Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 96

FOOD EATEN BY PARIAHS
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run short of olhcr food. There arc few Pariah houses
where one does not see festoons of these horrible fragments
hanging up and though the Pariahs themselves do not
seem to be affected by the smell, travellers passing near
their villages quickly perceive it and can tell at once the
This horrible food is,
caste of the people living there.
no doubt, the cause of the greater part of the contagious
diseases which decimate them, and from which their neigh-
bours are free.
Is it to be wondered at, after what has just been stated,
Can
that other castes should hold this in abhorrence ?
they be blamed for refusing to hold any communication
with such savages, or for obliging them to keep themselves
aloof and to live in separate hamlets ? It is true that with
regard to these Pariahs the other Hindus are apt to carry
but as we have already pointed out,
their views to excess
and shall often have to point out again, the natural in-
stinct of the natives of India seems to run to extremes in
;
;
all cases.
The condition of the Pariahs, which is not really slavery
it is known amongst us, resembles to a certain extent
that of the serfs of France and other countries of Northern
Europe in olden times. This state of bondage is at its
as
worst along the coast of Malabar, as are several other
The reason is that
customs peculiar to the country *.
Malabar, owing to its position, has generally escaped the
invasions and revolutions which have so often devastated
the rest of India, and has thus managed to preserve un-
altered many ancient institutions, which in other parts
have fallen into disuse.
Of these the two most remarkable are proprietary rights
and slavery. These two systems are apparently insepar-
and, indeed, one may well say,
able one from the other
no land without lord. All the Pariahs born in the country
are serfs for life, from father to son, and are part and parcel
The land-owner can
of the land on which they are born.
sell them along with the soil, and can dispose of them when
and how he pleases. This proprietary right and this
system of serfdom have existed from the remotest times,
:
1
Things in this respect have, of course, changed a great deal for the
Abbe wrote. Ed.
better since the