The ears of girls are pierced by a thorn, and the hole is enlarged by
putting in small pieces of wood or peacock's feathers. Gond women wear
in their ears the tarkhi or a little slab in shape like a palm-leaf,
covered with coloured glass and fixed on to a stalk of hemp-fibre
nearly an inch thick, which goes through the ear; or they wear the
silver shield-shaped ornament called dhara, which is described in the
article on Sunar. In Bastar the women have their ears pierced in a
dozen or more places, and have a small ring in each hole. If a woman
gets her ear torn through she is simply put out of caste and has to
give a feast for readmission, and is not kept out of caste till it
heals, like a Hindu woman.