evas have a special connection with Kumhars or potters,
whom they address by the term of _kaka_ or paternal uncle, and at whose
houses they lodge on their travels, presenting their host with the two
halves of a cocoanut. The caste do not observe celibacy. A price of
Rs. 25 has usually to be given for a bride, and a Brahman is employed
to perform the ceremony. At the conclusion of this the Brahman invests
the bridegroom with a sacred thread, which he thereafter continues to
wear. Widow marriage is permitted, and widows are commonly married to
widowers. Divorce is also permitted. When a man's wife dies he shaves
his moustache and beard, if any, in mourning and a father likewise
for a daughter-in-law; this is somewhat peculiar, as other Hindus do
not shave the moustache for a wife or daughter-in-law. The Basdewas
are wandering mendicants. In the Maratha Districts they wear a plume
of peacock's feathers, which they say was given to them as a badge
by Krishna. In Saugor and Damoh instead of this they carry during the
period from Dasahra to the end of Magh or from September to January a
brass vessel called _matuk_ bound on their heads. It is surmounted by
a brass cone and adorned with mango-leaves, cowries and a piece of red
cloth, and with figures of Rama and Lakshman. Their stock-in-trade for
begging consists of two _kartals_ or wooden clappers which are struck
against each other; _ghungrus_ or jingling ornaments for the feet,
worn when dancing; and a _paijna_ or kind of rattle, consisting of
two semicircular iron wires bound at each end to a piece of wood with
rings slung on to them; this is simply shaken in the hand and gives
out a sound from the movement of the rings against the wires. They
worship all these implements as well as their beggar's wallet on
the Janam-Ashtami or Krishna's birthday, the Dasahra, and the full
moon of Magh (January). They rise early and beg only in the morning
from about four till eight, and sing songs in praise of Sarwan and
Karan. Sarwan was a son renowned for his filial piety; he maintained
and did service to his old blind parents to the end of their lives,
much against the will of his wife, and was proof against all her
machinations to induce him to abandon them. Karan was a proverbially
charitable king, and all his family had the same virtue. His wife gave
away daily rice and pulse to those who required it, his daughter gave
them clothes, his son distributed cows as alms and his daughter-in-