and end of the
rains. When the time has come the Gaontia headman or the Baiga priest
fetches a branch of the _karma_ tree from the forest and sets it up in
his yard as a notice and invitation to the village. After sunset all
the people, men, women and children, assemble and dance round the tree,
to the accompaniment of a drum known as Mandar. The dancing continues
all night, and in the morning the host plucks up the branch of the
_karma_ tree and consigns it to a stream, at the same time regaling
the dancers with rice, pulse and a goat. This dance is a religious
rite in honour of Karam Raja, and is believed to keep sickness from
the village and bring it prosperity. The tribe eat flesh, but abstain
from beef and pork. Girls are tattooed on arrival at puberty with
representations of the _tulsi_ or basil, four arrow-heads in the form
of a cross, and the foot-ornament known as _pairi_.

Mal

_Mal, Male, Maler, Mal Paharia._ [150]--A tribe of the Rajmahal
hills, who may be an isolated branch of the Savars. In 1911 about
1700 Mals were returned from the Chota Nagpur Feudatory States
recently transferred to the Central Provinces. The customs of the
Mals resemble those of the other hill tribes of Chota Nagpur. Sir
H. Risley states that the average stature is low, the complexion
dark and the figure short and sturdy. The following particulars are
reproduced from Colonel Dalton's account of the tribe:

"The hill lads and lasses are represented as forming very romantic
attachments, exhibiting the spectacle of real lovers 'sighing
like furnaces,' and the cockney expression of 'keeping company'
is peculiarly applicable to their courtship. If separated only for
an hour they are miserable, but there are apparently few obstacles
to the enjoyment of each other's society, as they work together, go
to market together, eat together, and sleep together! But if it be
found that they have overstepped the prescribed limits of billing and
cooing, the elders declare them to be out of the pale, and the blood
of animals must be shed at their expense to wash away the indiscretion
and obtain their readmission into society.

"On the day fixed for a marriage the bridegroom with his relations
proceeds to the bride's father's house, where they are seated on cots
and mats, and after a repast the bride's father takes his daughter's
hand and places it in that of the bridegroom, and exhorts him to be
loving and kind to the girl that he thus makes ove