In Tirora tahsil, houses
are usually tiled, in Bhandara both tiled and thatched and in Sakoli
usually thatched. Landed gentry have dhabedar or terraced houses.
Private latrines do not exist in villages and the country people dislike
them. The cattle are tied in a shed near the main dwelling or in a
verandah behind the house as they must be always under the owner’s
eye. Grain is kept in round bamboo-work receptacles called dholas,
supported on wooden posts with thatched covers. Those for seed-grains
are often outside the house and are only opened when sowing time comes
while those for food are kept inside the house and the requisite mount
of grain is allowed to run out daily from a hole in the side. Among the
most essential articles of furniture are a roller and a slab of stone
for pounding spices and a stone mortar and pestle; these articles are
worshipped by several castes at marriages. Many households have bothris
or mattresses made of old clothes and rage sewn together. If struck with
one of these by a Hindu, a Mang is put out of caste temporarily. An
ordinary cultivator or agricultural labourer sleeps on straw and covers
himself with one of such mattresses and in the cold season with kamblis,
country woollen blankets.