f any persons
whom they suspect of having cast the evil eye upon them. Then the pot
of water is taken out at midnight of a Wednesday or a Sunday and placed
upside down on some cross-roads with a shoe over it, and the sufferer
should be cured. Their belief about the sun and moon is that an old
woman had two sons who were invited by the gods to dinner. Before they
left she said to them that as they were going out there would be no one
to cook, so they must remember to bring back something for her. The
elder brother forgot what his mother had said and took nothing away
with him; but the younger remembered her and brought back something
from the feast. So when they came back the old woman cursed the elder
brother and said that as he had forgotten her he should be the sun
and scorch and dry up all vegetation with his beams; but the younger
brother should be the moon and make the world cool and pleasant at
night. The story is so puerile that it is only worth reproduction
as a specimen of the level of a Mahar's intelligence. The belief in
evil spirits appears to be on the decline, as a result of education
and accumulated experience. Mr. C. Brown states that in Malkapur of
Berar the Mahars say that there are no wandering spirits in the hills
by night of such a nature that people need fear them. There are only
tiny _pari_ or fairies, small creatures in human form, but with the
power of changing their appearance, who do no harm to any one.

12. Social rules

When an outsider is to be received into the community all the hair on
his face is shaved, being wetted with the urine of a boy belonging
to the group to which he seeks admission. Mahars will eat all kinds
of food including the flesh of crocodiles and rats, but some of them
abstain from beef. There is nothing peculiar in their dress except that
the men wear a black woollen thread round their necks. [130] The women
may be recognised by their bold carriage, the absence of nose-rings and
the large irregular dabs of vermilion on the forehead. Mahar women do
not, as a rule, wear the _choli_ or breast-cloth. An unmarried girl
does not put on vermilion nor draw her cloth over her head. Women
must be tattooed with dots on the face, representations of scorpions,
flowers and snakes on the arms and legs, and some dots to represent
flies on the hands. It is the custom for a girl's father or mother
or father-in-law to have her tattooed in one place on the hand or
arm immediately on