A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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The Second Class Furnishes The Inferior Officials And
Soldiers; The Third The Merchants, Workmen, And Peasants; While The
Fourth And Last Provides Servants For The Other Three.
Hindoos of
all castes, however, enter service when compelled by poverty to do
so, but there is still a distinction in the kind of work, as the
higher castes are allowed to perform only that of the cleanest kind.
It is impossible for a person of one caste to be received into
another, or to intermarry with any one belonging to it. If a Hindoo
leaves his native land or takes food from a Paria, he is turned out
of his caste, and can only obtain re-admission on the payment of a
very large sum.
Besides these castes, there is a fifth class - the Parias. The lot
of these poor creatures is the most wretched that can be imagined.
They are so despised by the other four castes, that no one will hold
the slightest intercourse with them. If a Hindoo happens to touch a
Paria as he is passing, he thinks himself defiled, and is obliged to
bathe immediately.
The Parias are not allowed to enter any temple, and have particular
places set apart for their dwellings. They are miserably poor, and
live in the most wretched huts; their food consists of all kinds of
offal and even diseased cattle; they go about nearly naked, or with
only a few rags at most on them, and perform the hardest and
commonest work.
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