Naihes in Central India, 33 



coming day, and is thus initiated into the practice of her do- 

 mestic duties. The Binjarries are not restricted to one wife. 

 It is rare, however, to have more than three or four in a house. 



In the roving life they lead, exposed to the vicissitudes of a 

 tropical climate, and liable to accidents and disease, we would 

 fancy that necessity would have taught them some acquaint- 

 ance with simples and the arts of life ; but that custom, fatal 

 to improvement, which obtains throughout India, binding each 

 community to follow only those pursuits which their prede- 

 cessors have been engaged in, prevails with equal effect among 

 this migratory tribe, to whom every art is equally unknown. 

 AVhen sickness occurs, they lead the sick man to the feet of 

 the bullock called " Hatadia," for, though they say they pay 

 reverence to images, and that their religion is that of tho 

 Sikhs, followers of Nana Govind, the object of their worship is 

 this '* Hatadia," a bullock devoted to the god Balajeo. On 

 this animal no burden is ever laid ; but decorated with stream- 

 ers of red dyed silk and tinkling bells, with many brass chains 

 and rings on the neck and feet, and strings of cowrie-shells 

 and silken tassels, hanging in all directions, he moves steadily on 

 at the head of the convoy, and tho place he lies down on when 

 tired, that they make their halting ground for the day ; at his 

 feet they make their vows when difficulties overtake them, and 

 in illness, whether of themselves or cattle, they trust to his 

 worship for a cure. This bullock is their god, their guide, 

 and their physician. 



From their migratory life, we are deprived of all means of 

 calculating their numbers ; but spread throughout the whole of 

 India, in largo bodies, they no doubt far exceed any amount 

 of people which are brought to one individuaPs notice. 



They bury the people who die unmarried, but the bodies of 

 the married are burned . Food is placed at the head and foot of 



daughter of the Chaldeans, take tho millstones and grind meal; and in Matt, 

 xxiv. 41. it is said, Hwo women shall bo grinding at the mill, the ono 

 shall bo taken and the other left.' One person can generally grind suffi- 

 cient for the use of a small family, but where much is required, two wo- 

 men, as noticed in tho Scripture, sit on tho ground with tho mill-stones 

 between them. 



VOL. XXXY. NO. LXIX. JUNE 1843. C 



