Area and population.

64. Akola District was absolutely reconstituted in 1905. It had formerly consisted of five taluks, of which it now retained three, Akola, Balapur, and Akot, but it lost the other two, Khamgaon and Jalgaon. At the same time it received three more, Murtizapur, Basim, and Mangrul. The six taluks have a total area of 4110 square miles, and their population in 1901 was 754,804, placing Akola 10th in area and 4th in population among the Districts of the Central Provinces and Berar; its density is 184 persons to the square mile as against an average of 120 for the whole territory. According to the Census Report of 1901 the taluks contained 11 towns, that is places with a population of over 5000, 27 villages with a population of oyer 2000, III villages with something between 1000 and 2000, and 1325 with less than 1000, the majority of these having less than 500. The towns were Akola (29,289), Akot (18,252), Karanja (16,535), Basim (13,823), Balapur (10,486), Barsi Takli (6288), Murtizapur (6156), Hiwarkhed (6143), Patur (5990), Wadegaon (5825), and Mangrul (5793). The villages with a population between 2000 and 5000 varied greatly in different taluks. In Akot there were 10-Mundgaon (3329), Adgaon (3131), Dahihanda (2847), Belkhed (2698), Telhara Buzruk (2528), Akolkhed (2525), Pathardi (2402), Danapur (2126), Malegaon (2115), and Akoli Jagir (2089), Akola had 5-Borgaon Manju (3861), Pinjar (2565), Ugwa (2473), Kurankhed (2316), and Mahan (2239). Basim also contained 5-Risod (3923), Sirpur (3809), Medsi (3615), Rajura (2122), and Ansing (2087). Murtizapur had 4-Sirso (4503), Kuram (3293), Kamargaon (2346), and Mana (2172). Balapur had 3-Alegaon (2848), Paras (2764), and Wyala (2460). Mangrul had no villages of this class. In some cases, however, the census figures are misleading. Murtizapur is shown as having a population of 6156, and Sirso as having 4503; this is true as far as the revenue areas so named are concerned, but a settlement called Mubarakpur, technically attached to Sirso, is practically a part of Murtizapur, and the transference of its population would give Murtizapur over 9000 and Sirso only about 1500. Again, Telhara Buzruk in Akot taluk had only 2528 inhabitants, but the name Telhara is commonly applied to the whole of an unbroken inhabited area which falls for revenue purposes into 5 different villages; the whole taken together had a population of 5160. Yet again, Kutasa in Akot taluk had only 1866 residents on the night of the census, but the people say that the permanent population was over 2000; it happened that one or two very largely attended weddings were in progress in neighbouring villages and scores of families had gone to them. Akola town is said to have gained through a number of country people being detained by a heavy hailstorm on the night of the census. Municipalities have been instituted in Akola, Akot, Basim, and Karanja. The total urban population was 124,580, or 17 per cent, of the total, this proportion being the third largest in the amalgamated Provinces. (Nagpur has 32 per cent, and Amraoti 22 per cent.). Combining the latest figures available for cropped area and population, those for 1907-1908 and 1901 respectively, the cropped area per head of population was 2½ acres. The figures for area, population, and density of the taluks are-

Akot has therefore much the greatest density; it is a wealthy part, with an unusual number of large villages, situated mostly in the northern half; though the smallest taluk in the District it has the reputation of providing more revenue and criminal work than any other in Berar. Basim is far larger than any other taluk in the District, though several taluks in other parts of Berar are larger again, but its density is low. Mangrul is very hilly and not very large, and has the thinnest population in the District; the headquarters town (5793) is the only place with as much as 2000 people. However even Mangrul has a much higher density than some Berar taluks and is 20 per cent, above the provincial average.

Growth of population.

