II THE EVIL EYE 435 They also think that the nut attracts the evil eye and absorbs its effect, and the child is therefore not injured. If they think that some one has cast the evil eye on a child, they say a charm, 'Ishwar, Gauri, Pārvati ke än nazar dur ho jao,' or 'Depart, Evil Eye, in the name of Mahādeo and Pārvati,' and as they say this they blow on the child three times; or they take some salt, chillies and mustard in their hand and wave it round the child's head and say, Telin ki lagi ho, Tamolin ki lagi ho, Mararin ki ho, Gorania (Gondin) ki ho, oke, oke, parparāke phut jäwe,' 'If it be a Telin, Tambolin, Marārin or Gondin who has cast the evil eye, may her eyes crack and fall out.' And at the same time they throw the mustard, chillies and salt on the fire so that the eyes of her who cast the evil eye may crack and fall out as these things crackle in the fire. If tiger's claws are used for an amulet, the points must be turned outwards. If any one intends to wish luck to a child, he says,' Tori balayan leun,' and waves his hands round the child's head several times to signify that he takes upon himself all the misfortunes which are to happen to the child. Then he presses the knuckles of his hands against the sides of his own head till they crack, which is a lucky omen, averting calamity. If the knuckles do not crack at the first attempt, it is repeated two or three times. When a man sneezes he will say 'Chatrapati,' which is considered to be a name of Devi, but is only used on this occasion. But some say nothing. After yawning they snap their fingers, the object of which, they say, is to drive away sleep, as otherwise the desire will become infectious and attack others present. But if a child yawns they sometimes hold one of their hands in front of his mouth, and it is probable that the original meaning of the custom was to prevent evil spirits from entering through the widely opened mouth, or the yawner's own soul or spirit from escaping; and the habit of holding the hand before the mouth from politeness when yawning inadvertently may be a reminiscence of this. The following are some cradle-songs taken down from a 5. CradleChitrakār, but probably used by most of the lower Hindu songs. castes : 1. Mother, rock the cradle of your pretty child. What is the cradle made of, and what are its tassels made of? The cradle is made of sandalwood, its tassels are of silk. Some Gaolin (milkwoman) has overlooked the child, he vomits up his milk. Dasoda1 shall wave salt and mustard round his head, and he shall play in my lap. My baby is making little steps. O Sunar, bring him tinkling anklets ! The Sunar shall bring anklets for him, and my child will go to the garden and there we will eat oranges and lemons. 2. My Krishna's tassel is lost, Tell me, some one, where it is. My child is angry and will not come into my arms. The tears are falling from his eyes like blossoms from the bela 2 flower. He has bangles on his wrists and anklets on his feet, on his head a golden crown and round his waist a silver chain. The jhumri or tassel referred to above is a tassel adorned with cowries and hung from the top of the cradle so that the child may keep his eyes on it while the cradle is being rocked. 3. Sleep, sleep, my little baby; I will wave my hands round your head 3 on the banks of the Jumna. I have cooked hot cakes for you and put butter in them; all the night you lay awake, now take your fill of sleep. The little mangoes are hanging on the tree; the rope is in the well; sleep thou till I go and come back with water. I will hang your cradle on the banyan tree, and its rope to the pipal tree; I will rock my darling gently so that the rope shall never break. The last song may be given in the vernacular as a specimen : The field is Rama's, the little birds are Rāma's; O birds, eat your fill; the little birds have eaten up the corn. 1 Krishna's mother. 2 Little white flowers like jasmine. This simile would be unlikely to occur to the ordinary observer who sees a Hindu child crying. 3 Tori balayan leun. For explana tion see above. II OCCUPATION 437 The surly farmer has come to the field and scolds them; the little birds say, 'O farmer, why do you scold us? count your ears of maize, they are all there.' This song commemorates a favourite incident in the life of Tulsi Das, the author of the Rāmāyana, who when he was a little boy was once sent by his guru to watch the crop. But after some time the guru came and found the field full of birds eating the corn and Tulsi Das watching them. When asked why he did not scare them away, he said, 'Are they not as much the creatures of Rāma as I am? how should I deprive them of food?' The Chitaris pursue their old trade, principally in Nāgpur 6. Occupa- | city, where the taste for wall-paintings still survives; and tion. they decorate the walls of houses with their crude red and blue colours. But they have now a number of other avocations. They paint pictures on paper, making their colours from the tins of imported aniline dyeing-powders which are sold in the bazār; but there is little demand for these. They make small pictures of the deities which the people hang on their walls for a day and then throw away. They also paint the bodies of the men who pretend to be tigers at the Muharram festival, for which they charge a rupee. They make the clay paper-covered masks of monkeys and demons worn by actors who