13. Meat is forbidden; some will not eat onions. They will not touch a Bhangi or Basor, or a person guilty of Hatya, as above described. Women are not allowed to touch the Sâlagrâma, and children under ten are not permitted to join in any religious celebration. They observe the usual taboo against the wife calling her husband by his name. It is said that at the Akhtîj festival, on the third of the light half of Baisâkh, the wife, in order to bring luck on the house, is obliged to call her husband once by his name. They abstain from wine, the flesh of monkeys, beef, pork, flesh of cloven-footed and uncloven-footed animals, fowls, fish, and all kinds of vermin. The head of the family does not eat the baingan or egg-plant (Solanum melongena) from Asârh till the Deouthân feast in Kârttik, and this vegetable is not eaten on the eleventh day of the light and dark fortnights in each month. Women and men eat apart, and before eating two morsels are offered to the gods with folded hands, and a libation of water is poured on the ground. The use of intoxicating drugs is not forbidden, but excess use of them is considered disgraceful. [Salutation.] 14. Their form of salutation is Râm! Râm! with the hand raised to the forehead. [Food.] 15. They will eat close to Ahîrs, but not out of the same dish. They will take food cooked by a Brâhman and will drink water from the hands of a Mâli, Kâchhi, Dhîmar, or Nâu. They will not smoke out of the pipe of a Basor, Bhangi, or Chamâr. [Occupation.] 16. The Dângis are ordinary cultivators and practise no handicrafts. DISTRIBUTION OF THE DÂNGIS ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891. =============+======= Districts. |Number. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~ Shâhjahânpur | 9 Jhânsi | 2,186 Jâlaun | 74 Lalitpur | 94 +~~~~~~~ Total | 2,363 =============+======= Darvesh.—A general Persian word for a faqîr. Mr. Platts derives it from the Zend root drigh, “to be poor, to beg,” and compares the Sanskrit darbh, root dribh and daridra. The term in these Provinces does not seem to denote a special caste; but Mr. Ibbetson [277] notices in the Panjâb that there seems to be a colony of people of this name, who cultivate land, play musical instruments, beg, make ropes, go to a house where there has been a death and chant the praises of the deceased, hang about mosques, and so forth. They are hardly ascetics, yet the small number of women seems to show that they have not yet formed into a separate caste, and are still recruited from outside. DISTRIBUTION OF THE DARVESH ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1891. ============+======= Districts. |Number. ~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~ Farrukhâbâd | 390 Mainpuri | 2 Etâwah | 3 Pilibhît | 3 Allahâbâd | 13 Jaunpur | 75 Sîtapur | 498 Kheri | 92 +~~~~~~~ Total | 1,076 ============+=======