Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 365

PUBLIC BUILDINGS
325
and in fact kill time as
best they can.
Besides the private houses, one or more public buildings
These
are generally to be found in all villages of any size.
consist usually of a shed or long room, open down the
whole length of one side. They are what Europeans call
choultries, and they correspond to the caravanserais of
other Eastern nations. These rest-houses, which are usually
large and convenient, not only serve as a shelter for travellers,
but are also used as council chambers, where the headmen
assemble to consider the public affairs of the village, settle
law-suits, put an end to quarrels, and pacify disputants.
They are also used for the celebration of religious rites in
places where there are no temples.
All the villages are built very irregularly, without any
plan or symmetry. The houses are crowded closely to-
gether
the streets are very narrow, and excessively dirty,
with the exception of the street in the larger villages where
the market is held, which is kept cleaner, and in which
few steps
a certain amount of order is maintained.
from the entrance door of each house is a large ditch into
which all the manure from the stable and the refuse from
the house are thrown. During the rains these sewage pits
become full of water and form cesspools, which give off
But this unpleasant arrange-
the most disgusting effluvia.
politics, or science, receive visits,
;
A
ment, which is the same in all the villages, does not appear
to affect the inhabitants in any way.
All the houses being covered with thatch and crowded
a by no means rare
together, when a fire breaks out
occurrence a whole village is often burned down in less
than half an hour.
Though in the larger towns the houses are tiled and
not thatched, there is no more symmetry in their arrange-
ment than in the villages, and the streets are so narrow
—
—
In the middle
that two persons can scarcely walk abreast.
each street there usually runs a sewer, which receives
This forms
all the rubbish and filth from the houses.
a permanent open drain, and gives off a pestilential smell,
which none but a Hindu could endure for a moment.
of