Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 103

THEIR DESPISED CONDITION
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use for paring nails, if they have to open an abscess, or
the like.
They are also the only accredited fiddlers and
they share with the Pariahs the exclusive right of playing
wind instruments, as will be seen presently.
As to the washermen, their business is much the same
here as everywhere else, except for the extreme filthiness
of the rags that are entrusted to them to be cleaned.
Those engaged in these two occupations are in such
a dependent position that they dare not refuse to work
for any one who chooses to employ them.
They are paid
in kind at harvest time by each inhabitant of their village.
No doubt the contempt in which they are held by men of
other castes, who look upon them as menials, is due partly
to this state of subjection, and also to the uncleanness of
the things which they are compelled to handle.
The potters also are a very low class, being absolutely
;
uneducated.
The five castes of artisans, of which I have already
spoken, and also, as a rule, all those employed in mechanical
or ornamental arts, are very much looked down upon and
despised.
The Moochis, or tanners, though better educated and
more refined than any of the preceding classes, are not
much higher in the social scale. The other Sudras never
allow them to join in their feasts
indeed, they would
hardly condescend to give them a drop of water to drink.
This feeling of repulsion is caused by the defilement which
ensues from their constantly handling the skins of dead
;
animals.
As a rule, the mechanical and the liberal arts, such as
music, painting, and sculpture, are placed on very much
the same level, and those who follow these professions,
which are left entirely to the lower castes of the Sudras,
are looked upon with equal disfavour 1
As far as I know, only the Moochis take up painting as
a profession. Instrumental music, and particularly that
of wind instruments, is left exclusively, as I have already
.
1
Those who follow these
liberal arts are treated with more respect in
events, they are not looked upon with disfavour.
There are now many Brahmins in Southern India who are professional
musicians, though they play on certain instruments only.
Ki>.
these
clays.
At
all
—