Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 120

SO
THE REPUTED WEALTH OF INDIA
they shun any intercourse with him, fearing lest he should
them of their liberty and independence, and lest
they should be condemned to submit to a civilization which
to them is only another term for bondage.
try to rob
At the same time, these wild tribes of Hindus retain
a few of the prejudices of their fellow-countrymen. For
instance, they are divided into castes, they never eat beef,
they have similar ideas about defilement and purifica-
tion, and they keep the principal regulations relating to
them.
CHAPTER VI
The Poverty
of the
Hindus.
India has always been considered a most wealthy and
opulent country, more favoured by nature than any other
in the world, a land literally flowing with milk and honey,
where the soil yields all that is necessary for the existence
happy people almost without cultivation. The great
wealth accumulated by a few of its native princes, the large
fortunes so rapidly acquired by many Europeans, its
valuable diamond mines, the quality and quantity of its
pearls, the abundance of its spices and scented woods,
the fertility of its soil, and the, at one time, unrivalled
all these have
superiority of its various manufactures
caused admiration and wonder from time immemorial.
One would naturally suppose that a nation which could
supply so many luxuries would surpass all others in wealth.
This estimation of the wealth of India has been com-
monly accepted in Europe up to the present day and
those who, after visiting the country and obtaining exact
and authentic information about the real condition of its
inhabitants, have dared to affirm that India is the poorest
and most wretched of all the civilized countries of the
Many people in
world, have simply not been believed.
Europe, after reading what various authors have to say
about India's manufactures and about the factories which
turn out the delicate muslins, fine cloths, and beautiful
coloured cottons, &c, which are so much admired all the
world over, have supposed that the establishments pro-
ducing such magnificent stuffs must have supplied models
of its
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