Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 497

THE BRAHMIN AND THE CLOTHS
457
seen in our agraharam (village). I showed them to all my
who never failed to admire them greatly. " A
beautiful present like that," said they to me, " can only be
the reward of good deeds performed in a previous birth."
Before putting them on I washed them, according to the
usual custom, in order to purify them from the defilement
Now, they were
of the weaver's and merchant's touch.
hanging up to dry with the ends fastened to two branches
of a tree, when a dog happening to come that way ran
under them. I caught sight of the vile animal only after
it had got some distance away, and I was therefore not
quite sure whether it had touched my cloths and thus
I asked my children who were close by
polluted them.
about it, but they said they had not noticed the dog. How,
Well, I
then, was I to make sure about the matter ?
decided to go down on all-fours till I was about the height
and in this posture I crawled under the cloths.
of the dog
" Did I touch them ? " I asked my children, who were
friends,
;
watching me. They answered, " No," and I leapt with
joy at the happy result. Nevertheless, a moment later it
struck me that the dog might possibly have touched them
with his tail. So to be quite sure of this, I fastened an
upturned sickle on my back, and then, again crawling
along on all-fours, I passed a second time under the cloths.
My
children, whom I had asked to watch carefully, told
that this time the sickle had just touched the cloths.
Not doubting in the least that the end of the dog's tail must
have also touched the cloths in the same way, I laid hold
of them, and, in a fit of thoughtless rage, tore them to
The occurrence soon became known to every-
pieces.
body in the neighbourhood, and I was everywhere voted
" Even if the dog really defiled thy cloths,"
to be a fool.
said one, " couldst thou not have removed the defilement
by washing them a second time ? " Another asked why
I had not given the cloths to some poor Sudra instead of
" Who would dream of giving
tearing them to pieces.
you cloths again after such senseless folly on your part ? "
This last remark, I may add, has proved only too true
for ever since then, whenever I ventured to apply to any-
body for a present of cloths, the usual reply has been that
me
;
I
simply wanted them to tear to
Q
3
pieces.'