156 On the Boksas of Bijnour. [No. 3, 
who gets a rupee or two for his trouble. Besides his special fees, 
each purohit receives a general contribution from every village in his 
beat, apparently amounting to about 5 maunds of grain each crop, which 
is allocated among families according to their means. 
In small matters also the Boksas adhere to Hindoo customs. Thus, 
they do not wear their shoes (when they have any to wear) during’ 
cooking, and they kill animals to be used as food, by jhatka a blow 
or cut on the back of theneck, and not by the throat-cutting haldl- 
karna of the Mussulmans. 
A good many of the tribe are said to profess special devotion 
to particular deities, the only ones named to me being the spouse 
of Siva; under her designations Bhowani and Devi, with Baba 
Kalu and Surwar Sakhi. Of the personality of the last, I could learn 
nothing. Kalu Saiyid is a local saint, who, curious enough, they state 
to have been a Mussulman, as indeed the appellation Saiyid, if it be 
not a corruption, would indicate, Some traditions about his life and 
death are current, and before his shrine, at the entrance to the main 
pass through the Siwaliks into the Patli Doon, Hindoos of all sects 
make offerings, and his name “‘ Kalu Saiyid ki jac” is invoked in the 
neighbourhood of the tomb on entering upon an undertaking, or when 
engaged in severe exertion such as heaving up a load, &e. 
The Boksas only marry among their own tribe, but there does not 
appear to be any restriction within its limits. In this tract they will 
have nothing to say to intermarriage with the Tharoos (who, they 
declare, “eat frogs and lizards’), and there is some authority for 
believing that Elliot must have been misinformed, when told that 
some of the eastern Boksas, “in Kilpoory and Subna, occasionally 
intermarry with the Tharoos.” The wife always follows the path of 
her husband, and the children that of their father, in regard to a 
difference to be presently mentioned. 
Their puwrohits are Gour Brahmins who hold the office here- 
ditarily. They do not live among their flock, but outside the 
forest tract, one residing at Afzulghur, towards the eastern end, and 
two in Nujeebabad towards the western end of the hathi. One of 
those of Nujeebabad has the six most westerly villages in his charge, 
the other has the three in the centre, and the Afzulghur man has the 
four easternmost with the Patli Doon villages. I conversed with all 

