Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
are prepared by manual and pedal labour, as men, women, and children,
assemble in the field, and puddle the mud and water until it assumes
the desired consistency for the reception of the seed.
"The hair is worn long during childhood, but tied into a club when
maturity is reached, and turbans are seldom worn. A narrow cloth is
bound round the loins, with Tartan ends which hang down in front
and behind, and a coarse long-cloth is wrapped round the figure
when the weather is cold. The war dress of the Khonds is elaborate,
and consists of a leather cuirass in front, and a flowing red cloak,
which, with an arrangement of 'bison' horns and peacock's feathers,
is supposed to strike awe into the beholder's mind. Khond women
wear a red or parti-coloured skirt reaching the knee, the neck
and bosom being left bare. Pano females generally wear an upper
cloth. All tattoo their faces. [Tattooing is said to be performed,
concurrently with ear-boring, when girls are about ten years old. The
tattoo marks are said to represent the implement used in tilling the
soil for cultivation, moustache, beard, etc.] Ornaments of beads and
brass bangles are worn, but the usage of diverse muttas (settlements)
varies very much. In some parts of the Goomsur Maliahs, the use of
glass and brass beads is confined to married women, virgins being
restricted to decorations composed of plaited grass. Matrons wear ten
or twelve ear-rings of different patterns, but, in many parts, young
girls substitute pieces of broom, which are worn till the wedding
day, and then discarded for brazen rings. Anklets are indispensable
in the dance on account of the jingling noise they make, and gold or
silver noserings are very commonly worn. [The Kondh of the Ganjam
Maliahs has been described as follows. [161] "He centres his great
love of decoration in his hair. This he tends, combs and oils, with
infinite care, and twists into a large loose knot, which is caught with
curiously shaped pins of sambur bone, gaily coloured combs and bronze
hairpins with curiously ornamented designs, and it is then gracefully
pinned over the left eyebrow. This knot he decorates according to
his fancy with the blue feathers of the jay (Indian roller, Coracias
indica), or the white feathers of the crane and stork, or the feathers
of the more gorgeous peacock. Two feathers generally wave in front,
while many more float behind. This knot, in the simple economy of his
life, also does duty as a pocket or pincushion, for into it he stuffs
his knife, his half-smoked cigarette of home-grown tobacco rolled in
a sal (Shorea robusta) leaf, or even his snuff wrapped in another leaf
pinned together with a thorn. Round his waist he wraps a white cloth,
bordered with a curious design in blue and red, of excellent home
manufacture, and over his shoulder is borne his almost inseparable
companion, the tanghi, of many curious shapes, consisting of an iron
blade with a long wooden handle ornamented with brass wire. In certain
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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