Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/148

SHEORANEES. their principal position, and burned thirteen villages, but they encountered very feeble opposition, and the Sheoranees carried off most of their cattle and property. The lesson, however, has had the effect of restraining, if not actually preventing, border outrage, and the Sheoranees have suffered in local prestige by the destruction of their villages and their fortifications. These depredations have for the most part ceased, or are confined to isolated cases of cattle raising or theft; but as yet the tribe has not completely submitted, and till that has been effected, they can only be restrained by the dread of retaliation, should repetitions of their former conduct occur.

The Sheoranees are Mahomedans of the Soonnee sect, and graziers and cultivators by occupation. They are armed in the usual Afghan fashion with matchlock, sword, and shield, or with sword and shield only, and their costume does not differ from that of other tribes of the Derajat; but their wild unkempt hair, hanging in heavy locks over their shoulders, gives them an unusually wild appearance. In general, they shave their beards, and, not unfrequently, their mustaches also. In regard to diet, which is of a frugal description, ceremonies, and religious observance, they do not differ from other Soonnee Mahomedans, but are, in the last degree, ignorant, superstitious, and credulous.