1844.] Natives in Central India. 13 



which, in after life, the profession that both sexes follow too pro- 

 minently develop. They are " Athletse ;" and the boys and girls are 

 trained to the most surprizing feats of agility from their earliest in- 

 fancy. Besides this, which is their ostensible mode of gaining a liveli- 

 hood, the men of this wandering people earn sums of money by exor- 

 cising demons from the persons of those they possess ;* but what they 

 most trust to for support is devoting their female relatives to the gods. 



The various castes of Hindus have their various gods, at whose 

 shrines the children are devoted; but the god of this Bhatoo is Kan- 

 doba,t in the village of Jeejoorie, near Poona. About the age of five 

 they carry their female relations there, and after performing sacrifice, 

 and burning frankincense, they lay the girl at the feet of the deity, to 

 which she is now considered married. These devoted women, and 

 all the male children, are regularly trained to athletic exercises, and 

 the community wanders from village to village to exhibit. Most of 

 their feats are performed by means of a bamboo. On the morning of 

 the day they intend exhibiting, they abstain from all food, and to this 

 rule they attribute much of their freedom from disease; and my in- 

 formant, an old man sixty years of age, can recollect no instance of 

 rupture among them. Before his own eyes, however, he has seen four 

 people killed by falls from the bamboo, innumerable injuries sustain- 

 ed by others, and he himself has his right elbow joint fearfully 

 crushed. 



They settle unimportant points among themselves by arbitration, 

 but all serious matters are brought for the decision of their British 

 rulers. They are totally uneducated ; the old man giving me this 

 information has never seen or heard of any one who could read or 

 write. Impressed with the belief, prevalent throughout India, that 

 the muscular system does not retain its vigour after marriage, the 

 Doomur or Bhatoo delays marrying till middle-aged ; and then, owing 

 to the great expense the ceremonies when taking a young wife occa- 

 sion, the Bhatoo usually allies himself with a woman who, having been 

 devoted to the gods in her infancy, has now become too old to make 



* Insane people are frequently taken to have the demon cast forth to these people, 

 and are occasionally placed in a cleft of a tree,— these, of course, are not benefited by 

 the processes, but demons are frequently cast out of people who had no demons m 

 them. 



f An incarnation of Mahadeva. 



