The Khonds will admit into the community a male orphan child of any
superior caste, including the Binjhwars and Gonds. A virgin of any age
of one of these castes will also be admitted. A Gond man who takes
a Khond girl to wife can become a Khond by giving a feast. As might
be expected the tribe are closely connected with the Gaurs or Uriya
shepherds, whose business leads them to frequent the forests. Either a
man or woman of the Gaurs can be taken into the community on marrying
a Khond, and if a Khond girl marries a Gaur her children, though
not herself, can become members of that caste. The Khonds will eat
all kinds of animals, including rats, snakes and lizards, but with
the exception of the Kutia Khonds they have now given up beef. In
Kalahandi social delinquencies are punished by a fine of so many
field-mice, which the Khond considers a great delicacy. The catching
of twenty to forty field-mice to liquidate the fine imposes on the
culprit a large amount of trouble and labour, and when his task is
completed his friends and neighbours fry the mice and have a feast with
plenty of liquor, but he himself is not allowed to participate. Khond
women are profusely tattooed with figures of trees, flowers, fishes,
crocodiles, lizards and scorpions on the calf of the leg and the arms,
hands and chest, but seldom on the face. This is done for purposes
of ornament. Husband and wife do not mention each other's names,
and a woman may not speak the names of any of her husband's younger
brothers, as, if left a widow, she might subsequently have to marry
one of them. A paternal or maternal aunt may not name her nephew,
nor a man his younger brother's wife.