[Social customs.] 17. The only meat from which Cheros habitually abstain is that of the cow, and the prohibition of its use is based on religious motives. Their taboos are the same as those of the Kols. Men and women eat apart. They salute Brâhmans and other superiors in the pâêlagi form, to others they salâm. When they meet a superior they very often take off the turban and stand on one leg. They will eat food cooked in butter (pakka khâna) only from the hands of Brâhmans. They, in fact, affect a good deal of ceremonial purity like the Cheros of Palamau and the Kharrias. [256] Kalwârs and all the wandering Banyas who go about the country for grain will eat pakka khâna and drink water from their hands. Their usual occupations are cultivating, ploughing for others, cutting wood, collecting lac and other jungle produce. They will not breed silkworms, which is considered a most disreputable occupation and left to Bhuiyârs and Chamârs. They have an elementary communal organisation (eka) in which the residents of three or four villages join for general business. But this seems to be on the decline. There is no trace of a periodical distribution of fields, but only the lands near the village site are habitually cultivated. The others are under a system of biennial fallow. In all but the cleared and cultivated lands the right of pasturage is unrestricted. Cheros have a reputation for honesty and good conduct, and they are liked in villages better than Bhuiyas or Bhuiyârs: but they are lazy cultivators. [Houses.] 18. Like all these jungle races they keep their houses separate from each other, partly through fear of witchcraft practised by neighbours, to avoid infection, the work of evil spirits, and with this object sick people constantly change their houses, partly through fear of fire, as their houses are very inflammable. This is also the rule with the Bhîls. [257] Chhîpi. [258]—(Hindi, chhâpna, “to print,” Sans: kship, “to pour”).—The caste of calico printers and chintz stampers, of whom there are both a Hindu and a Muhammadan branch. The Hindu branch have a tradition that they were once Râthaur Râjputs. In the same way the Bhavsârs or calenders of Bombay have a tradition that when Parasurâma was exterminating the Kshatriya race they were Râjputs living at Mathura, and, fearing the same fate as their brethren, became followers of one Râmdevji, a mendicant, and came to Mârwâr. This Râmdevji being a calender his followers at first were called Chhîppas. Their present name they derive from the fact of their having placed faith (bhâv) in this mendicant. [259] The Eastern Chhîpis refer their origin to a place which they call Dheri Avarerachh, somewhere in Bundelkhand. Dheri is a village in the Samthar State which lies between Jâlaun and Jhânsi, and Avarerachh is a corruption of Irichh or Erichh, a town in Pargana Moth, of the Jhânsi District, which is even to the present day noted for its manufacture of chintz. [260]