The country liquor, consisting of spirits distilled from the flowers
of the mahua tree, is an indispensable adjunct to marriage and other
ceremonial feasts among the lower castes of Hindus and the non-Aryan
tribes. It is usually drunk before the meal out of brass vessels,
cocoanut-shells or leaf-cups, water being afterwards taken with
the food itself. If an offender has to give a penalty feast for
readmission to caste but the whole burden of the expense is beyond
his means, other persons who may have committed minor offences and
owe something to the caste on that account are called upon to provide
the liquor. Similarly at the funeral feast the heir and chief mourner
may provide the food and more distant relatives the liquor. The Gonds
never take food while drinking, and as a rule one man does not drink
alone. Three or four of them go to the liquor-shop together and each in
turn buys a whole bottle of liquor which they share with each other,
each bottle being paid for by one of the company and not jointly. And
if a friend from another village turns up and is invited to drink he
is not allowed to pay anything. In towns there will be in the vicinity
of the liquor-shop retailers of little roasted balls of meat on sticks
and cakes of gram-flour fried in salt and chillies. These the customers
eat, presumably to stimulate their thirst or as a palliative to the
effects of the spirit. Illicit distillation is still habitual among
the Gonds of Mandla, who have been accustomed to make their own liquor
from time immemorial. In the rains, when travelling is difficult and
the excise officers cannot descend on them without notice, they make
the liquor in their houses. In the open season they go to the forest
and find some spot secluded behind rocks and also near water. When
the fermented mahua is ready they put up the distilling vat in the
middle of the day so that the smoke may be less perceptible, and
one of them will climb a tree and keep watch for the approach of the
Excise Sub-Inspector and his myrmidons while the other distils.