hands of any other Chamar. The Nona group take their name
from Nona or Lona Chamarin, a well-known witch about whom Mr. Crooke
relates the following story: [454] "Her legend tells how Dhanwantari,
the physician of the gods, was bitten by Takshaka, the king of the
snakes, and knowing that death approached he ordered his sons to cook
and eat his body after his death, so that they might thereby inherit
his skill in medicine. They accordingly cooked his body in a cauldron,
and were about to eat it when Takshaka appeared to them in the form
of a Brahman and warned them against this act of cannibalism. So
they let the cauldron float down the Ganges, and as it floated down,
Lona the Chamarin, who was washing on the bank of the river, took the
vessel out in ignorance of its contents, and partook of the ghastly
food. She at once obtained power to cure diseases, and especially
snake-bite. One day all the women were transplanting rice, and it
was found that Lona could do as much work as all her companions put
together. So they watched her, and when she thought she was alone she
stripped off her clothes (nudity being an essential element in magic),
muttered some spells, and threw the plants into the air, when they
all settled down in their proper places. Finding she was observed, she
tried to escape, and as she ran the earth opened, and all the water of
the rice-fields followed her and thus was formed the channel of the
Loni River in the Unao District." This Lona or Nona has obtained the
position of a nursery bogey, and throughout Hindustan, Sir H. Risley
states, parents frighten naughty children by telling them that Nona
Chamarin will carry them off. The Chamars say that she was the mother
or grandmother of the prophet Ravi Das, or Rai Das already referred to.

4. Exogamous divisions.

The caste is also divided into a large number of exogamous groups
or sections, whose names, as might be expected, present a great
diversity of character. Some are borrowed from Rajput clans, as
Surajvansi, Gaharwar and Rathor; while others, as Marai, are taken
from the Gonds. Instances of sections named after other castes are
Banjar (Banjara), Jogi, Chhipia (Chhipi, a tailor) and Khairwar
(a forest tribe). The Chhipia section preserve the memory of their
comparatively illustrious descent by refusing to eat pork. Instances
of sections called after a title or nickname of the reputed founder
are Maladhari, one who wears a garland; Machhi-Mundia