t,
and during the process the operator sings songs in order that her
attention may be diverted and she may not feel the pain. After she
has finished the operator mutters a charm to prevent evil spirits
from troubling the girl and causing her pain.

10. Greetings and method of address

The caste have some strict taboos on names and on conversation
between the sexes. A man will only address his wife, sister, daughter,
paternal aunt or niece directly. If he has occasion to speak to some
other woman he will take his daughter or other female relative with
him and do his business through her. He will not speak even to his own
women before a crowd. A woman will similarly only speak to her father,
son or nephew, and father-, son- or younger brother-in-law. She will
not speak to her elder brother-in-law, and she will not address her
husband in the presence of his father, elder brother or any other
relative whom he reveres. A wife will never call her husband by his
name, but always address him as father of her son, and, if she has no
son, will sometimes speak to him through his younger brother. Neither
the father nor mother will call their eldest son by his name, but will
use some other name. Similarly a daughter-in-law is given a fresh
name on coming into the house, and on her arrival her mother-in-law
looks at her for the first time through a _guna_ or ring of baked
gram-flour. A man meeting his father or elder brother will touch his
feet in silence. One meeting his sister's husband, sister's son or
son-in-law, will touch his feet and say, '_Sahib, salaam_.'

11. Sacred thread and social status

The higher clans invest boys with the sacred thread either when they
are initiated by a Guru or spiritual preceptor, or when they are
married. The thread is made by a Brahman and has five knots. Recently
a large landholder in Mandla, a Jarha Lodhi, has assumed the sacred
thread himself for the first time and sent round a circular to his
caste-men enjoining them also to wear it. His family priest has
produced a legend of the usual type showing how the Jarha Lodhis
are Rajputs whose ancestors threw away their sacred threads in order
to escape the vengeance of Parasurama. Generally in social position
the Lodhis may be considered to rank with, but slightly above, the
ordinary cultivating castes, such as the Kurmis. This superiority
in no way arises from their origin, since, as already seen, they are
a very low caste in thei