65. A census of the District has been taken on four occasions, in 1867 (a provincial census), 1881, 1891, and 1901. The boundaries of the taluks were not quite the same in 1867 as they have been later, but the differences were of a kind which admit of some general comparisons being fairly made; for instance, the greater part of Mangrul taluk was then included in Basim, but the table given above shows that at least in regard to density the two parts are very similar. In 1867 the density of the different areas now included in the District varied from 100 to 257 per square mile; in 1881 from 120 to 278; in 1891 front 130 to 266; and in 1901 from 145 to 266. The fall in maximum density in the decade ending in 1891 is not explained in the Census Report, but at that time there was a slight fall in several of the plain taluks of Berar and a great rise in all the hilly and remote taluks; it is possible that there was a general movement to take up virgin soil in the only parts where it was then available. The rise in minimum density in the famine decade ending in 1901, combined with the steadiness of maximum density, is very satisfactory, but was possibly assisted by immigration from Pusad taluk. The variation in the larger towns, those with a population of more than 10,000, was:-

Thus Akola has doubled in 'size, Karanja and Basim have increased by 50 per cent., Akot has risen by 30 per cent., and Balapur alone has declined. It is significant that Akola alone is on the railway, Karanja, Basim, and Akot are served by good metalled roads, but the communications of Balapur are seriously interrupted by awkward river crossings. Important roads running north and south meet at Murtizapur station just as they do at Akola, but to get a just idea of the growth of population it is necessary to combine the totals for Murtizapur and Sirso; in 1891 these amounted to 6930, in 1901 to 10,659.

Taking all the towns now having a population of more than 5000, it appears that every place except Karanja and Balapur increased in the fourteen years ending in 1881; seven declined, but three large towns and Mangrul increased, in the decade ending 1891; all except Hiwarkhed, Patur, and Wadegaon increased again in the decade ending in 1901. In the decade 1881 to 1891 there was an increase of 3 per cent, in the total population, whereas the urban population increased by 6 per cent.; some large towns grew, but there was perhaps a general movement from fully cultivated neighbourhoods to parts where, land was available for cultivation. The average number of persons per house in the five taluks of the old Akola District was 5½ in 1881, 4 in 1891, and 4½ in 1901; while in the same years in the three taluks of Basim District it was 6, 5½ and 5. In 1901 the average was about 4½ in Akot and about 5 in each of the other taluks of the present District.

Migration.

66. The tables of migration given with the Census Report are probably unreliable, but the percentage of immigrants to total population shown by them in 1901 was 31 in Murtizapur, 25 in Akola and Mangrul, 20 in Basim, 16 in Akot, and 10 in Balapur. Immigrants are attracted by different features within the District-its agriculture, commerce, finance, general labour, and so on. A great deal of movement within the District and between adjoining Districts has been due to cultivators moving to thinly-settled neighbourhoods in order to take up land on advantageous terms Female immigrants are generally more numerous than males because wives are often brought from villages which happen to lie across the taluk border, but immigrants from a long distance seldom bring womenfolk with them. Many of the clerks first employed by the British Government, and many of the early pleaders, came from Bombay Presidency. Hindus from northern India are commonly called Pardeshis; both Hindus and Muhammadans from the south are known as Dakhanis. These two large classes are mostly engaged in labour, especially driving carts or working as hamals, porters, at cotton factories; they are therefore most common in towns; sometimes, however, a colony of Dakhanis settles in a village by the side of a metalled road and finds employment upon it. Scattered over the southern taluks are a number of Jhadiwalas, or people from the Central Provinces, mostly engaged in agriculture; they are said to have come during a famine about 35 years ago. In most of the villages in the extreme north of Akot taluk are other Jhadiwalas, working as field labourers or petty artisans, who have been gradually drifting into the neighbourhood for several years. They come on foot through the plain country and then seem to strike north till they are stopped by the Satpura plateau. Marwaris, engaged chiefly in money-lending and, when they are rich enough, in cotton and grain speculation, are found in almost every village; a large settlement at Telhara in the west of Akot taluk owns a great deal of land, occupies houses with handsome fronts of carved wood, and is served by artisans of all kinds from Marwar; Dhanaj, in the east of Murtizapur taluk, is the scene of a settlemerit on a smaller scale. Petty money-lending, at very high rates, is carried on by Muhammadans from the frontiers; they are known as Rohillas, are readily distinguished by their dress, and are generally feared on account of their truculence. Pilgrimages and other religious interests cause a further constant trickle of migration; one may meet in the remote Mangrul taluk a little party of Bundelkhand Brahmans begging their way to Rameshwar (at the end of Adam's Bridge in the extreme south of India) without knowing anything about its whereabouts except that it is in the Deccan; their return journey will be easier because they will carry "Ganges water" (from the sea) and tilakchhap, sectarian marks, to sell as relics. A wandering Muhammadan may be a Maulvi-mulla from Ajmer, or perhaps only a local fakir with his wife.

Medical statistics.

