d no inconsiderable time over it. Grain is
sold in small measures holding about four ounces called _baraiyas_,
but each of these has a layer of mud at the bottom of varying degrees
of thickness, so as to reduce its capacity. Before a purchase can be
made it must be settled by whose _baraiya_ the grain is to be measured,
and the seller and purchaser each refuse the other's as being unfair
to himself, until at length after discussion some neutral person's
_baraiya_ is selected as a compromise. Their food consists largely
of forest fruits and roots with a scanty allowance of rice or the
light millets, and they can go without nourishment for periods which
appear extraordinary to civilised man. They eat the flesh of almost
all animals, though the more civilised abjure beef and monkeys. They
will take food from a Gond but not from a Brahman. The Baiga dearly
loves the common country liquor made from the mahua flower, and this is
consumed as largely as funds will permit of at weddings, funerals and
other social gatherings, and also if obtainable at other times. They
have a tribal _panchayat_ or committee which imposes penalties for
social offences, one punishment being the abstention from meat for a
fixed period. A girl going wrong with a man of the caste is punished
by a fine, but cases of unchastity among unmarried Baiga girls are
rare. Among their pastimes dancing is one of the chief, and in their
favourite dance, known as _karma_, the men and women form long lines
opposite to each other with the musicians between them. One of the
instruments, a drum called _mandar_, gives out a deep bass note which
can be heard for miles. The two lines advance and retire, everybody
singing at the same time, and when the dancers get fully into the
time and swing, the pace increases, the drums beat furiously, the
voices of the singers rise higher and higher, and by the light of the
bonfires which are kept burning the whole scene is wild in the extreme.

9. Occupation.

The Baigas formerly practised only shifting cultivation, burning down
patches of jungle and sowing seed on the ground fertilised by the
ashes after the breaking of the rains. Now that this method has been
prohibited in Government forest, attempts have been made to train them
to regular cultivation, but with indifferent success in Balaghat. An
idea of the difficulties to be encountered may be obtained from the
fact that in some villages the Baiga cultivators, if left unw