Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/258

Rh nor is their any province in India throughout its entire length and breadth, except perhaps those bordering upon Assam, in which they are not found in greater or less proportion. In some localities, as in Bengal, and in Guzerat, where the tribes have been able to maintain themselves separately, the Kolees are found with a decided martial character, and on many occasions have risen in arms against our Government. Under native Governments they were freebooters, difficult or impossible of restraint; but this condition cannot exist under British rule, and even in their most powerful localities they have submitted to control, and are now peaceful and useful subjects, and frequently good formers, though it is very questionable whether their old predilections are entirely extinct. The Kolees are not "Chumars," or leather dressers, although they are ranked with them by people of the Gangetic plains. They are, on the contrary, esteemed of low, but respectable caste, and are employed frequently as out-door servants by high-class families. As a rule, however, they prefer their independent life as cultivators, as musicians, village servants, and handicraftsmen; as weavers, as palankeen bearers and fishermen, and in other various ways. They not unfrequently act as village watchmen and police, and for their services in these capacities enjoy rights at harvest time upon the products of the village lands. They are Hindoos by religion; but like most indifferently converted tribes continue many of their aboriginal rites, such as the worship of snakes, and of the Gram Deotas, or village Lares and Penates, which exist in every community in India, and are supposed to preside over its lands. Of these divinities comparatively little is known; but Kolees are not unfrequently found as their officiating priests in the Western and Southern Provinces of India. As Hindoos they are admitted by toleration into the fourth, or Sudra class, but they intermarry with no sect but their own. As Sudras they employ Brahmins at their marriages and other domestic ceremonies, and treat them with great reverence; but they have also priests of their own, who read and expound popular commentaries on the Poorans, the Mahabharat and Ramayan, and, not unfrequently, become their Gurus or spiritual directors. Kolees who have attached themselves to village communities are people with entirely reclaimed and settled habits. They frequently acquire land, and are good cultivators. Some are weavers, and it is not uncommon to find associations among them for acting rude plays and farces, by which, as they travel from village to village, a good deal of money is gained, which is distributed at the close of their season. Kolees eat all ordinary animal food except beef, but their ordinary diet is bread, rice, vegetables, and pulse. Their women are esteemed to be good cooks, nor is it uncommon to find men acting in the same capacity in wealthy Sudra families. They are extremely cleanly in then- persons and habitations. They drink spirits, but not to excess, except on occasions of domestic or general festivities or anniversaries, and they use the fermented juice of the date palm wherever it is locally produced. In comparison with other aboriginal tribes the