The Bhatoo, Doomur, or Khelati are a wandering race of acrobats, who arrange themselves into twelve sections, and move about in the districts of Aurangabad and Ahmadnaggur southwards to Hurrihur in Mysore. The men seldom exceed five feet in height, and the women proportionally smaller. At the period of adolescence, the young men and women are perfect models for the sculptor. Besides performing as athletes, the men exorcise demons from those possessed, and the young women are devoted to the gods, Kan doba at Chinchor, near Poona, being usually re sorted to. When the girl is about five years old they lay her at the feet of the deity, and she becomes a devotee. • Most of their feats consist of leaping over or climbing up a bamboo. They sustain severe injuries ; an old man of 60 years of age recollected having actually seen four people killed, and innumerable injuries of others, by falls from the bamboo. His own right elbow-joint had been crushed. They usually take a partner from amongst the devoted women, who have grown too old to perform. They profess to worship Narayan, but the bamboo with which they perform is the chief object of their adoration ; when cut down they have it consecrated, and term it Gunnichari or chief, and in their assemblies or Pane haits it is erected in their midst. They have no other idols, but they visit the shrines of Ellama, Tulsidas, Bhawani, Dawal Malik Peer, and Nursoba. They bury their dead, place food at the head of the grave, and draw favourable omens.
The Bhattia and Ban ya of Mandavi and other parts of Cutch have been trading since many centuries in Africa and Arabia, and were largely engaged in the African slave trade. The sailors of Mandavi are bold and skilful, and their pilots famed for their skill and daring.
The Bhil of Ajmir, Central Provinces, Hyder abad, and Rajputana number 141,972 ; and in the Bombay Presidency 341,634, chiefly in Kandesh, Punch Mahal, Nasik, Thur and Parkar, and Ahmadnaggur. In the western districts they are known as the Kale Puruj (black men), also as the Dubla (slender). North of the Nerbadda, in the Bhil marriages, the groom takes the bride on his shoulder and dances round a fire ; it is called the Ghora-natch. Bhil clans are in a state of great moral transition. They were bold plunderers, their national weapon the bow. Those located between the Tapti and the Satpura Hills are known as the Wah-wih or Wa-sa-weh. The Bhil worship the image of a horse, named Baba Deo Ghora.
The Mai, fishers, palanquin-bearers, and sea men, extend across the Peninsula from Bengal to Bombay, wedged in between Aryan and Kolarian races in their north, and Gond, Teling, Mahratta races in the south. Mr. Plowden supposes them to be the Besta of Madras, 367,901; states 11,019 are in Berar, and 46,134 in Hyderabad, but does not mention the 48,398 whom Mr. Baines returns
from Bombay.
The Chamar, 163,102 souls, are tanners, curriers, and shoemakers. Their name is derived from the Hindi word for leather. The Cha7mar are known as the Sultungar, Huralbukht, Dubali,Woji, Chour, Paradosh. The Sultungar dye and sell sheep skins ; the l'aradosh work in tent-making, etc. The higher rank Chamar make shoes ; the Ilural buklit dye skins red, and make shoes; the Dubali, Woji, and Chour make bridles, pakhals, water bags, and eat animals that have died of disease.
The Dubali section of the Chamar are 10,224 according to the 1871 census, but the memor andum placed before Parliament showed 73,000 Dubali in the Surat district.
Dohor or Dhor, Kutai, or Duphgar, dye skins of horned cattle, and are leather-workers, make ilakhala, mot or well buckets, dol or hand buckets; the Kutai are cobblers, tent - workers, and eat diseased animals, as also do the Duphgar, who make leather oil bottles.
The Chamar of Bombay reckon as sections, the Cheer, Dubali, Iluralbukht, Paradosh, Sultungar, and Woji. They are all tanners, curriers, shoe makers, and saddlers, and all of them eat animals that have died of disease.
The Dher are the great labouring class of the Dekhan, and seem to have been its first proprietors. They were returned in 1881 as 110,040, and the 31har and Dher 1,197,730, and these two are supposed to be identical. In physical appearance Dher, Mhar, Mala, Parayan, Chandal, Kahar, and liolar are identical, and number in all India 10,069,739.
Gujar.—Dekhan people designate as Gujar all persons from Gujerat. The Duria race of Gujerat make their temples of cotton trees, around which they raise upright stones in rows or in circles.
The women of the Chaudria race of Gujerat dispose immense strings of cowries around their head and neck. They are dreaded as witches, and in 183G numbers of them were to be seen deprived of their noses as a prevention of witch craft.
Jharija, a llajput clan ruling in Cutch, are spread through Cuteh, Gujerat, and Kattyawar. They have until recently been largely given to infanticide. They get wives from the daughters of the Jhala, 1Vagel, Sodha, and Gohil Rajputs. In 1818, Captain M'Murdo estimated the num bers of the Jharija in Cutch at 12,000 persons, of whom only 30 were women. They killed girls to avoid paying for them heavy marriage portions. In the Bombay Feudatory States, the females were 120,357 to 132,331 males. In British provinces, 93,722 to 103,184 males. The Rao of Cutch, the Jam of Navaua.ga.r, and Thakur of Murvi are Jharija, and it was the Marvi chief who, in Colonel Walker's time, 1818, was the first to discontinue infanticide.