The dress of the Halbas, as of other Chhattisgarh castes, is scanty,
and most of them have only a short cloth about the loins and another
round the shoulders. They dispense with both shoes and head-cloth,
but every man must have a thread tied round his waist. To this thread
in former times, Colonel Dalton remarks, the apron of leaves was not
improbably suspended. The women do not wear nose-rings, spangles on the
forehead or rings on the toes; but girl children have the left nostril
pierced, and this must always be done on the full moon day of the month
of Pus (December). A copper ring is inserted in the nostril and worn
for a few months, but must be removed before the girl's marriage. A
married woman has a cloth over her head, and smears vermilion on
the parting of her hair and also on her forehead. An unmarried girl
may have the copper ring already mentioned, and may place a dab of
vermilion on her forehead, but must not smear it on the parting of
her hair. She goes bare-headed till marriage, as is the custom in
Chhattisgarh. A widow should not have vermilion on her face at all,
nor should she use glass bangles or ornaments about the ankles. She
may have a string of glass beads about her neck. A woman's cloth is
usually white with a broad red border all round it. The Gonds and
Halbas tie the cloth round the waist and carry the slack end from the
left side behind up the back and over the head and right shoulder;
while women of higher castes take the cloth from the right side over
the head and left shoulder.