Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 241

ORIGIN OF HINDU CUSTOMS
Men were
at
length
obliged
to
disperse
201
in
different
and gradually peopled the various countries
directions,
of the globe.
India, being close to the plains of Sennaar
and enjoying a good climate and a
fertile soil,
was doubtless
one of the first countries thus inhabited. The very high
temperature made those in authority feel that here, even
more than in the country they had left, the rules of abstin-
ence from certain meats, and attention to personal clean-
liness, must be strictly enforced under pain of severe
punishments.
In all probability, therefore, these Hindu notions about
defilement and purification originated at some date anterior
to the Flood, and after being handed down from genera-
tion to generation, undergoing various alterations and
modifications either from superstition, the whim of some
important person, or from motives of expediency to suit
purely local conditions, they at length crystallized them-
selves into their present form, and still continue to have the
strongest hold on the people.
Though the Hindus are fairly tolerant so far as the actual
dogmas of their religion are concerned, they do not allow
the smallest divergence of opinion on the subject referred
to in the present chapter.
If Europeans living in India,
simply f