Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/339

Rh cloth to wrap about his middle, fainted. I got some water and sprinkled it on him. At this the scholars and teachers were quite horrified, and ran to stop me, lest his caste should be spoiled by water from the hand of a casteless person like myself.

Caste is quite independent of station. A high-caste pauper is the superior of a low-caste king. As Europeans have no caste, to eat with them would degrade a Hindu of any caste. For a man to receive a cup of tea from the hand of a missionary, is an evidence of his willingness to renounce caste, and is sometimes made a test of sincerity with religious inquirers. During a famine in Madura, even starving women refused food from the table of the missionary. When in Calcutta, a little boy in our family went into the room in which a servant was eating, and happened to lay his hand upon him. The man immediately rose and threw his dinner into the street.

A volume might be filled with illustrations of the folly and cruelty of this system; but its workings will be seen in the causes and method of expulsion from caste. When the rules of caste have been broken, the crime is not always followed by discipline. If the offender is