23. They have a sort of local organisation (eka) in which three or four
villages join, but it is weak and ineffective, and as a tribe they are
little more than serfs, ascripti glebæ; a few are now beginning to
cultivate as sub-tenants.