Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
cotton and other cloths, whereas women cannot do so, for they are
under the curse of Sita. But the passion for fineries in woman is
naturally so strong that the modern Gadaba woman is now taking the
liberty of putting cotton thread for the woof and ankudu fibre for
the warp, and thus is able to turn out a more comfortable and finer
cloth. But some old crones informed me that this mixed cloth is not
so auspicious as that prepared wholly from the fibre."
Some Gadaba women wear immense earrings made of long pieces of brass
wire wound into a circle, which hang down from a hole in the ear,
and sometimes reach to the shoulders. The wire is sold in the shandy
(market) at so much a cubit. The head-dress of some of the women
consists of a chaplet of Oliva shells, and strings of beads of various
sizes and colours, or the red and black berries of Abrus precatorius,
with pendants which hang over the forehead. The women also wear
bead necklaces, to which a coin may sometimes be seen attached
as a pendant. Bracelets and rings are as a rule made of brass or
copper, but sometimes silver rings are worn. Toe-rings and brass or
silver anklets are considered fashionable ornaments. Among the Olaro
Gadabas, the wearing of brass anklets by a woman indicates that she is
married. For teaching backward children to walk, the Gadabas employ
a bamboo stick split so as to make a fork, the prongs of which are
connected by a cross-bar. The apparatus is held by the mother, and
the child, clutching the cross-bar, toddles along.
Among the Bodo and Olaro sections, the following septs occur:--Kora
(sun), Nag (cobra), Bhag (tiger), Kira (parrot), and Gollari
(monkey). The Gadabas who have settled in the plains seem to have
forgotten the sept names, but will not injure or kill certain animals,
e.g., the cobra.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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