rs regard this mode of
carrying earth as distinctive of themselves, and will on no account
transport it in baskets slung from the shoulders. They work very
hard when paid by the piece, and are notorious for their skill in
manipulating the pillars (_sakhi_, witness) left to mark work done,
so as to exaggerate the measurement. On one occasion while working
for me on a large lake at Govindpur, in the north of the Manbhum
District, a number of Beldars transplanted an entire pillar during
the night and claimed payment for several thousand feet of imaginary
earthwork. The fraud was most skilfully carried out, and was only
detected by accident." [255] The Beldars are often dishonest in their
dealings, and will take large advances for a tank or embankment, and
then abscond with the money without doing the work. During the open
season parties of the caste travel about in camp looking for work,
their furniture being loaded on donkeys. They carry grain in earthen
pots encased in bags of netting, neatly and closely woven, and grind
their wheat daily in a small mill set on a goat-skin. Butter is made
in one of their pots with a churning-stick, consisting of a cogged
wheel fixed on to the end of a wooden rod.

3. Odias of Chhattisgarh.

The Beldars of Chhattisgarh are divided into the Odia or Uriya, Larhia,
Kuchbandhia, Matkuda and Karigar groups. Uriya and Larhia are local
names, applied to residents of the Uriya country and Chhattisgarh
respectively. Odia is the name of a low Madras caste of masons,
but whether it is a corruption of Uriya is not clear. Karigar means
a workman, and Kuchbandhia is the name of a separate caste, who make
loom-combs for weavers. The Odias pretend to be fallen Rajputs. They
say that when Indra stole the sacrificial horse of Raja Sagar and
kept it in the underworld, the Raja's thousand sons dug great holes
through the earth to get it. Finally they arrived at the underworld
and were all reduced to ashes by the Rishi Kapil Muni, who dwelt
there. Their ghosts besought him for life, and he said that their
descendants should always continue to dig holes in the earth, which
would be used as tanks; and that whenever a tank was dug by them, and
its marriage celebrated with a sacrifice, the savour of the sacrifice
would descend to the ghosts and would afford them sustenance. The Odias
say that they are the descendants of the Raja's sons, and unless a tank
is dug and its marriage celebrated by them it remai