Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/85

BHEESTIES. established good character; crime or offence of any kind is very rare among them. They are seldom seen in village communities, except when they are large, or contain a great proportion of Mahomedans. In others, women are less secluded, and water is more abundant and accessible, so that the service of a Bheestie is not needed; nor are they in any form attached to purely agricultural people or their pursuits, Bheesties, in fact, are the faithful and untiring servants of the great masses of the people throughout India, and, as such, are perhaps of all, the most indispensable and industrious.