Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 364

HINDU HOUSES
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provinces and with different castes. Men who are in service
with either Europeans or Mahomedans wear a long coat of
fine muslin or calico, very full in the skirt, and made in
a peculiar way. This also is a foreign fashion recently
copied from the Mahomedans. Brahmins and Mahomedans
may be distinguished from each other by the fact that the
former fasten their coats on the left side, and the latter
on the right. Both generally wear over this garment a
belt, made of some fine material, and wound several times
round the waist.
but the rich
All Brahmins, rich or poor, dress alike
usually wear finer and more expensive materials.
Most Hindus wear more or less expensive ornaments
These
either in the middle or the upper part of the ears.
ornaments vary in size and pattern according to locality
and caste. But I shall have occasion to speak of this
kind of adornment later on.
The simplicity of their houses equals that of their costume.
These are generally thatched with straw and have mud
The houses in the towns
walls, particularly in the country.
but they are all arranged on the same
are better built
The interior resembles
plan, and are all equally simple.
a little cloister, with a gallery round it, while in the centre
From this you enter the
there is a court of varying size.
tiny, dark, windowless rooms, into which light and air
can only penetrate by means of a door about 4 feet high
by 3 feet wide. These little dens are absolutely uninhabit-
The kitchen is always placed
able during the hot weather.
in the furthest and darkest corner of the house, so as to
be entirely beyond the reach of strangers' eyes. I have
already explained the motive of this arrangement. The
hearth is invariably placed on the south-west side, which
the fire-god's quarter,' because the Hindus
they call
believe that there this deity resides.
As the men are not allowed to pay visits to the women
of the family, who are always occupied with their domestic
affairs and remain shut up in a part of the house to which
outsiders, as a rule, are not admitted, large open seats or
raised platforms are constructed both inside and outside
the principal entrance door, on which the men sit cross-
legged, while they talk about business, discuss religion,
;
;
'