Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/47

 AHEERS. (182) HE Alieers are one of the most ancient, as they are one of the most widely spread tribes m India. It is impossible to say, indeed, where they are not, throughout the length and breadth of the land. It is alleged by some, that they are Aryans of the lowest degree; and this is possible, though there is no question that the race is now grafted, as it were, on aboriginal stock. The Aryans, originally a pastoral people, had no doubt large flocks of cattle, milch cows and buffaloes, belonging to them; and a particular class may have attended to them. It would hardly be as if India had supplied cattle, and a peculiar tribe or sect to manage them ; and yet it is perfectly possible that the sect may have arisen out of converts from the aboriginal classes, and the existence of the Aheers everywhere, with the same customs, but not the same language, goes far to prove this assumption.

Aheers are keepers and tenders of cows and buffaloes; they trade only upon milk, and the preparations from it. They never keep goats or sheep, but breed and feed calves; selling them, however, as soon as they are fit to work as bullocks, or, indeed, generally as soon as the calves are well reared, to persons who train them for carriage or for drafts. There are not many preparations from milk in India. Butter, "ghee," and "dhye," or sour curd, are universal; but cheese is only produced occasionally for Mahomedan customers. Hindoos do not eat it, and it is made of the consistence of cream cheese, to be eaten fresh. It does not keep. Butter is churned from the milk as soon as milked, in the early morning and evening; but it is rarely used in this state, except by Europeans and Mahomedans. It is made into ghee—that is, the butter is boiled until all the watery particles and curds have been thrown off by repeated skimmings. When the liquid is clear oil, it is poured into a vessel to cool, which it does in a granulated form; and will keep for years if originally well boiled, without taint. It is curious, perhaps, why this process has never been tried in Europe, as a much more certain and more cleanly method of preserving butter than salting it. Instances have been known of the discovery of old ghee vessels in forts and arsenals of India, the contents of