File:Natives of northern India (1907) (14762750484).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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that they were malaria-proof, but as a matter of fact they suffer terribly fromthe fevers which abound in that region. They maketheir living by hunting and fishing, rearing herds ofcows and buffaloes, keeping pigs, fowls, and goats, andpractising a rude form of husbandry. This shy, secludedpeople, who have little intercourse with the castes ofthe plains, are haunted by the terrors of the jungle inwhich they make their home. When darkness settleson their villages every door is barred against the bogieswhich lurk in the trees, or the spirits of the dead whichwander round their houses demanding food and shelter.Only the terrible cry of Fire will cause them to opentheir huts at night, and even in the daytime no Tharuwill venture along a jungle path without casting a leaf,branch, or twig on the pile of rude stones which formsthe shrine of Bansapti Ma, the dread mother-goddess ofthe forest. The plain-dwellers dread them, and sup-pose them to be skilled in witchcraft and sorcery. The No. 14
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A Naked Hindu FakTk, Hardwar (p. 122) < THE INDUSTRIAL CASTES 119 women, in particular, are supposed to possess the EvilEye, and this in its most virulent form causes the vic-tim to waste away and die, while a less dangerousglance causes only fever. One art which they have ac-quired in their jungle life is that of capturing and tamingwild elephants, and whenever a Khedda, or enclosure,is erected to surround a herd, the most dangerous partof the work is entrusted to the Tharus. The condition of the Raj is, a forest tribe which occu-pies the lower Himalayas westward of the Tharu coun-try, is even lower. They live almost altogether on theproduce of their jungles, and their only industry is thatof making rude wooden bowls, which they barter withthe people of the plains for scraps of coarse cloth andgrain. Food obtained in this way they store with rootsand other edibles of the kind in caves, or hang it tothe branches of trees for use in time of need. Theyare thus a little superior to th

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