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186
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JULY, 1874.
"Gosåvis," but they have no religious charac. ter. However, they live chiefly by begging and stealing, which is pretty much the way with % good many of the religious Gesávis. The wandering tribes of shepherds, turners, and smiths have been mentioned along with the more settled races following the same trades. All the wandering tribes except the Bhimatyas carry their habitations with them: those of the Wanjäris are generally blanket-tents; those of the other tribes huts made of grass mats; but the name of pál is applied to both. Their means of conveyance are bullocks, donkeys, and more particularly buffaloes. The Gåd-Wadaris use their little carts. Except the Wanjaris, they are all much alike in being very dark and lean, generally with coarse broad faces and scrubby beards, and it is difficult to distinguish one tribe from another at first sight. Although these people wander about the country, there are Done but have what they call their vatan, or hereditary abode, in some fixed place. Most of the Wanjári tándás have a pied-à-terre somewhere in Khandesh; and those of the Vaidyas, "Gosâvîs," Patharwat Bhậmatyas, &c., all lie about Ganesh Khind, Bhambůrda, and Dapuli, west of Punâ. This bit of country, indeed, is the very head-quarters of the rascality of Western India. Here they spend the monsoon, divide the plunder, and organize their tours for the ensuing fair season. But they are like the fox, whicl. won't prey near his own earth; it is against their thieves' honour to rob the neighbourhood of their standing-camp, and I have known the breach of this rule visited upon the offender with severer punishment than he would probably have suffered from the law.
F.-Hill and Forest Tribes. The Râ mosis can hardly be called essentially a hill or forest tribe; in matter of residence and in appearance and language they are generally indistinguishable from the Marathas, but their tendency to the chase and to plunder assimilates them to the genuine wild races; and as they are not wanderers, seldom regular cultivators, and hardly ever professional soldiers, it is most convenient to class them in this division
"R&mob1. This tribe has a very low status, and its members are most numerous in the adjoining Meisur State, whence they probably spread to the west and north. Ramobis are commonly regarded as non-Aryans or aborigines (probably belonging to the ancient Telingana province), and they still retain rude, unsettled, and predacious habita; but, like the Kolis and Pagis on the one hand, and their cognomers the Bedars in the S. Markthå
Whether they are of Aryan or aboriginal descent, their names, features, and religion afford no means of determining. Although they have certainly some legends and observances peculiar to themselves, I have never been able to extract any information upon the subject from any member of this reticent race. The R â mosi's grand characteristic, indeed, is his power of keeping his own counsel. The other predatory tribes, especially the Bhills and Kolîs, are, as will be seen, naively candid upon their family affairs and personal irregularities; but you might cut the heart out of a Ramosi and his secret would not come with it. Although they are not, strictly speaking, Parwâris,--so unclean as to be allowed no habitation within the sacred gdin kds, or mud rampart, the Pomcorium of Dekhan village, -and are in point of personal cleanliness and diet a good deal superior to the Mahars and Mangs, they are yet held little better than these by the Marathâs and higher castes, who despise almost as much as they dread them for the Ramosis are the greatest adepts in the Dekhan at robbory and arson, and abstain from cruelty and murder only when they are afraid of attracting a closer attention, or incurring a severer punishment. "Så heb," said an old patel who was laughed at for the fear in which he held his neighbours the Râmosis, "it's true we are three hundred men in the village, and they only a dozen ; but they are a folk with red eyes, and no man can offend a Rámosi but he comes to grief for it somehow, sooner or later." They stick to each other like freemasons ; and as they hardly ever confess, or turn Queen's evidence, the means upon which the Indian detective chiefly relies are seldom avail. able to obtain the conviction of a Ramosi. They are as great liars as the most civilized races, differing in this from the Hill tribes proper, and from the Parwaris, of whom I once knew a Brahman to say: "The Kunabîs, if they have made a promise, will keep it, buta Mahar is such a fool that he will tell the truth without any reason at all."
However, there is to be said in their favour districts, they have been admitted on ordinary village establishments as servants and watchmen: they observe some reatrictions in diet, not eating beef, but are very super. stitious, they are intelligent, cunning, and expert thieves and robbers, often committing violenée." - Dr. Vandyke Carter in Trans. Med. and Phys. Soc. of Bombay, No. XI. N. S. (1871), p. 237.
