Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 94

OCCUPATIONS OP PARIAHS
54
an almost equal
The conduct
Europeans being
who have any
sense of decency or self-respect feel the greatest repugnance
to taking service with them.
One cannot wonder therefore
that only the very dregs of the population will undertake
footing.
of
in this respect so totally different, natives
the work.
But to return to the Pariahs. One is bound to confess
that the evil reputation which is borne by this class is in
many respects well deserved, by reason of the low conduct
and habits of its members. A great many of these un-
fortunate people bind themselves for life, with their wives
and children, to the ryots, or agricultural classes, who set
them to the hardest labour and treat them with the greatest
harshness.
The village scavengers, who are obliged to
clean out the public latrines, to sweep the streets, and
to remove all rubbish, invariably belong to this class.
These men, known in the south by the name of totis, are,
however, generally somewhat more humanely treated than
the other Pariahs, because, in addition to the dirty work
above mentioned, they are employed in letting the water
into the tanks and channels for irrigating the rice fields
and on this account they are treated with some considera-
tion by the rest of the villagers.
Amongst the Pariahs
who are not agricultural slaves there are some who groom
and feed the horses of private individuals, or those used
in the army
some are in charge of elephants others tend
cattle
others are messengers and carriers
while others,
again, do ordinary manual work.
Within recent times
Pariahs have been allowed to enlist in the European and
Native armies, and some of them have risen to high rank,
for in point of courage and bravery they are in no way
inferior to any other caste. Yet their bringing up puts them
at a great disadvantage in acquiring other qualifications
necessary for the making of a good soldier, for they are
induced with difficulty to conform to military discipline,
and are absolutely deficient in all sense of honour \
Pariahs, being thus convinced that they have nothing to
;
;
;
;
;
The Abbe is too sweeping in many of his statements about Pariahs.
For instance, in these days at any rate, the Pariah Sepoys in the Madras
army are extremely well disciplined, especially the corps of Sappers.
1
—Ed.