In Berar two main divisions of the Kanjars may be recognised, the
Kunchbandhia or those who make weavers' brooms and are comparatively
honest, and the other or criminal Kanjars. [322] The criminal Kanjars
may again be divided into the Marwari and Deccani groups. They were
probably once the same, but the Deccanis, owing to their settlement
in the south, have adopted some Maratha or Gujarati fashions, and
speak the Marathi language; their women wear the angia or Maratha
breast-cloth fastening behind, and have a gold ornament shaped
like a flower in the nose; [323] while the Marwari Kanjars have no
breast-cloth and may not wear gold ornaments at all. The Deccani
Kanjars are fond of stealing donkeys, their habit being either to
mix their own herds with those of the village and drive them all off
together, or, if they catch the donkeys unattended, to secrete them
in some water-course, tying their legs together, and if they remain
undiscovered to remove them at nightfall. The animals are at once
driven away for a long distance before any attempt is made to dispose
of them. The Marwari Kanjars consider it derogatory to keep donkeys
and therefore do not steal these animals. They are preeminently
cattle-lifters and sheep-stealers, and their encampments may be
recognised by the numbers of bullocks and cows about them. Their
women wear the short Marwari petticoat reaching half-way between the
knees and ankles. Their hair is plaited over the forehead and cowrie
shells and brass ornaments like buttons are often attached in it. Bead
necklaces are much worn by the women and bead and horse-hair necklets
by the men. A peculiarity about the women is that they are confirmed
snuff-takers and consume great quantities of the weed in this form. The
women go into the towns and villages and give exhibitions of singing
and dancing; and picking up any information they can acquire about
the location of property, impart this to the men. Sometimes they
take service, and a case was known in Jubbulpore of Kanjar women
hiring themselves out as pankha-pullers, with the result that the
houses in which they were employed were subsequently robbed. [324]
It is said, however, that they do not regularly break into houses,
but confine themselves to lurking theft. I have thought it desirable
to record here the above particulars of the criminal Kanjars, taken
from Major Gunthorpe's account; for, though the caste is, as already
stated, identical with the Sansias, their customs in Berar differ
considerably from those of the Sansias of Central India, who are
treated of in the article on that caste.