Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/27

Rh so on. Men, women, and children work all together. They also do the rough stone-work, blasting and carting rough stone for building or for roads; most valuable allies when excavating cromlechs and the like, for their practical knowledge is wonderful, and they are right good workers. Altogether throughout South India they number about half a million. Physique good; character bold and somewhat desperate. Their dress is that of the lower Sudra castes. The trident-like mark of Vishnu is marked with white and red clay powders on the forehead, arms, and breast of the men. Women wear bangles on one arm only. As is well known, the Hindu marriage token, or wedding-ring, is the tâli, a circular bit of thin, flat gold, about the size of a shilling, worn on a string round the neck. The Wadders' marriage token is a string of black beads. They have a legend that once on a time a tâli was not ready at the time of a marriage, and a string of beads was substituted for it. It is, however, likely that the Hindu token was never adopted.

The wearing of beads, usually of white clay or shell, to express some attachment or devotion to certain deities, is common in South India, and necklaces of this kind (exhibit 2), which answer some religious as well as ornamental purpose, are common.

Socially, the Wadders rank with barbers, above the Farias and lower castes. They eat all animal food, and drink freely of liquor.

Rats, and even jackals, they will eat. I remember how the Wadders about Bangalore spoiled our hunting by eating up numbers of the jackals and foxes.

Criminal gangs of these Wadders—all are criminally inclined—are quite regardless of the bodily pain they may inflict. Children are case-hardened early, and taught lying, which, strange to say, is not natural; but they turn out clumsy thieves.

A game the men play is a sort of rehearsal of their exploits in the dark, and is intended to develop their senses as well as their skill. A man, blind-folded, stands in the