Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/190

DHIPPO Dhippo (light). — An exogamous sept of Bhondāri. The members thereof may not blow out lights, or extinguish them in any other way. They will not light lamps without being madi, i.e., wearing silk cloths, or cloths washed and dried after bathing.  Dhōbi.— A name used for washerman by Anglo-Indians all over India. The word is said to be derived from dhōha, Sanskrit, dhāv, to wash. A whitish grey sandy efflorescence, found in many places, from which, by boiling and the addition of quicklime, an alkali of considerable strength is obtained, is called Dhōbi's earth.* "The expression dhobie itch," Manson writes,† "although applied to any itching ringworm-like affection of any part of the skin, most commonly refers to some form of epiphytic disease of the crutch or axilla (armpit)." The disease is very generally supposed to be communicated by clothes from the wash, but Manson is of opinion that the belief that it is contracted from clothes which have been contaminated by the washerman is probably not very well founded. Dhōbi is the name, by which the washerman caste of the Oriyas is known. "They are said,"Mr. Francis writes,‡ "to have come originally from Orissa. Girls are generally married before maturity, and, if this is not possible, they have to be married to a sword or a tree, before they can be wedded to a man. Their ordinary marriage ceremonies are as follows. The bridal pair bathe in water brought from seven different houses. The bridegroom puts a bangle on the bride's arm (this is the binding part of the ceremony); the left and right wrists of the bride and bridegroom are tied together; betel leaf and nut are tied in a corner of the bride's cloth, and a 