698 REGARD FOR ANIMAL LIFE
they are satisfied with "~ making with sandal wood-paste the
little round mark called bottu, or else a horizontal line.
Some devotees put these marks on their forehead, neck, stomach, and both shoulders in the form of a cross, in honour of their five principal Tirthav karri *.
The Jains are even stricter than the Brahmins in regard to their food. Not only do they abstain from all animal food, and from vegetables the stalks or roots of which grow in a bulbous shape, such as onions, mushrooms, & c, but they also refrain from eating manjr of the fruits which the
Brahmins allow on their tables, such as the katri-kai. or brinjal, called beringela in Portuguese, the pudalcm-kai, & c.
Their motive is the fear of taking the life of some of the insects which are generally to be found in these vegetables and fruits. The principal, and indeed almost the only,
articles of food used by the Jains are rice, milk, things made with milk, and j) eas of various kinds. They particularly dislike asafoetida, to which Brahmins are so partial 1, and
honey is absolutely forbidden.
Whilst they are eating their food some person sits beside them and rings a bell, or strikes a gong. The object of this
is to prevent the possibility of their hearing the impure conversation of their neighbours, or of the passers-by in the
street. Both they and their food would be defiled if any impure words reached their ears while they w r ere eating. Their fear of destroying life is carried to such a length that the women, before smearing the floor with cow-dung, are in the habit of sweeping it very gently first, so as to remove, without hurting them, any insects that may be there. If they neglected this precaution they would run the risk of crushing one of these little creatures whilst rubbing the floor, which would be the source of the keenest regret to them.
Another of their customs, and one which, though for a very different motive, might be advantageously introduced
1
This resinous gum, the smell of which appears to us so abominable that we have called it stercus diaboli, strikes the smell and taste of the
Hindus and almost all Asiatics very differently. They consider it to be possessed of an agreeable perfume and an exquisite flavour. The ancient Greeks and Romans shared their partiality for this substance; for it seems certain that the oiKtyiov of the former and the laser of the latter were nothing more or less than asafoetida. Dubois.