1844] Natives in Central India. 15 



now dispersed, all classes continue to speak the Mahratta tongue, 

 though they must likewise acquire a knowledge of the language of the 

 country they wander about in, to enable them to earn a livelihood. 

 Their traditions carry back their origin to the obscure periods of 

 Hindu history; and they say they have sprung from ten individuals, 

 and thus account for the ten tribes into which we now find them 

 divided ; and this traditionary account of a common origin receives 

 corroboration from the circumstance that all the tribes marry and eat 

 together. 



In each tribe an individual is superior to the others, to whom the 

 rank descends by birth, though no title is attached to the office. All 

 disputes that arise are arranged by a jury, whose decisions are made 

 in accordance with the customs of their forefathers received by tradi- 

 tion. 



These wanderers earn a living by catching fish with nets, and their 

 women earn a little by knitting, and by tattooing the dark blue marks 

 on the foreheads of the brahmins and lingaets ; but their chief 

 occupation is the exhibition of the transparencies used in represent- 

 ing the battles of the Panch Pandya, five brothers, whose exploits are 

 we believe, detailed in the Ramayuna. The figures are painted on 

 deer-skin with very brilliant colours, and the story being one the 

 Hindu never tires in listening to, in every village after night-fall you 

 may see the representation of the battles, and hear the Keeli Katr 

 describing the heroes' deeds. 



Their females are very virtuous, and one woman has been known 

 to give birth to twelve children. Reading and writing is unknown 

 among them. Their dress and food are the same as the Hindus 

 among whom they dwell. 



They live in square huts formed of grass sewed together, the whole 

 being perhaps a rupee in value. These they themselves make and 

 carry with them at their periodical migrations, which custom renders 

 obligatory every three months, — a longer stay would, they say, sub- 

 ject them to some dire calamity ; and as the third moon passes by, 

 the spot that yesterday was a merry encamping ground, is to-day a 

 desolate and unoccupied waste. 



The Muddikpor seemed to me to have no idea of a Supreme Being. 

 They pay their devotions to the transparent figures with which the 



