Natives in Central India. 31 



poor, and where disease has swept away their bullocks, the 

 community, unable to purchase others, has broken up and dis- 

 persed. When thus reduced, the women bring firewood to the 

 towns to sell, which their husbands cut in the jungles. They 

 were at all times considered a bold and formidable race, and 

 when traversing the country with herds of bullocks, transport- 

 ing grain and salt, they frequently perpetrated robberies in 

 gangs, and they are not over scrupulous in committing murder 

 on these occasions, if they meet with opposition, or deem it ne- 

 cessary for their security. With the approaches of poverty, 

 too, vice has grown apace ; many are convicted of stealing cat- 

 tle and children, and Thugs have also been detected among 

 them. 



A community of Binjarries is termed a Tanda. In each Tan- 

 da an individual is selected to whom the title of Naek is given, 

 but his rank would seem to clothe him with but little authority. 

 No rules exist among them to regulate their conduct or guide 

 their society, and though they keep together in large bodies, 

 it would seem more from their intermarriages and the securi- 

 ty numbers give, than from any laws binding them to the tribe. 

 The Tandas in their movements encamp on wastes and uncul- 

 tivated spots, sometimes near but more frequently remote 

 from towns. 



The Binjarries pull down the wild boar with dogs of a 

 powerful and peculiar breed, which they keep in all their 

 Tandas ; but with the exception of the wild hog, they live, 

 as regards food, like other Hindus. A few are met with 

 who can read and write. Their wandering life precludes them 

 from residing in towns ; they live under tents while the hot 

 weather continues, and on the approach of the monsoon con- 

 struct grass huts to shelter them from the piercing rains that 

 fall. 



Their features are dark and bronzed. The men have tall 

 and muscular frames. Their dress differing much from the na- 

 tions and communities around them, attracts attention to the 

 females of the tribe, on whom nature has bestowed the most 

 faultless forms ; tall and exquisitely moulded, these dark child- 

 ren of the desert move with a grace unwitnessed among a civi- 

 lized people, their loose and peculiarly formed garments assist- 



