wo hours. The guests eat all the different dishes
together with their fingers, taking a little of each according to their
fancy. Each man has his _lota_ or vessel of water by him and drinks
as he eats. When the meal is finished large brass plates are brought
in, one being given to about ten guests, and they wash their hands
over these, pouring water on them from their vessels. A fresh carpet
is then spread in the yard and the guests sit on it, and betel-leaf
and tobacco are distributed. The huqqa is passed round, and _chilams_
and _chongis_ (clay pipe-bowls and leaf-pipes) are provided for those
who want them. The women do not appear at the feast but stay inside,
sitting in the _angan_ or inner court, which is behind the _purda_.

42. Hospitality

The people still show great hospitality, and it is the custom of
many malguzars, at least in Chhattisgarh, to afford food and a
night's rest to all travellers who may require it. When a Brahman
comes to the village such malguzars will give him one or two annas,
and to a Pandit or learned man as much as a rupee. Formerly it is
said that when any stranger came through the village he was at once
offered a cup of milk and told to drink it or throw it away. But
this custom has died out in Chhattisgarh, though one has met with
it once or twice in Sambalpur. When District Officers go on tour,
well-to-do landowners ask to be allowed to supply free provisions
for the whole camp at least for a day, and it is difficult to refuse
them gracefully. In Mandla, Banias and malguzars in villages near
the Nerbudda sometimes undertake to give a pound of grain to every
_parikramawasi_ or pilgrim perambulating the Nerbudda. And as the
number of these steadily increases in consequence, they often become
impoverished as a result of such indiscriminate charity.

43. Social customs. Tattooing

The Kurmis employ Brahmans for their ceremonies. They have _gurus_
or spiritual preceptors who may be Brahmans or Bairagis; the _guru_
is given from 8 annas to Rs. 5 when he initiates a neophyte, as
well as his food and a new white cloth. The _guru_ is occasionally
consulted on some religious question, but otherwise he does nothing
for his disciple except to pay him an occasional visit, when he is
hospitably entertained. The Kurmis of the northern Districts do not
as a rule eat meat and also abstain from alcohol, but in Chhattisgarh
they eat the flesh of clean animals and fish, and also of fowls,