Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/11

 PURRIAR MEENAS. (341)

HE robber tribe of Meena has been before illustrated at No. 204, Vol. IV. In that Plate a Meena and his wife are shown in their ordinary peaceful or working costume; but as the tribe is predatory and classes with those hereditary robbers who, though more reclaimed than they used to be, still prey upon the public at large in their own and adjacent localities, the present Plate is offered as an illustration of their appearance when armed for a foray. The figure at the right of the picture carries a bow and arrows, and his lance or spear rests against the thatch of the house. The figure opposite to him has a long lance, and his right hand grasps the head of a bamboo club encircled with heavy iron rings, a most deadly weapon in a strong man's hand; he has also a kuttar, or square handled dagger, in his waistbelt, and a bow with arrows at his back. The man behind these two holds a matchlock in his left hand, and his powder horn, bullet bag, &c., are disposed about his waist, and the sitting figure has also a matchlock. Two of the men have their faces tied up by a handkerchief, an ordinary method of disguise, or protection from either heat or cold, and assisting also to alter the voice.

According to the official description, these Meenas, as indeed was before stated, belong to an aboriginal race which originally inhabited that part of the country to the north of Rajpootana lying between Ajmere and the Jumna. There is at present only one tribe of pure Meenas, the Swaras, who are called Mairas. Of this there are said to be five thousand branches, one being the Mairs of Mairwarra, a lawless predatory tribe, whose reclamation to industrial pursuits, construction of tanks for irrigation, &c., form the subject of a most interesting work by the late Major Dixon, Political Superintendent of Mairwarra for several years. These Mairs are now industrious cultivators; and though the hereditary instinct of predatory life hardly ever becomes extinct, at least for several generations, yet the improvement of the people by education, and by successful agriculture, has advanced the condition and moral habits of the tribe to a great