67. Medical statistics for the area forming the present District are available only from 1905 to 1908. Difficulties in diagnosis and imperfections in recording occur here as elsewhere, but according to the reports the average annual number of deaths is 37,000 (49 per 1000); of which dysentery and diarrhoea caused 8500, fevers 6500, plague 3200, respiratory diseases 3100, cholera 1400, injuries 300, smallpox 300, measles and chicken-pox 200, and miscellaneous-causes 13,700. The total number of deaths varied between 26,000 (35 per 1000) and 44,000 (58 per 1000). Nearly all the deaths from cholera occurred in the single year 1906 (5000), plague rose to 6200 in 1907 and fell to 500 in 1908; other causes vary to a less extent.

Diseases.

68. The heat is considerable in the cold weather and intense in the hot weather, but the rainfall is not heavy, a cool breeze generally prevails at night, and the climate is not on the whole unhealthy. The rate of mortality in the "salt tract" appears to be slightly higher than that elsewhere; this is an area extending for some miles on each side of the Purna river in the north-east of the District. One theory is that this region was once a great salt lake, and that when its waters found an outlet and the Purna drained the valley the saline deposits remained in the soil. However this may be, the water is so impregnated with soda salts as to be almost undrinkable. Sweet wells are in fact often found close beside brackish ones, but there is no means of knowing whether good or bad water will be found. The higher death rate in this tract seems to be chiefly due to bowel diseases, but the birth rate is as high as elsewhere in Berar and the neighbourhood is not seriously unhealthy.

In Akola District, as over the greater part of India, the months of July, August, and September form the most unhealthy period; malaria and bowel diseases" are most prevalent then. Infant mortality is high and is chiefly due to these causes. The malaria is chiefly of the "benign" and "malignant" tertian types. It is naturally most common toward the end of the rains and in the beginning of the cold weather, because the anopheles mosquitoes have at that time the best chance of breeding in the pools. The District, however, suffers much less than some others in the Provinces from malaria, and the parasite is curiously hard to find. Enlarged spleen in children, which is common in malarious regions, is comparatively rare here-the endemic index is low. Mortality from bowel diseases is high throughout Berar and is naturally highest in the rains. The District has always been subject to violent outbreaks of cholera; these occur at short intervals and cause enormous mortality; thus in 1906 the deaths from this cause alone amounted to close upon 5000, a ratio of 6½ per mille. The outbreaks seem generally to be due to importation, especially from such gatherings as the Pandharpur fair, but there can be no doubt that cholera is endemic throughout Berar. For some unascertained reason which must be sought in the life history of the organism the disease lies dormant or shows only a little activity, and then for some equally unknown reason it breaks out again. The town of Akola has of late years been given a pipe water supply brought from Kapsi, 10 miles away, and this has certainly provided an irresistible weapon against severe epidemic outbreaks in the town itself. As this water supply is improved it may be hoped that Akola town will be practically freed from cholera. Smallpox has always been prevalent, but its ravages have decreased considerably of late years; vaccination is efficiently carried out, 3½ per cent of the population being protected every year. Neither cataract nor stone is very common.

Plague.

69. Plague first appeared in 1902 and has recurred every year. The chief outbreak in Akola town was in 1905, when the deaths amounted to 1468. In 1907 the total number of deaths in the District from plague was 6160, or 8 per mille. The people are very slow to have recourse to inoculation, only 1700 being done in the 7 years from 1902 to 1908; villages are evacuated fairly promptly when the discovery of dead rats shows that plague is coming, but villagers say that the idea of inoculation is still too novel for them. On the other hand a Teli in the north of Berar who a few years ago professed without any qualifications to protect from plague soon had a large following; but the disease broke put among the crowds who attended him, and he ran away. During January and February 1909 about 1600 people were inoculated in Akola town, and this may possibly mark a turning-point in the public attitude, but much of the enthusiasm was certainly due to the fact that R. 1 was being given to each patient; when the payment was reduced to As. 8 about 500 people who were waiting in the hospital compound turned without a word and walked away; one hears of people trying to squeeze the serum out of their arms when they have received their reward. The greater part of the population is at present (February 1909) living outside the town and coming in daily for business; well-to-do families have put up small bungalows of tin, or with tiled roofs; 195 deaths from plague have occurred within the two months, but only one case, and that not fatal, has happened among those inoculated. An energetic campaign against rats has been carried on since 1907, but it is impossible to give accurate statistics; for instance, for 100 poisoned baits laid down it is very rare for more than 3 dead rats to be found, but one municipality reported that nearly 6000 rats were collected for 7000 baits; it was afterwards explained that 6000 baits had disappeared and were considered equivalent to so many dead rats found. People of the middle class, the large numbers who are not very poor but are not highly educated, are far less willing in Akola District than-in other Provinces to accept skilled medical advice; the very poor are generally less reluctant, but a beggar who has been blind from his infancy will sometimes not permit a simple operation which would probably restore his sight.

