3. Exogamous groups.

The tribe have a large number of exogamous septs, which are generally totemistic or named after plants and animals. The names of 117 septs have been recorded, and there are probably even more. The following list gives a selection of the names:

Andīl	Born from an egg.
Bāgh	Tiger.
Bichhi	Scorpion.
Bilwa	Wild cat.
Bokra	Goat.
Chandrama	Moon.
Chanwar	A whisk.
Chīta	Leopard.
Chuva	A well.
Champa	A sweet-scented flower.
Dhenki	A pounding-lever.
Darpan	A mirror.
Gobīra	A dung insect.
Hundār	A wolf.
Jānta	Grinding-mill.
Kothi	A store-house.
Khumari	A leaf-umbrella.
Lodha	A wild dog.
Māma	Maternal uncle.
Mahādeo	The deity.
Nūnmutaria	A packet of salt.
Sendur	Vermilion.
Sua	A parrot.
Telāsi	Oily.
Thath Murra	Pressed in a sugarcane press.

Generally it may be said that every common animal or bird and even articles of food or dress and household implements have given their names to a sept. In the Paikara subcaste a figure of the plant or animal after which the sept is named is made by each party at the time of marriage. Thus a bridegroom of the Bāgh or tiger sept prepares a small image of a tiger with flour and bakes it in oil; this he shows to the bride’s family to represent, as it were, his pedigree, or prove his legitimacy; while she on her part, assuming that she is, say, of the Bilwa or cat sept, will bring a similar image of a cat with her in proof of her origin. The Andīl sept make a representation of a hen sitting on eggs. They do not worship the totem animal or plant, but when they learn of the death of one of the species, they throw away an earthen cooking-pot as a sign of mourning. They generally think themselves descended from the totem animal or plant, but when the sept is called after some inanimate object, such as a grinding-mill or pounding-lever, they repudiate the idea of descent from it, and are at a loss to account for the origin of the name. Those whose septs are named after plants or animals usually abstain from injuring or cutting them, but where this rule would cause too much inconvenience it is transgressed: thus the members of the Karsāyal or deer sept find it too hard for them to abjure the flesh of that animal, nor can those of the Bokra sept abstain from eating goats. In some cases new septs have been formed by a conjunction of the names of two others, as Bāgh-Daharia, Gauriya-Sonwāni, and so on. These may possibly be analogous to the use of double names in English, a family of one sept when it has contracted a marriage with another of better position adding the latter’s name to its own as a slight distinction. But it may also simply arise from the constant tendency to increase the number of septs in order to remove difficulties from the arrangement of matches.