Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/212

DOMMARA Being a criminal class, the Dommaras have a thief's language of their own, of which the following are examples:—

The Dommaras are said to receive into their community children of other castes, and women of doubtful morals, and to practice the custom of making Basavis (dedicated prostitutes). The Telugu Dommaras give as their gōtra Salava patchi. the name of a mythological bird. At times of marriage, they substitute a turmeric-dyed string consisting of 101 threads, called bondhu, for the golden tāli or bottu. The marriage ceremonies of the Ārē Dommaras are supervised by an old Basavi woman, and the golden marriage badge is tied round the bride's neck by a Basavi. A Dommara, whom I interviewed at Coimbatore, carried a cotton bag containing a miscellaneous assortment of rubbish used in his capacity as medicine man and snake-charmer, which included a collection of spurious jackal horns (nari kompu), the hairs round which were stained with turmeric. To prove the genuineness thereof, he showed me not only the horn, but also the feet with nails complete, as evidence that the horns were not made from the nails. Being charged with manufacturing the horns, he swore, by placing his hand on the head of a child who accompanied him, that he was not deceiving me. The largest of the horns in his bag, he gravely informed me, was from a jackal which he dug out of its hole on the last new moon night. The possessors of such horns, he assured me, do not go out with the