Medical practices.

70. Enquiries made in several villages about infant mortality showed that it is quite common for 20 per cent, of children to die in the first year, while over 50 per cent, sometimes die. When a child is born it is not put to the breast for two or three days, but is fed on sulache pani, sugared Water, sahad, honey, and the like, and a few drops of castor oil are given it; the mother does not take any food for a day or two. A child is generally suckled for a year, and often, if there is no other claimant, for two or three years, and sometimes longer still. When it is weaned it is given cow's or goat's milk by well-to-do people, but the bulk of the people give it no further milk; it is fed on jawari bread, alone or mixed with tur flour, and on rice, sugar, sweetmeats, and so on. Medical knowledge is very scanty. People with broken limbs usually go now to a hospital, but they used to call in a Dhangar who might have gained experience in binding up the legs of his flocks and herds. It is said that he would apply bamboo splints for about a week, and then remove them permanently, having the leg rubbed with tilli or castor oil. The process was apt to be unsatisfactory, but the principle is akin to that of very recent surgery. A mortified finger may be plunged into boiling oil; cobwebs are used to stop excessive bleeding, and chuna, lime, and leaves are applied to cure a wound; but magic is largely relied on to give the motive power of healing-a string with a certain number of knots being tied, for instance, round the neck, and mantras recited meanwhile, to prevent tetanus. Sometimes people's eyesight is ruined by the application of absurd remedies. A kind of fever called kapsi mata, cotton disease, is mentioned in all parts of the District; something that looks like cotton fluff is said to collect at night under the patient's bed; the disease generally occurs in the cold weather, but its real nature is not clear. Native doctors, vaidyas, of various degrees of pretention are found in the larger villages; they are generally very ignorant and sometimes deliberate impostors; they not infrequently secure payment in advance. Their medicines are usually pills, which are dissolved in honey or the juice of a lime, an onion, or wet ginger; powders are taken in cow's milk or hot water; and infusions are occasionally brought. Vaidyas like to recite shlok, texts, from various sources and make a great point of feeling the pulse, though without using a watch. Men who have been compounders in a Government hospital sometimes make great profit out of their fallacious knowledge.

Physique.

71. The writer has met two or three men who are almost certainly centenarians; Haji Ghasumiya of Akot has an invitation written for his Bismillah ceremony when he was four years and four months old and bearing a date in the first half of 1207 Fasli, that is 1797 A.D.; this seems to prove that he is now 116 years old. A patel of more than 40 says that his grandfather, who died 25 years ago at a great age, spoke of Ghasumiya as a schoolfellow. It is said universally that men in general are much smaller and weaker than they were two or three generations ago. The first explanation offered by villagers is often that food is dearer and people are more worried by debt and competition. Everyone however readily admits that far more comfort prevails now than before, and some serious and common causes of anxiety have been removed. Another explanation, originally kept in reserve from motives of delicacy, is then almost invariably given and the first is dropped. In most castes the husband used generally to be 8 or 10 years older than the wife, and 5 years difference was absolutely the minimum; the last difference, by the way, is given as the average in the Census Report of 1881. The parents took simple precautions to keep the wife apart from her husband till she attained puberty. For many years the difference in age has been decreasing, and parental strictness has greatly relaxed, and this has caused a serious decline in the physique of the middle castes, Kunbis and the like. Tradition is extraordinarily untrustworthy one hears of days when the husband was 30 and the wife 12, when men commonly lived to be 100 and drove cattle every day 20 miles to pasture; but the widespread insistence on this particular point may have some significance. The idea is illustrated by the fact that the Marwaris, who permit adult marriages, recently held a great meeting about caste matters and formally instituted a rule that the husband must be at least three years older than the wife.

Occupation.

