213 



IJistorjf of the Ramoossies. 



[July 



twenty years, who has associated with them for sometime and been 



admitted as described, they will marry to a woman similarly cir- 

 cumstanced, and should there l)e any difficulty in doin<j so, the 

 Naiks will prevail on some quiet and poor Ramoossy to give his 

 daugliter in marriage to such a convert. The offspring after the 

 second, third, or fourth generation is considered to have attained 

 sufli(Ment purity of caste to intermarry with any of the Naik's families. 



A Ramoossy who cohabits with a female of the Mhar caste, or 

 any of the lower tribes, is considered to have degraded himself, 

 therefore is deemed unworthy of enjoving the privileges of their so- 

 ciety, and is consequently, expelled from their tribe. 



I have before stated that many of the Ramoossies live in great 

 misery, merely from hand to mouth. Their food is of the poorest 

 description, although they will generally eat all animal food when 

 they can get it with the exception of that of the cow, and the com- 

 mon village hos:- They express a degree of horror when asked if 

 they eat beef, although many persons maintain that they do so. I 

 have questioned many of them on the subject, but they invariably 

 denied it. However, some of their fathers may have indulged 

 themselves now and then with a beef-steak, but the children appear 

 to have relinquished a custom reckoned odious among the Hindoo 

 population, with the exception of three or four of the degraded 

 clafses, who even eat carrion. The Ramoossies are fond of indul- 

 ging in spirituous liquors ; but they say they are now under the ne- 

 cessity of abstaining from this beverage owing to their poverty, and 

 the difficulty of obtaining it. It might be generally supposed that 

 these people lived with some degree of comfort, but they are thought- 

 less and improvident ; and, notwithstanding that their stock is occa- 

 sionally increased from extrinsic sources, by the addition of a few 

 rupees in cash, a few gold and silver ornaments, or a few brass or 

 copper pots and pans, or puggries and anggrikas, or saries and 

 cholnas, dhotturs and chollies, coarse and fine clothes, still, more 

 or less poverty, exists in the Ramoossie's house, and it is only in 

 the Naick's dwelling that appearances of some comfort are to be 

 found, unless it be in that of one specially favoured and patronized 

 by him ; but with very few exceptions, the Ramoossies are spend- 

 thrifts, and in a very short time expend whatever falls into their 

 hands, for the Chief Naiks contrive to keep all the others in great 

 subjection ; so that, when they have rendered the Naik his dues of 

 any property they may have plundered, little remains for their own 

 consumption, and in the event of a common Ramoossy declining to 



