Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 127

SUPERIOR AGRICULTURAL CLASS
87
weather, they are mere skeletons and
have often, at this time of the year, been in villages where
there were more than a hundred cows, and yet sometimes
I eould not procure so much as half a measure of milk for
my breakfast l
Thirdly, I may reckon together those Hindus whose
property varies in value from £25 to £50 sterling. They
comprise about one-tenth of the population, and are prin-
They farm lands large enough to
cipally agricultural.
require two, three, or even four ploughs, and their rental
This class lives in fairly
is from ten to thirty pagodas.
comfortable circumstances, and most of the people are able
to lay in sufficient grain for the whole year after meeting
ean hardly stand.
I
.
Many of them have even more than they
their taxes.
require for their own consumption, and are able to sell or
lend the surplus to those in their village who have run
have seen on what outrageous terms
short of food.
The well-to-do amongst them
these loans are effected.
employ as servants one or more of those who come under
the first class. They have larger, more comfortable, and
slightly cleaner thatched dwellings than the others, and
they and their wives have at least a change of raiment,
which is more than rare in the two preceding classes. But
even their possessions are far from betokening wealth
they consist of a few gold and silver trinkets, some copper
vessels, and a great many earthenware pots piled up in
a corner of the house and besides these they own ploughs
and other farming implements, some cotton-spinning wheels,
and various primitive tools of small value. Cattle are their
chief source of wealth. As to their comfort, it is at best
a relative term, for the contraction of debts is a custom
common to all the Hindus we have hitherto spoken of.
Most of them are debtors as well as creditors, but their
assets seldom exceed their liabilities, and they are in no
greater hurry to pay their creditors than their debtors are
to pay them.
Besides tilling the land, many Hindus of this class keep
We
;
;
the slaughter of cattle being forbidden by the Hindu
and useless animals are maintained, which
deprive the healthy and useful animals of their proper share of food.
1
The
fact
is,
religion, large herds of old
Ed.