Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 355

BRAHMIN SELFISHNESS
315
a quarrel and then overwhelm each other with the grossest
insults is a common mode of revenge, and one in which
Brahmins excel. But their most perfidious weapon, and
one which they are especially clever at using, is slander.
Sooner or later, by crooked ways or underhand intrigues,
they contrive to deal their enemies some fatal blow by this
means.
Murder and suicide occur occasionally amongst the
Hindus, though such crimes are regarded by them with
Poison is gener-
greater horror than by any other people.
ally the means employed when a murder is committed.
Driven to
It is usually women who are guilty of suicide.
despair by the ill-treatment of a brutal husband, or by the
annoyances of a spiteful mother-in-law, or by any of those
domestic worries which are so common in a Hindu house-
hold, they lay criminal hands on themselves and destroy
the life which has become unbearable.
Intense selfishness is also a common characteristic of
a Brahmin. Brought up in the idea that nothing is too
good for him, and that he owes nothing in return to any
He
one, he models the whole of his life on this principle.
would unhesitatingly
sacrifice
the
good,
public
or
his
country itself, if it served his own interests and he would
stoop to treason, ingratitude, or any deed, however black,
;
He makes it a point of
it promoted his own welfare.
duty not only to hold himself aloof from all other human
beings, but also to despise and hate from the bottom of
his heart every one who happens not to be born of the
if
And further, he thinks himself
caste as himself.
absolved from any feelings of gratitude, pity, or considera-
If he occasionally shows any kindli-
tion towards them.
As for the
ness, it is only to some one of his own caste.
rest of mankind, he has been taught from his earliest youth
According
to look upon them all as infinitely beneath him.
to the principles in which he has been brought up, he ought
even to treat them with contempt, hatred, and harshness,
as beings created solely to serve him and minister to his
wants without there being any necessity for him to make
same
Such are the Brahmins
the smallest return.
J
It must be admitted that the Abbe paints the Brahmins
'
colours than, as a bodv, thev deserve.
— En.
!
in
darker