Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/248

LAMBADI are ornamented with peacock's feathers and cowry shells, and generally a small mirror on the forehead. The bullocks of the Brinjāris (Boiparis) are described by the Rev. G. Gloyer * as having their horns, foreheads, and necks decorated with richly embroidered cloth, and carrying on their horns, plumes of peacock's feathers and tinkling bells. When on the march, the men always have their mouths covered, to avoid the awful dust which the hundreds of cattle kick up. Their huts are very temporary structures made of wattle. The whole village is moved about a furlong or so every two or three years — as early a stage of the change from nomadic to a settled life as can be found." The Lambādi tents, or pals, are said by Mr. Mullaly to be "made of stout coarse cloth fastened with ropes. In moving camp, these habitations are carried with their goods and chattels on pack bullocks." Concerning the Lambādis of the Bellary district Mr. S. P. Rice writes to me as follows. "They are wood-cutters, carriers, and coolies, but some of them settle down and become cultivators. A Lambādi hut generally consists of only one small room, with no aperture except the doorway. Here are huddled together the men, women, and children, the same room doing duty as kitchen, dining and bedroom. The cattle are generally tied up outside in any available spot of the village site, so that the whole village is a sort of cattle pen interspersed with huts, in whatsoever places may have seemed convenient to the particular individual. Dotted here and there are a few shrines of a modest description, where I was told that fires are lighted every night in honour of the deity. The roofs are generally sloping and made of thatch, unlike the majority of houses