File:Natives of northern India (1907) (14761936691).jpg

Identifier: nativesofnorther00croo (find matches)
Title: Natives of northern India
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Ethnology -- India India -- Social conditions India -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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rant grass roots which are woven into screens tocool houses in the hot weather. His weapons are thepellet-bow and the iron-shod spud. With the latter hedigs roots and spears young wolves and jackals. Forthe wolves he claims the Government reward ; but heoften manipulates the head of a jackal to pass musteras that of a wolf. His spud is useful in making anentry through the mud wall of a house, and with ithe digs out snakes, field mice, and lizards, all ofwhich he eats. In the Punjab they are said, likethe Nats, to divide their women into two classes—the married, who are chaste; the unmarried, who aredissolute. It is remarkable that these tribes have continuedtheir traditional modes of life and carry on their primi-tive industries practically unaffected by the culturewhich for ages has surrounded them. But the exampleof European Gipsies shows the persistence of nomadichabit, and of the industries which alone are possible insuch a course of life. In India, the formation of func- No. 17
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A Kalwar, or Seller of Spirits (p. 119) VILLAGE INDUSTRIES 147 tional groups and the prevailing respect for customtend to stereotype habits such as these. It may be asked how far do these primitive indus-tries of the villager and the vagrant yield to modernindustrialism ? In Bengal, though that country isaccessible from the seacoast, they do not seem to havebeen much disturbed by the new conditions. In theDelta, it is true that the village system has largelygiven way to individual rights of property, and thecoparcenary community, with its roll of servants andmenials, has practically disappeared. But in the morebackward parts of the province, like Behar and Orissa,the old system of remunerating the village servantsstill survives. In many places, according to Mr. Gait,the barber, washerman, and blacksmith have each theircircle of constituents, and any attempt by one memberof a caste to filch away the customers of another isvisited with the sharp displeasure of the caste commit-tee. Amon

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