Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 112

NOMADIC CAMPS
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the world, with
whom
they hold no communication, except
They lead
in order to obtain the bare necessaries of life.
for the most part a pastoral life, and their headmen occa-
sionally possess considerable herds of eattle, consisting of
They travel in bands of ten,
bullocks, buffaloes, and asses.
twenty, thirty, or more families. They shelter themselves
under bamboo or osier mats, which they carry everywhere
with them. Each family has its own mat tent, seven or
eight feet long, four or five feet broad, and three or four
feet high, in which father, mother, children, poultry, and
sometimes even pigs, are housed, or rather huddled together,
this being their only protection against bad weather. They
always choose woods or lonely places as sites for their
camps, so that no one can see what goes on amongst them.
Besides their mat tents and the other necessaries for camp-
ing, they always take care to be provided with small stores
of grain, as well as with the household utensils necessary
Those who possess
for preparing and cooking their food.
beasts of burden make them carry the greater part of their
goods and chattels, but the unfortunate wTetches who have
no other means of transport are compelled to carry alj
their worldly possessions, that is to say, the necessaries
I have seen the
for housing and feeding themselves.
husband carrying on his head and shoulders the tent, the
provisions, and some earthen vessels, whilst the wife, her
body half uncovered, carried an infant on her back, hanging
behind her in the upper part of her cotton garment on
her head was the mortar for husking the rice
while follow-
ing her came a child bending under the weight of the rest
of the household chattels.
I have often seen this sad spectacle, and always with
deep feelings of pity. Such is the kind of life which many
Hindus are accustomed to, and which they bear without
murmuring or complaining, and without even appearing
to envy those whose lives are spent in pleasanter places.
Each one of these nomadic tribes has its own habits,
laws, and customs
and each forms a small and perfectly
independent republic of its own, governed by such rules
and regulations as seem best to them. Nothing is known
by the outside world of what happens amongst them.
The chiefs of each caste are elected or dismissed by a
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