72. Statistics of occupation are given in the census reports only by Districts, not by taluks, but probably the percentages suggested by a combination of the figures for the old Akola and Basim Districts would be very nearly true for the area forming the present Akola District. In 1901 the proportion of the population engaged in agriculture was 71 per cent. in Akola District and 76 in Basim, the industrial population 14 per cent in Akola and 11 in Basim, the commercial 2 per cent. in each, and the professional 2 per cent. in Akola and 1 in Basim. Thus three-quarters of the population were engaged in agriculture; a large proportion of industrial workers again were engaged in work subsidiary to agriculture, such as the making of carts and agricultural implements. Hand industries had never been very important, because for many years before the Assignment very few people in Berar had dared to show any signs of wealth, but those that formerly existed declined with the introduction of better, or much cheaper, articles from outside. In 1901 Akola contained only 3,384 cotton weavers, including dependents, and Basim only 1,223. Cotton factories have however given increasing mechanical employment; the number of workers, without dependents, in 1891 was- in Akola 1,933, Basim 76; in 1901 it was-Akola 5,727, Basim 340. The present. District consists of 6 taluks in place of 8 in the two old Districts, but according to the only reports obtainable for the last few years it now contains over 8,000 factory-hands. Among the agriculturists in 1901 about 48 per cent, of the whole population were returned as labourers, three-quarters of them being actual workers; about 23 per cent. were landholders and tenants, not quite a half being workers. The circumstances, however, show that it must be very difficult to get such returns made correctly; it is very common for a man to be both landholder and labourer and not to know which to call himself, while the womenfolk of quite well-to-do landholders work as labourers; in an ordinary village there are very few families in which the women think it beneath them to do field work. In 1901 village service was returned as engaging or supporting 3 per cent. of the population. Government officers numbered 39 in the two Districts combined, clerks and inspectors were 450, constables and warders 1,575 (each supporting 2 dependents); teachers were 750. Akola had 29 pleaders with 160 dependents and Basim 9 with 57 dependents; the large proportion of dependents in this class throws into strong relief the fact that women and youths in most classes are to a large extent workers, though much of the field-work they do is brief in time and light in nature. Mendicants and their dependents, religious and otherwise, were reported as numbering 21,500 in the two Districts, that is 2 per cent. of the whole.

Criminal population.

73. Most of the population, especially the Hindus, are on the whole quiet and law-abiding, but there are some people whose caste tradition makes them the object of more or less suspicion. Kaikaris number 734, scattered all over the District; some of them support themselves by taking contracts for road repair and for work on public buildings, but many are habitual thieves and the police find it hard to decide who are honest. Takankars or Takaris are found chiefly in the northern taluks; they number altogether 2,911; old men speak of them as the chief robbers of former times. Pardhis are, like most of these castes, divided into several sub-castes; the Langoti Pardhis are commonly given to petty thefts from fields or houses, and the old men can hardly talk to a Government officer without endless demands that if they do not speak the truth (which they do not) they may be hanged, transported, blown from a gun, or the like. Sarodis make a temporary encampment which is given up by day to the women and the children, with babies swinging in cradles of rope; the men wander from village to village leading perhaps a bull with showy trappings and jingling bells; the man beats a drum, begs in the name of his bull-god, and watches for opportunities of theft. A small proportion of the Pardeshi and Dakhani immigrants are criminals. The Muhammadan Gaolis of Karanja concert road-crimes along with their relatives at Darwha. The Patharkads located here and there near the Purna river, like most castes whose occupation involves much wandering, are strongly suspected of thefts of various kinds. Muhammadan rowdies are sometimes hired to help in a quarrel about a field; Rohillas bring more than legal pressure to bear, sometimes, on their debtors; the poorer classes are often tempted to steal crops at night (and honest people may profess to be afraid to catch them); gangs from outside may include the District in a very large field of operations, or parties of a wandering caste pass through it; and crime is committed by individuals of miscellaneous castes.

Language.