play the Ramlila or story of Rāma on the Ramnaomi festival in Chait (March); they also make the tazias or representations of the tomb of Hussain and paper figures of human beings with small clay heads, which are carried in the Muharram procession. They make marriage crowns; the frames of these are of conical shape with a half-moon at the top, made from strips of bamboo; they are covered with red paper picked out with yellow and green and with tinfoil, and are ornamented with borders of date-palm leaves. The crowns cost from four annas to a rupee each. They make the artificial flowers used at weddings; these are stuck on a bamboo stick and at the arrival and departure of the bridegroom are scrambled for by the guests, who take them home as keepsakes or give them to their children for playthings. The flowers copied are the lotus, rose and chrysanthemum, and the imitations are quite good. Sometimes the bridegroom is surrounded by trays or boxes of flowers, carried in procession and arranged so as to look as if they were planted in beds. Other articles made by the Chitrakār are paper fans, paper globes for hanging to the roofs of houses, Chinese lanterns made either of paper or of mica covered with paper, and small caps of velvet embroidered with gold lace. At the Akti festival they make pairs of little clay dolls, dressing them as male and female, and sell them in red lacquered bamboo baskets, and the girls take them to the jungle and pretend that they are married. Formerly the Chitrakārs made clay idols for temples, but these have been supplanted by marble images imported from Jaipur. The Jingars make the cloth saddles on which natives ride, and some of them bind books, the leather for which is made from goat-skin, and is not considered so impure as that made from the hides of cattle. But one class of them, who are considered inferior, make leather harness from cow-hide and buffalohide. Chitrakathi, Hardas.2-A small caste of religious mendicants and picture showmen in the Maratha Districts. In 1901 they numbered 200 persons in the Central Provinces and 1500 in Berar, being principally found in the Amraoti District. The name, Mr. Enthoven writes, is derived from chitra, a picture, and katha, a story, and the professional occupation of the caste is to travel about exhibiting pictures of heroes and gods, and telling stories about them. The community is probably of mixed functional origin, for in Bombay they have exogamous section-names taken from those of the Marathas, as Jadhow, More, Powar and so on, while in the Central Provinces and Berār an entirely different set is found. Here several sections appear to be named after certain offices held or functions performed by their members at the caste feasts. Thus the Atak section are the caste headmen; the Mānkari appear to be a sort of substitute for the Atak or their grand viziers, the word 1 Commencement of the agricultural year. 2 This article is partly based on a paper by Mr. Bijai Bahadur, Naib Tahsildar, Bālāghāt. 3 Bombay Ethnographic Survey, draft article on Chitrakathi. II CHITRAKATHI 439 Mānkar being primarily a title applied to Marātha noblemen, who held an official position at court; the Bhojni section serve the food at marriage and other ceremonies; the Kākra arrange for the lighting; the Kotharya are store-keepers; and the Ghoderao (from ghoda, a horse) have the duty of looking after the horses and bullock-carts of the castemen who assemble. The Chitrakathis are really no doubt the same caste as the Chitāris or Chitrakārs (painters) of the Central Provinces, and, like them, a branch of the Mochis (tanners), and originally derived from the Chamārs. But as the Berar Chitrakathis are migratory instead of settled, and in other respects differ from the Chitāris, they are treated in a separate article. Marriage within the section is forbidden, and, besides this, members of the Atak and Mankari sections cannot intermarry as they are considered to be related, being divisions of one original section. The social customs of the caste resemble those of the Kunbis, but they bury their dead in a sitting posture, with the face to the east, and on the eighth day erect a platform over the grave. At the festival of Akhatīj (3rd of light Baisākh)1 they worship a vessel of water in honour of their dead ancestors, and in Kunwār (September) they offer oblations to them. Though not impure, the caste occupy a low social position, and are said to prostitute their married women and tolerate sexual licence on the part of unmarried girls. Mr. Kitts 2 describes them as "Wandering mendicants, sometimes suspected of associating with Kaikāris for purposes of crime; but they seem nevertheless to be a comparatively harmless people. They travel about in little huts like those used by the Waddars; the men occasionally sell buffaloes and milk; the women beg, singing and accompanying themselves on the thali. The old men also beg, carrying a flag in their hand, and shouting the name of their god, Hari Vithal (from which they derive their name of Hardās). They are fond of spirits, and, when drunk, become pot-valiant and troublesome." The thali or plate on which their women play is also known as sarthada, and consists of a small brass dish coated with 1 May-June. The Akhatij is the beginning of the agricultural year. 2 Berar Census Report (1881), para graph 206. The passage is slightly abridged in reproduc |