Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/493

Rh in 1901, entered into a written agreement to give up the practice. A family went back on this, so the head of the caste prosecuted the family and the "husband " for disposing of a minor for the purpose of prostitution. The records state that it was resolved, in 1901, that they should not keep the females as girls, but should marry them before they attain puberty. "As the deeds of the said girls not only brought discredit on all of us, but their association gives our married women also an opportunity to contract bad habits, and, as all of our castemen thought it good to give up henceforth the custom of leaving girls unmarried now in vogue, all of us convened a public meeting in the Tenali village, considered carefully the pros and cons, and entered into the agreement herein mentioned. If any person among us fail to marry the girls in the families before puberty, the managing members of the families of the girls concerned should pay Rs. 500 to the three persons whom we have selected as the headmen of our caste, as penalty for acting in contravention of this agreement. If any person does not pay the headmen of the caste the penalty, the headmen are authorised to recover the amount through Court. We must abstain from taking meals, living, or intermarriage with such of the families as do not now join with us in this agreement, and continue to keep girls unmarried. We must not take meals or intermarry with those that are now included in this agreement, but who hereafter act in contravention of it. If any of us act in contravention of the terms of the two last paragraphs, we should pay a penalty of Rs. 50 to the headmen."  Jalagadugu. — Defined, by Mr. C. P. Brown, * as "a caste of gold-finders, who search for gold in drains, 