Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 8.djvu/182

CHUMARS. given to fetish worship, and make sacrifice, chiefly of fowls, to piles of black and red stones, which are under great trees, or in lonely places, on village lands. These they profess to believe are memorials of Bhowani or Devi, but in reality they are places for fetish worship, in which both men and women occasionally appear to be demoniacally possessed, falling down, writhing in contortions, foaming at the mouth, and uttering shrieks and prophecies. Notwithstanding their apparent squalor and poverty, the Chumar women are frequently seen possessed of considerable property in gold and silver ornaments; and it is a popular belief that Chumars affect appearance of poverty to conceal real riches in jewels, which they wear only on occasions of religious sacrifices, at marriages, and the like. Usually in the south, both men and women dip their right hands in wood ashes, and draw them across their foreheads and eyes, which gives them a strange appearance. With this is the red caste mark of Devi on the foreheads, and along the bridge of the nose to the end. They marry in their own gotes or divisions of tribes. Mochis refuse alliance or connection with them in any form.The group shown in the Photograph is common in every fair or village market. The master of the family sits on the ground, cobbling shoes or sandals, with his lapstone beside him; his daughter (or it may be his wife), with all her tools beside her; and an old woman beyond (perhaps his wife), with a pile of strong shoes for sale. "As ragged as a Chumar's turban" is a common proverb, and the figure represented is no exception to this rule.