Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/287

245 as tax by government, and the half snatched from them by Brahmins, in the shape of tahsildars, sherishtadars, writers, &c., they had hard work to live; that often they could not even get conjee, (rice-porridge,) and were fain to fill their stomachs from the tank. As for clothing, that was quite out of the question. If they wished to appeal to the collector, they had to approach him through these very persons of whom they wished to complain, who were always around him; and so they would bring on themselves greater oppression. “Well," we said, “if you are so poor, why do you leave your work to sit and stare at us?” "Oh," answered one, “ when the kalkakta-doorey (collector) comes to take the assessment, he lives in his tent, and the Brahmins are about him, so that we poor people cannot get near him; so we have all come to have a good look at you."

Poor fellows! they are kept in bondage, both spiritually and physically, by their oppressors, the Brahmins. It is a common saying that, “government gets the grain and we get the straw.” The outrageous system of bribery and peculation practised by almost every Hindu official, from the highest to the lowest, keeps