Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 334

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LIVING ON NATIVE CREDULITY
a bad omen, an unpleasant dream, and a thousand other
similar things, are all occasions on which their credulous
neighbours come running to them for advice, and for which
they make them pay as dearly as possible. The Hindu
Almanac, about the composition of which I have already
spoken, has always an answer or a remedy for everything.
Brahmins are never at a loss for an answer, no matter
on what point they may be consulted. Clever char-
latans that they are, they make their various calculations
with the utmost gravity and to give greater weight to
their words they bewilder their clients with stories invented
on the spur of the moment, which they tell with portentous
emphasis. For, I repeat again, as arch-impostors they are
absolutely unrivalled.
Every Hindu is an adept at dis-
guising the truth
but on this point the Brahmin far
excels every other caste.
Indeed, this vice has become so
deeply engrained, that, far from being ashamed of it, they
regard it on the contrary as a subject for exultation and
vanity.
I once had a long conversation with two of those
Brahmins who gain their living at the expense of the
credulous public, and they ended by agreeing with me
as to the superiority of the Christian religion over the
absurdities of their own theogony.
All that you say is
reasonable and true,' they repeated several times.
But
then,' I replied,
if all that I say is reasonable and true,
it follows that all that you say to the people must be false
and ridiculous.'
but
That also is true,' they admitted
these lies comprise our livelihood. If we were to expound
to the people only such truths as you have just been telling
us, how should we obtain the wherewithal to fill our stomachs?''
Then again, flattery, in the art of which Brahmins are
also past-masters, is also a great source of profit to them.
However proud and haughty they may be, they never find
any difficulty in grovelling, in the most humiliating manner,
at the feet of any one from whom they think they can
gain some advantage. They attach themselves like leeches
to the great merchants or other rich individuals, and are
;
;
'
'
'
'
'
;
never tired of playing the role of admirers and flatterers.
They know full well that to appeal to a native's vanity is
to attack him at his weakest point
and naturally they
turn this knowledge to the best possible account. The
;