[14] Taken from Brennand’s Hindu Astronomy, p. 39.
[15] Barnett, Antiquities of India, p. 193.
[16] The above particulars regarding the measurement of time by the ghariāl are taken from ‘An Account of the Hindustāni Horometry’ in Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 81, by John Gilchrist, Esq. The account appears to be to some extent controversial, and it is possible that the arrangement of the gharis may have varied in different localities.
[17] The information contained in this paragraph is taken from Captain Mackintosh’s Report on the Rāmosis, chap. iii. (India Office Library Tracts), in which a large variety of rules are given.
[18] Some of these names and also some of the women’s names have been taken from Colonel Temple’s Proper Names of the Punjābis.
Julāha
Julāha, Momin.—A low Muhammadan caste of weavers resident mainly in Saugor and Burhānpur. They numbered about 4000 persons in 1911. In Nāgpur District the Muhammadan weavers generally call themselves Momin, a word meaning ‘orthodox.’ In northern India and Bengal Julāhas are very numerous and the bulk of them are probably converted Hindus. Mr. (Sir Denzil) Ibbetson remarks: “We find Koli-Julāhas, Chamār-Julāhas, Morhi-Julāhas, Ramdāsi-Julāhas, and so forth; and it is probable that after a few generations these men will drop the prefix which denotes their low origin and become Julāhas pure and simple.”[1] The Julāhas claim Adam as the founder of their craft, inasmuch as when Satan made him realise his nakedness he taught the art of weaving to his sons. And they say that their ancestors came from Arabia. In Nimār the Julāhas or Momins assert that they do not permit outsiders to be admitted as members of the caste, but the accuracy of this is doubtful, while in Saugor any Muhammadan who wishes to do so may become a Julāha. They follow the Muhammadan laws of marriage and inheritance. Unions between relatives are favoured, but a man may not marry his sister, niece, aunt or foster-sister. The Julāha or Momin women observe no purda, and are said to be almost unique among Muhammadans in this respect.
“The Musalmān[2] weaver or Julāha,” Sir G. Grierson writes, “is the proverbial fool of Hindu stories and proverbs. He swims in the moonlight across fields of flowering linseed, thinking the blue colour to be caused by water. He hears his family priest reading the Korān, and bursts into tears to the gratification of the reader. When pressed to tell what part affected him most, he says it was not that, but that the wagging beard of the old gentleman so much reminded him of a favourite goat of his which had died. When forming one of a company of twelve he tries to count them and finding himself missing wants to perform his own funeral obsequies. He finds the rear peg of a plough and wants to set up farming on the strength of it. He gets into a boat at night and forgets to pull up the anchor. After rowing till dawn he finds himself where he started, and concludes that the only explanation is that his native village could not bear to lose him and has followed him. If there are eight weavers and nine huqqas, they fight for the odd one. Once on a time a crow carried off to the roof of the house some bread which a weaver had given his child. Before giving the child any more he took the precaution of removing the ladder. Like the English fool he always gets unmerited blows. For instance, he once went to see a ram-fight and got butted himself, as the saying runs:
Karigah chhor tamāsa jay