290 MENTAL SUPERIORITY OF BRAHMINS
can in his own department, enrich himself with remarkable rapidity, by carrying on unchecked a system of injustice fraud, dishonesty, and oppression-qualities m which most individuals of this caste have been thoroughly well trained.
Better educated, more cunning, more keen-witted with greater talents for intrigue than other Hindus, Brahmins become necessary even to the Mussulman princes themselves, who cannot govern without their assistance. ± ne
Mahomedan rulers generally make a Brahmin their secretary of state, through whose hands all the state correspondence
must pass. Brahmins also frequently fill the positions of secretaries and writers to the governors of provinces and
;
districts. Generally speaking, the Mahomedans of India are so ignorant of the first principles of public administration and so utterly unacquainted with the simplest rules
of arithmetic, that they are obliged to have recourse to the Brahmins for everything that requires enlightenment and knowledge. In return, the latter know how to copy only too faithfully the harsh and tyrannical methods ot the " Mahomedans. When it is a question of plundering the people or extorting money from them, they employ a thousand vexatious means, sometimes even going so far as to resort to torture. But they rarely obtain the same hold over the Mahomedan princes that they do over those ot their own religion. With the former they remain at thenposts until by endless peculation and extortion, either authorized or tacitly allowed, they contrive to amass large fortunes. But the moment their wealth becomes a notorious fact, that moment their disgrace is certain. Ihey in their turn are imprisoned, tortured, and forced to disgorge the riches that they have so unjustly acquired.
However, some of them, foreseeing the fate that must befall the servants of such masters, keep a sharp look-out and place the fruit of their plunder in security, either by keeping a part of it in some secret hiding-place or by sending it away to some country beyond the tyrant s reach. The " Brahmins have also been clever enough to work their way into favour with the great European Power that now governs India. They occupy the highest and
most lucrative posts in the different administrative boards and Government offices, as well as in the judicial courts ot