has ranked with that of the
Teli. Both these castes have now become prosperous, and include a
number of landowners, and their status is gradually improving. The
Darzi or tailor is not usually attached to the village community; sewn
clothes have hitherto scarcely been worn among the rural population,
and the weaver provides the cloths which they drape on the body and
round the head. [64] The contempt with which the tailor is visited in
English proverbial lore for working at a woman's occupation attaches
in a precisely similar manner in India to the weaver. [65] But in
Gujarat the Darzi is found living in villages and here he is also a
village menial. The Kachera or maker of the glass bangles which every
Hindu married woman wears as a sign of her estate, ranks with the
village artisans; his is probably an urban trade, but he has never
become prosperous or important. The Banjaras or grain-carriers were
originally Rajputs, but owing to the mixed character of the caste
and the fact that they obtained their support from the cultivators,
they have come to rank below these latter. The Wanjari cultivators
of Berar have now discarded their Banjara ancestry and claim to be
Kunbis. The Nat or rope-dancer and acrobat may formerly have had
functions in the village in connection with the crops. In Kumaon
[66] a Nat still slides down a long rope from the summit of a cliff
to the base as a rite for ensuring the success of the crops on the
occasion of a festival of Siva. Formerly if the Nat or Badi fell to
the ground in his course, he was immediately despatched with a sword
by the surrounding spectators, but this is now prohibited. The rope
on which he slid down the cliff is cut up and distributed among
the inhabitants of the village, who hang the pieces as charms on
the eaves of their houses. The hair of the Nat is also taken and
preserved as possessing similar virtues. Each District in Kumaon has
its hereditary Nat or Badi, who is supported by annual contributions
of grain from the inhabitants. Similarly in the Central Provinces it
is not uncommon to find a deified Nat, called Nat Baba or Father Nat,
as a village god. A Natni, or Nat woman, is sometimes worshipped; and
when two sharp peaks of hills are situated close to each other, it is
related that there was once a Natni, very skilful on the tight-rope,
who performed before the king; and he promised her that if she would
stretch a rope from the peak of one hill to that of the other, a