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MEWATEES.
(202)

This is another tribe of Hindoo origin, which, like the Bhuttees, Ranghurs, and others in the North-West Provinces, has been converted to Mahomedanism; but which, in many respects, still adheres to its ancient customs and professes a very spurious character of that faith. The Mewatees province is Mewat, and they have been numerous enough to fill it and be named after it. At what time their conversion took place is not exactly known; but it was probably the work of the Emperor Feroze Toghluk, in the fourteenth century, when so many other tribes were forcibly made Mahomedans; and that Aurungzeeb completed what was then begun. There were other clans of Rajpoots converted at the same time, and the saying attached to these tribes, "Bara pal, bawan gote," signifies that fifty-two different clans resided in twelve places. Among these were the Mewatees. Like the Ranghurs there is a strange mixture of Hindoo and Mahomedan customs still existent among them. In fixing days of marriage, bethrothment, and the like, the Brahmin astrologer is resorted to, and his directions followed with implicit credence. In negotiations for marriages also, the Mewatees employ Hindoos; but the actual marriage services are performed by the Kazee according to the Mahomedan ritual, though all of the ceremonies attendant upon them are Hindoo, especially those with which the women are concerned; for among them the Hindoo customs are more perfectly preserved than among the men. The Mewatees will not contract marriages within the prohibited degrees of relationship recognized by Hindoos. This is a strong mark of original Hindooism, as Mahomedans allow the marriage of cousins, and families frequently become very intricately connected in consequence. The Hindoo custom of a younger brother taking his elder brother's widow to wife under the Durejah form of marriage is still followed; but an elder brother cannot take his younger brother's widow in the same manner. Mewatees, as Mahomedans, eat animal food within the kinds allowed by Mahomedanism; but it is said of the tribe, that wild hog is not yer entirely objected to, cooked in the ancient Rajpoot fashion, and that the women still resist eating beef, which they declare would cause