This may be because Hindus attach a special efficacy
to the scalp-lock, perhaps as being the seat of a man's strength or
power. The nuns also shave their heads, and generally eschew every kind
of personal adornment. Both monks and nuns usually dress in black or
ashen-grey clothes as a mark of humility, though some have discarded
black in favour of the usual Hindu mendicant colour of red ochre. The
black colour is in keeping with the complexion of Krishna, their
chief god. They dye their cloths with lamp-black mixed with a little
water and oil. They usually sleep on the ground, with the exception of
those who are Mahants, and they sometimes have no metal vessels, but
use bags made of strong cloth for holding food and water. Men's names
have the suffix _Boa_, as Datto Boa, Kesho Boa, while those of boys
end in _da_, as Manoda, Raojida, and those of women in _Bai_, as Gopa
Bai, Som Bai. The dead are buried, not in the common burial-grounds,
but in some waste place. The corpse is laid on its side, facing the
east, with head to the north and feet to the south. A piece of silk
or other valuable cloth is placed on it, on which salt is sprinkled,
and the earth is then filled in and the ground levelled so as to leave
no trace of the grave. No memorial is erected over a Manbhao tomb,
and no mourning nor ceremony of purification is observed, nor are
oblations offered to the spirits of the dead. If the dead man leaves
any property, it is expended on feeding the brotherhood for ten days;
and if not, the Mahant of his order usually does this in his name.

4. Hostility between Manbhaos and Brahmans

The Manbhaos are dissenters from orthodox Hinduism, and have thus
naturally incurred the hostility of the Brahmans. Mr. Kitts remarks
of them: [180] "The Brahmans hate the Manbhaos, who have not only
thrown off the Brahmanical yoke themselves, but do much to oppose
the influence of Brahmans among the agriculturists. The Brahmans
represent them as descended from one Krishna Bhat, a Brahman who was
outcasted for keeping a beautiful Mang woman as his mistress. His
four sons were called the _Mang-bhaos_ or Mang brothers." This is an
excellent instance of the Brahman talent for pressing etymology into
their service as an argument, in which respect they resemble the
Jesuits. By asserting that the Manbhaos are descended from a Mang
woman, one of the most despised castes, they attempt to dispose of
these enemies of a Brahman hegemony witho