Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 8.djvu/166

CARPENTERS. India, and in all village communities hold a high place among the village counsellors, being only second to the blacksmith. They make and repair ploughs, and the yokes for the oxen; they also make and repair carts as far as the woodwork is concerned. They construct the roofs and doors of houses, platforms and sheds for marriage ceremonies and festivals, and the gear of wells for irrigation. For these services, especially in regard to ploughs and plough gear, they receive a share of all produce at harvest, a pair of shoes, and a suit of garments every year. They have also very frequently rent-free lands; all strictly private work being paid for by separate agreement. The village office is hereditary, as is also the trade; carpenters' sons continue to be carpenters, and rarely enter a different mode of life. They belong to different gotes or divisions of their caste, which intermarry with each other; but they never marry into any other class of artizans except in some parts of the South of India. In the Deccan they are one of the most exclusive of artizan castes, and very strict in their caste discipline. Some families worship Siva, others Vishnu under various forms; but all have a profound reverence for the goddess Kali or Dcvi, whose votaries many become. Generally speaking they confine themselves to vegetable and farinaceous food, but do not object to flesh of sheep or goat, especially at festival times. Carpenters are a hard—working industrious class everywhere, and indispensable to the community.