o will wait without passing the line until some one else
comes up and crosses it before him. In reality this is probably a
primitive superstition similar to that which makes a man stop when
a snake has crossed the road in front of him and efface its track
before proceeding. It is said that the members of the order also
carry their sticks upside down, and a saying is repeated about them:

Manbhao hokar kale kapre darhi muchi mundhata hai,
Ulti lakri hath men pakri woh kya Sahib milta hai;

or, "The Manbhao wears black clothes, shaves his face and holds his
stick upside down, and thinks he will find God that way."

This saying is attributed to Kabir.

Mang

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin and traditions_.
2. _Subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Widow-marriage._
5. _Burial_.
6. _Occupation_.
7. _Religion and social status_.

1. Origin and traditions

_Mang._ [181]--A low impure caste of the Maratha Districts, who
act as village musicians and castrate bullocks, while their women
serve as midwives. The Mangs are also sometimes known as Vajantri
or musician. They numbered more than 90,000 persons in 1911, of whom
30,000 belonged to the Nagpur and Nerbudda Divisions of the Central
Provinces, and 60,000 to Berar. The real origin of the Mangs is
obscure, but they probably originated from the subject tribes and
became a caste through the adoption of the menial services which
constitute their profession. In a Maratha book called the Shudra
Kamlakar [182], it is stated that the Mang was the offspring of
the union of a Vaideh man and an Ambashtha woman. A Vaideh was the
illegitimate child of a Vaishya father and a Brahman mother, and an
Ambashtha of a Brahman father and a Vaishya mother. The business
of the Mang was to play on the flute and to make known the wishes
of the Raja to his subjects by beat of drum. He was to live in the
forest or outside the village, and was not to enter it except with
the Raja's permission. He was to remove the dead bodies of strangers,
to hang criminals, and to take away and appropriate the clothes and
bedding of the dead. The Mangs themselves relate the following legend
of their origin as given by Mr. Sathe: Long ago before cattle were used
for ploughing, there was so terrible a famine upon the earth that all
the grain was eaten up, and there was none left for seed. Mahadeo took
pity on the few men who were left alive, and gave them s