Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/113

BHEELS OF THE SATPOORA RANGE. however, common, and cannot be terminated without a general assembly of the tribe and a feast, paid by the fines levied. Thus the price of a man's life may be fixed at about 120 rupees, paid in money, produce, or cattle; of a woman, 60 rupees; and wounds are paid for according to their severity. In most cases the assembly expends most part of the fine in spirits, and the riot of intoxication continues for several days.

The chief crimes of the Bheels are dacoity and cattle lifting. The former has been much suppressed, but the latter is still considered an honourable exploit, and is carried out with great boldness and dexterity, usually from a great distance. A certain locality is watched, and a herd of cattle and its herdsman surrounded; the latter are tied to trees, and the herd hurried on by day and by night through the most unfrequented paths, to a secure place where the booty is divided. Pursuit is vain among the deep forests, and were it undertaken, it must be a bold party to attack Bheels in their strongholds and secluded ravines. Small crimes, such as petty thefts, are almost unknown, and if any occur, they are settled by the Tarwee, or head or the tribe, by fines.

The Tarwees are the chiefs of each tribe of Bheels, or section of a tribe. The office is hereditary, and held in great respect; indeed, the Tarwee is almost absolute, and a council of Tarwees, the highest court of arbitration or appeal. They hold the power of life and death, and their decision cannot be disturbed or reversed. Among the village Bheels the Tarwee has charge of the police arrangements; if cattle are lifted he tracks them, and the facility of tracking exhibited by a Bheel is wonderful. Where no mark can be seen by the uninitiated, the Bheel is infallible as to the spoor of a tiger, a stag, or cattle, and he rarely fails. He also watches the crops when ripening, drives away wild animals, prevents encroachments on village boundaries, and performs many useful offices as guide, messenger, and the like, for which the Tarwee is paid by a proportion out of the harvest of all fields and gardens, which he shares among his people. On the succession of any of the Rajpoot chiefs, it is considered essential that the head Bheel Tarwee should make a mark with his blood on the forehead of the chief, and without this ceremony his succession is considered incomplete.

The Bheels came under British rule after the final annexation of the Peshwah's dominions in 1818. Previous to that, from the earliest ages, they had been unconquered, free, and powerfuL No one interfered with them, and no one checked them; and though occasionally parties of them were hunted down by the Rajpoots or Mussulmans, no material effect was produced. The Mussulmans never attempted to convert them. In Mussulman invasions from the north, way through the forests was purchased by donations, and by grants of russoom or black mail to heads of tribes. Merchants purchased exemption from plunder and robbery, and the employment of Bheels as village police was the only safeguard