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CHAPTER IX
The Kinds of Food expressly forbidden to Brahmins.— Occult Rites.
The Disgusting Rite called Sakti.
There are as regards food three things which a Brahmin must avoid with the most scrupulous care: he must not eat anything that has had life or has even contained the
principle of life; he must not drink intoxicating liquors; he must not touch food that has been prepared by persons of another caste. It is no greater privation to a Brahmin to abstain from eating meat, accustomed as he is from his earliest youth to go without it, and even to look upon it as abominable food, than it is for us to refrain from eating
the flesh of certain domestic animals, for which, either from natural prejudice or from its unpleasant taste, we feel a strong repugnance. Thus, when a Hindu abstains from all animal food, he is only conforming to a feeling of
unconquerable repulsion, the result partly of imagination and partly of long-established custom. I once met a
Brahmin who, on seeing some eggs being broken and beaten up for an omelette, immediately complained of feeling unwell, and in the course of a few moments was violently sick.
The aversion which Brahmins feel for sura-pana, or the use of intoxicating beverages— an aversion to which I have several times had occasion to call attention— springs at any rate from most commendable principles. In places where
Brahmins congregate in great numbers infractions of this
rule of abstinence are extremely rare, and such a thing as a drunken Brahmin is unknown. They are not, however, quite so strict on this point when they live in some isolated spot, away from the watchful eyes of their gurus. A Brahmin ' s house, situated at some distance from a village in Tanjore, once caught fire, and the inhabitants of the village hastened to the spot to try and snatch what they could from the flames. Amongst the things saved were
a large earthen vessel of salt pork and another containing
arrack, or native rum. The proprietor felt the loss of his house much less than he did this overwhelming disclosure.