74. Marathi is the common language of the great bulk of Hindus throughout Berar: it differs little from the standard Dakhani Marathi of Poona. Some variations occur between the different Districts within Berar, but these again are too slight to cause any difficulty in conversation. Educated people speak in a more refined way, so that they sometimes term their own speech Brahmani as distinguished from the Kunbi or Kunbau of the mass of the people, but it is difficult to formulate such differences as would constitute distinct dialects. However certain variations can be pointed out as arising in common speech. Even the educated generally say Mahadeo instead of Mahadeo, and Yejurveda instead of Yajurveda. It is very common to substitute a for e in the termination of neuter bases, e.g, khalcha for khalche, lower; the Konkani dialect spoken on the far side of the Deccan tract has also this characteristic. Villagers often interchange i with e and ya, saying dilla, della, or dyalla, given. Initial e is sometimes pronounced ye, thus ek and yek, one; and v is sometimes slurred or dropped before i or e, thus vechne, echne, or yechne, to pick (cotton). The cerebral l is sometimes softened into y or perhaps r, mali, mayi, gardener, and cerebral n is sometimes changed to plain n, kon, who, pani, water. In case-suffixes the dative is sometimes formed by adding le instead of la, bapale, to the father, while the plural may be bapahis or bapans, to the fathers. Pronouns sometimes take peculiar forms in declension, tya for twa, by thee, maha for majha, my, and tuha for tujha, thy; the nominative singular feminine of the demonstrative pronoun is te instead of ti, she ; la is sometimes inserted before the plural termination of pronouns, tyalacha instead of tyacha, his. In verbs the form mi marto, I die, might be used by either man or woman, when the standard feminine form is mi marte, and in the third person the neuter form may be used instead of the masculine, porga khelte instead of porga khelto, the boy plays. The second person singular takes the same form as the third, tu ahe instead of tu ahes, thou art; just as the second and third persons plural of the past tense coincide, tumhi gele, you went, and te gele, they went. The habitual past becomes an ordinary past, especially in the expression to mhane he said. In the future tense n and l are interchanged, giving the forms mi maril, tu marsin, and te martin instead of mi marin, tu marshil, and te martil, I' will, thou wilt, and they will strike ; tumhi marsan is also substituted for tumhi maral, you will strike. The form sanya. is sometimes added to the conjunctive participle, khaun sanya, having eaten; Kunbis from both Nagpur and Sholapur say sham instead of sanya. Trifling differences also occur in the use of words and the genders ascribed to them; thus in some parts the ordinary word for woman is baiko, in others it is lakshmi, while an educated man might say stri; rasta, road, and ganw, village, should be masculine and neuter respectively, but are neuter and masculine in some neighbourhoods; some Sanskrit words are commonly used, thus indhan instead of sarpan, fuel; also tutari instead of kathi, goad; Urdu words are also adopted, sapili, saphil, town-wall; and common words sometimes take peculiar forms, kotha instead of gotha, cattle-shed ; while some terms are said to be peculiarly Berari, such as vetal, quarter (of a town). Numerous other petty differences occur; the speech of remote and hilly tracts being perhaps most markedly different because of its additional roughness, but local variations are in fact seldom striking. Caste variations are much more considerable. The great points in regard to them are that immigrants on the one hand, and the more aboriginal castes on the other, retain more or less of their original tongue, so that a Mahar from the south may say that his father talks Telugu,but he himself does not; and that castes with criminal traditions have their own private vocabularies, generally based on Gujarati. These two causes account for the recognition in the census of 1901 of 16,000 people speaking Banjari, 15,000 Marwari, 7,000 Gujarati, 5,000 Telugu, and 3,000 Gondi; the figures, by the way, must be inexact because people very commonly fail to distinguish as separate languages the varying forms in which they communicate with different acquaintances, and because criminals like to keep their own speech secret. Muhammadans almost invariably speak dialects which they would call either Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani, or Musulmani; the Muhammadans of the District number 54,000, and according to the last census Urdu was spoken by 65,000 people, and Hindi by 16,000. They generally consider that there is a difference between these two forms of speech, but it seems to consist simply in the extent to which Persian and Sanskrit sources are drawn upon for vocabulary, and in the grammatical finish of the construction. Musalmani is a loose term applicable to both Urdu and Hindi. The Hindu-tani of the District is in fact very corrupt when compared with that of northern India. Practically all the Marathi-speaking population know enough Hindustani to carry on a conversation in it with Muhammadans, who generally understand Marathi but seldom condescend to speak it. A man at a loss for a word in either language is very often safe in using the corresponding word of the other language. Marwaris speak Hindustani in their dealings with people in general, though those that live in small villages are often fluent in Marathi also. English was in 1901 the language of 115 persons.