38 Migratory Tribes of 



med than the settled population ; but the females are less tall, 

 and more dark than the Canarese women among whom they 

 are located. Their food differs from that of the Hindoo as 

 well as the Mahomedan ; they never eat the cow or bullock, 

 but the jackal, porcupine, hog and wild boar, deer and tigers, 

 are sought after and used by them. They deny that robbery 

 is ever made a regular mode of earning a subsistence ; an ho- 

 nesty, however, that the people among whom they dwell give 

 them but little credit for. Indeed, from my own observation, 

 on an occasion that brought the circumstances of a commu- 

 nity to the light, it is difficult to believe that the great sums 

 found in their possession could have been honestly earned. 

 They live by thieving, making grass screens and baskets. 

 The men likewise attend at festivals, marriages, and births, 

 as musicians, which has obtained for them the name of Bajan- 

 tri; and at the reaping season all resort to the fields to beg 

 and pilfer from the farmers, for they will not be induced to 

 put their hands to labour. The women, too, earn a little 

 money by tattooing on the skin the marks and figures of the 

 gods, which the females of all castes of Hindus ornament 

 their arms and foreheads with. The Bajantri korawa reside 

 in mud huts, in small societies outside the walls of the village 

 to which they have temporarily attached themselves. The 

 age for marrying is not a fixed time ; and, different from every 

 other people in India, the youth of the female is not thought 

 of consequence, the old man telling this when a lad with mus- 

 taches just appearing, having been married to a woman who, 

 five years previously, had attained maturity ; a marriage that 

 would have been opposed to the customs and repugnant to 

 the feelings alike of Hindoo and Mahomedan. To this wife 

 he yet remains attached, though it is not unusual to have two, 

 three, or four wives in one household, among this people. In 

 marrying, at the hour pronounced to be fortunate by a Brah- 

 min, the bride and bridegroom, smeared with turmeric, are 

 seated on the ground, and a circle drawn with rice around 

 them. For five days the musicians attend before their door, 

 and the whole concludes by the neighbours gathering round 



