Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/11

 KESSOA, MASON, AND HIS WIFE. (174)

OMES are not Hindoos, though they worsliip some Hindoo idols, and make vows to some of the Hindoo divinities. They are esteemed so low in the scale of caste, or rather of the outcastes, that they are not admissible within the pale of Hindooism. It is strange, perhaps, that this tribe, and others of the same grade, have not become voluntary converts to Mahomedanism, where they would be welcome, and would soon lose trace of then original impure descent; but they prefer to remain as they are, and continue then belief in their original superstitions. Domes are no doubt descended from an aboriginal tribe; and may possibly, in their original condition, have served as slaves, servants, and artizans. There is no instinct, as it were, of high rank among them. They are never cultivators of the land, nor do they hunt game; they have no legends of chieftainship among them. They are still what, perhaps, they were before the Aiyan invasion—artizans of low grade, as carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, masons, leather workers, and in the Himalayas mmers and musicians. They are of too low a grade to serve any Hindoos or Mahomedans as menial servants; but it is a curious cncumstance, that, on the early settlement of Europeans in India, especially in Bengal, the Domes took service with them in the capacity of cooks, sweepers, and the like, in which many still continue; while their women serve as ayahs or nurses, and ladies' maids. In then capacities as artizans, though they follow the same trades as some Sudra Hindoos—that is, of carpenters, blacksmiths, &c.—yet they are not permitted to work with, or even to do the same kind of work as their Hindoo fellow-craftsmen. Yet they are by no means unskilfull in these trades. They are, indeed, for the most part, careful workmen, especially as masons and blacksmiths, and contrive to earn comfortable means of subsistence. Some of the tribes are basket-makers, and Domes are found acting as public executioners and removers of dead bodies. It is difficult to state in what then religion consists, and their ceremonies are little known. They make, however, offerings to sacred stones, and sacrifice to them fowls and goats, which are afterwards eaten. Their marriage ceremonies are