Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/102

 TEEHURS. ( 85 )

HE quasi-aboriginal tribe called Teehnr is not of a migratory character. A few families are fomid dispersed through villages, from which they rarely move unless pressed for employment. They have no fixed or defined religion, neither Hindoos nor Mahomedans acknowledge them, and the most solemn oath they can take is on the spirits they drink.

They are a despised race, very ignorant, and extremely expert as thieves, but nevertheless generally laborious. Both sexes have but a nominal tie on each other, and they change connection without compunction; living together, almost indiscriminately, in many large families. They are mild in disposition, except when intoxicated, and even then seldom do worse than squabble and threaten each other.

They will eat anything; but live chiefly on the coarsest grains and the poorest vegetables, existing usually in great poverty.

Their span of life, as a rule, is not so good as that of their masters, for they suffer much exposure and are not well fed; thirty to thirty-five years is, perhaps, the average age they reach.