of
these as he rode along is said to have struck fear into the heart
of the Nizam. It is a common custom among well-to-do tenants and
proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when
the crop is ripe to eat _hurda_ or the pods of juari roasted in hot
ashes. For cooking purposes juari is ground in an ordinary handmill
and then passed through a sieve, which separates the finer from the
coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water
and baked into thick flat _chapatis_ or cakes, weighing more than half
a pound each; while the coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The
boiled pulse of _arhar_ (_Cajanus indicus_) is commonly eaten with
juari, and the _chapatis_ are either dipped into cold linseed oil
or consumed dry. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of
green vegetables, generally with very little savour to a European
palate. These are usually boiled and then mixed into a salad with
linseed or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt or powdered chillies,
these last being the Kunbi's indispensable condiment. He is also
very fond of onions and garlic, which are either chopped and boiled,
or eaten raw. Butter-milk when available is mixed with the boiled
juari after it is cooked, while wheat and rice, butter and sugar are
delicacies reserved for festivals. As a rule only water is drunk,
but the caste indulge in country liquor on festive occasions. Tobacco
is commonly chewed after each meal or smoked in leaf cigarettes,
or in _chilams_ or clay pipe-bowls without a stem. Men also take
snuff, and a few women chew tobacco and take snuff, though they
do not smoke. It is noticeable that different subdivisions of the
caste will commonly take food from each other in Berar, whereas in
the Central Provinces they refuse to do so. The more liberal usage
in Berar is possibly another case of Muhammadan influence. Small
children eat with their father and brothers, but the women always
wait on the men, and take their own food afterwards. Among the Dalia
Kunbis of Nimar, however, women eat before men at caste feasts in
opposition to the usual practice. It is stated in explanation that
on one occasion when the men had finished their meal first and gone
home, the women on returning were waylaid in the dark and robbed of
their ornaments. And hence it was decided that they should always eat
first and go home before nightfall. The Kunbi is fairly liberal in
the matter of food. He will eat the fle