1 290 PANJAB CASTES.
2 word is o-enerally used in the Panjab for a monkey-man ; and I have classed
3 bim liere instead of with /rt?2V«. I believe that some of them havea sort
4 of pretence to a religious character ; hut their ostensible _ occupation is that
5 of Icadino- about bears, monkcve, and other performing animals, and they arc
6 said, like'the Kanjars, to maice clay pipe-bowls of superior quality. The
7 numbers returned are small except in Gurgaon, where the figares are sus-
8 piciously large'; but it is proliable that many of these men have returned
9 themselves simply as ,A-7rr«. The detailed tables of sub-divisions will when
10 published throw iight upon the subject.
11 594. The Baddun (Caste No. 150).- A gipsy tribe of Musalmdns
12 returned from the centre of the Panpb, chiefly in the upper valleys of the
13 Sutlej and Beas. Thev, like the Kehals, are followers of Imam Shah, and
14 justify by his teaching their habit of eating the crocodile, tortoise and frog.
15 They are considered outcasts by other Mahomedans. They work m straw,
16 make pipe-bowls, and their women bleed by cupping. They also are said to
17 lead about bears, and occasionally to travel as pedlars. They are said to
18 have three clace, Wahle, Dhara, and Balare, and to claim Arab origin.
19 595. The Gandhila (Caste No. 158).— The Gandhilas area low vagrant
20 tribe, who are said bv Elliott to be "a few degrees more respectable than the
21 Bawarias" though 1 fancy that in the Panjilb their positions are reversed.
22 They wander about bare-headed and bare-footed, beg, work in grass and straw,
23 catch quails, clean and sharpen knives and swords, cut wood, and generally
24 do odd jobs. They are said to eat tortoises and vermin. They also keep
25 donkeys, and even engage in trade in small wav. It is said that in some
26 parts they lead about performing bears ; but this 1 doubt. They have curious
27 traditions which are reported to mo fi'om distant parts of the Province,
28 regarding a kingdom which the tribe once possessed, and which they seem
29 inclined "to place beyond the Indus. They say they are under a vow not
30 to wear shoes or turbans till their possessions are restored to them.
31 THE SCAVENGER CASTES.
32 596. The Scavenger Castes.— Abstract No. 99* on the next page shows *P. 291-
33 the distribution of this class, in which I have included Chuhra, Dhanak, and
34 Khatik. The class is numerically and (economically one of the most im-
35 portant in the Province, for the Chiihras are only exceeded in number by the
36 Jat, Riijput, and Brahman, while they occupy a very prominent position
37 among the agricultural labourers of the Panjal). But socially they are the
38 lowest of the low, even lower perhaps than the vagrant Sansi and the gipsy
39 Nat, and as a rule can hardly be said to stand even .at the foot of the social
40 ladder, though some sections of the clan have mounted the first one or two
41 steps. Their hereditary occupation is scavengering, sweeping the houses and
42 streets, working up, carrying to the fields, and distributing manure, and in
43 cities and in village houses where the women are strictly secluded, removing
44 night soil. They alone of all classes keep those impure animals, pigs and fowls ;
45 and they and the leather-workers alone eat the flesh of animals that have died
46 of disease or by natural death. Together with the vagrants and gipsies they
47 are the hereditary workers in grass and reeds, from which they make winnow-
48 1 Mr. Chaiiiiing suggests that tliese men iimy be tlie fnqirs of Ibe sbrine of Shah Choliha, a
49 saint nnich vcncratcil by the Meos; insomuch that tlie abduction of a married woman from the
50 fair of the saint is held to be allowable, Shah Chokha being said to have given the woman to the
51 abductor.