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BHM.

　The Bhms are a criminal class who are especially active as railway thieves. It seems probable that their original home was the Telugu-speaking country. At the present day, however, settlements are to be found in several of the districts and native states in and bordering on the Bombay Presidency. At the Census of 1911, 4,270 Bhms were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar and none from elsewhere.

　They do not lead a gipsy life but settle in some village from which their gangs start on their thieving expeditions.

　They are known under several different names such as Gahachrs, Uchlis, Vaars, and so forth. The home tongue of most of them is Vaar, a debased form of Telugu. They also speak Marh, Hindstn, and Kanarese. In speaking Kanarese they drop their 'h's.' The home language of some of the Gahachrs of the Bijapur District is Kanarese. Those of Nagpur in the Central Provinces speak a broken mixture of Dakhin Hindstn and Jaipur Rjasthn. Only fourteen speakers of this Bhm were reported from the Central Provinces. As the Bhms of elsewhere speak Telugu, I do not further refer to them. It is hardly worth while giving examples of the others. As, however, some good specimens have been received, I give a portion of a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and a folktale received from Nagpur.

　The fullest accounts of the Bhms which I have seen are in pp. 464 and ff. Of Part I of the Poona Gazetteer, in pp. 3 and ff. of The History of Railway Thieves with Hints on Detection, by M. Paupa Rao Naidu, Madras, 1900, and in pp. 16 and ff. of the Notes on Criminal Classes in the Bombay Presidency, by M. Kennedy, Bombay, 1908.

　 See above, Vol. IV, pp. 607 ff. VOL. XI. D