Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 102

BARBERS AND WASHERMEN
62
It is they
the gurus, or spiritual advisers, of the rest.
who preside at all the marriages and other religious cere-
monies of the Pariahs. They predict all the absurdities
mentioned in the Hindu almanac, such as lucky and un-
lucky days, favourable or unfavourable moments for
beginning a fresh undertaking, and other prophecies of
a like nature. But they are forbidden to meddle with
anything pertaining to astronomy, such as the foretelling
of eclipses, changes of the moon, &c, this prerogative
belonging exclusively to the Brahmins.
There are other classes too, which, though a trifle higher
in the Hindu social scale, are for all that not treated with
much more respect. Firstly, amongst the Sudras there are
those who follow servile occupations, or at least occupa-
secondly, those who per-
tions dependent on the public
form low and disgusting offices, which expose them to
and, thirdly, there are the nomadic
frequent defilements
tribes, who are always wandering about the country,
having no fixed abode.
Amongst the first I place the barbers and the washer-
men. There are men belonging to these two employments
in every village, and no one exercising the same profession
can come from another village to work in theirs without
Their employments are trans-
their express permission.
mitted from father to son, and those who pursue them
;
;
form two
distinct castes.
The
barber's business is to trim the beard, shave the
head, pare the nails on hands and feet, and clean the ears
In several of the
of all the inhabitants of his village.
southern provinces the inhabitants have all the hair on
different parts of their bodies shaved off, with the excep-
and this custom is always observed
tion of the eye-brows
by Brahmins on marriage days and other solemn occasions '.
The barbers are also the surgeons of the country. What-
ever be the nature of the operation that they are called on
to perform, their razor is their only instrument, if it is a
or a sort of stiletto, which they
question of amputation
;
;
This custom of shaving the hair from all parts of the body, for
ceremonies where absolute purity is required, is not peculiar to the
Brahmins it was also common amongst the Jews, for the same reason,
and was part of their ceremonial law (Numbers viii. 6, 7). Dubois.
1
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