While ordinary cultivators have now taken to keeping goats, sheep
are still as a rule left to the Gadarias. These are of course valued
principally for their wool, from which the ordinary country blanket
is made. The sheep [3] are shorn two or sometimes three times a year,
in February, June and September, the best wool being obtained in
February from the cold weather coat. Members of the caste commonly
shear for each other without payment. The wool is carded with a
kamtha, or simple bow with a catgut string, and spun by the women of
the household. Blankets are woven by men on a loom like that used for
cotton cloth. The fabric is coarse and rough, but strong and durable,
and the colour is usually a dark dirty grey, approaching black,
being the same as that of the raw material. Every cultivator has one
of these, and the various uses to which it may be put are admirably
described by 'Eha' as follows: [4]
"The kammal is a home-spun blanket of the wool of black sheep, thick,
strong, as rough as a farrier's rasp, and of a colour which cannot
get dirty. When the Kunbi (cultivator) comes out of his hole in the
morning it is wrapped round his shoulders and reaches to his knees,
guarding him from his great enemy, the cold, for the thermometer is
down to 60° Fahrenheit. By-and-by he has a load to carry, so he folds
his kammal into a thick pad and puts it on the top of his head. Anon
he feels tired, so he lays down his load, and arranging his kammal
as a cushion, sits with comfort on a rugged rock or a stony bank, and
has a smoke. Or else he rolls himself in it from head to foot, like a
mummy, and enjoys a sound sleep on the roadside. It begins to rain,
he folds his kammal into an ingenious cowl and is safe. Many more
are its uses. I cannot number them all. Whatever he may be called
upon to carry, be it forest produce, or grain or household goods,
or his infant child, he will make a bundle of it with his kammal and
poise it on his head, or sling it across his back, and trudge away."