Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/340

296 wealthy, powerful, or highly connected, the trespass is often winked at. But if the offender is poor, or has enemies who desire his downfall, the case is published abroad, and he is cited to appear before the guru (the religious teacher and head of the caste) and the chief men. If the case is made out against him, he is punished, according to the magnitude of the offence, by fines, blows, or branding with a hot iron, or, if it be a trifling fault, by a feast to the caste. He is then made to humble himself with prostrations to the earth before the guru, and purified by drinking a mixture called pancha-karyam, (the five products of the cow,) which has the power of cleansing from sin and stain.

Sometimes, however, owing to the bitterness of enemies or the nature of the offence, it cannot be thus expiated. In such cases, the offender is driven from his family and society—his parents, his wife, and his children refuse to eat with him or to give him a drop of water, his friendship is denied, and his society shunned by all. He does not fall to a lower caste, but sinks at once to the level of the Pariah. As the elephant cannot become a dog, or a lion a mouse, so the Brahmin or Kschatrya does not