he houses in the village, saying, '_Dam_,
[37] _Sahib_, _dam_.' With the alms given them they make cakes of
_malida_, wheat, sugar and butter, and give them to the priest of the
shrine. Sometimes Sheikh Farid tells the Kunbi in the dream that he
must buy a goat of a certain Dhangar (shepherd), naming the price,
while the Dhangar is similarly warned to sell it at the same price,
and the goat is then purchased and sacrificed without any haggling:
At the end of the sacrifice the priest releases the Kunbi from his vow,
and he must then shave the whole of his head and distribute liquor to
the caste-fellows in order to be received back into the community. The
water of the well at Sheikh Farid's shrine at Girar is considered
to preserve the crops against insects, and for this purpose it is
carried to considerable distances to be sprinkled on them.

19. Villages and houses

An ordinary Kunbi village [38] contains between 70 and 80 houses or
some 400 souls. The village generally lies on a slight eminence near a
_nullah_ or stream, and is often nicely planted with tamarind or pipal
trees. The houses are now generally tiled for fear of fire, and their
red roofs may be seen from a distance forming a little cluster on high
lying ground, an elevated site being selected so as to keep the roads
fairly dry, as the surface tracks in black-soil country become almost
impassable sloughs of mud as soon as the rains have broken. The better
houses stand round an old mud fort, a relic of the Pindari raids,
when, on the first alarm of the approach of these marauding bands, the
whole population hurried within its walls. The village proprietor's
house is now often built inside the fort. It is an oblong building
surrounded by a compound wall of unbaked bricks, and with a gateway
through which a cart can drive. Adjoining the entrance on each side
are rooms for the reception of guests, in which constables, chuprassies
and others are lodged when they stay at night in the village. _Kothas_
or sheds for keeping cattle and grain stand against the walls, and the
dwelling-house is at the back. Substantial tenants have a house like
the proprietor's, of well-laid mud, whitewashed and with tiled roof;
but the ordinary cultivator's house is one-roomed, with an _angan_
or small yard in front and a little space for a garden behind, in
which vegetables are grown during the rains. The walls are of bamboo
matting plastered over with mud. The married couples