THE CHAMAR 195 



with an additional handful of grain to start with in the 

 morning. Here again the wife and children are em- 

 ployed, and earn sufficient for their maintenance. The 

 boys of the family, moreover, accompany their father 

 in one or other of the many wedding processions 

 which are passing from place to place during the 

 months of Phagun and Chait, carrying flags or 

 rendering some similar service, for which they receive 

 as remuneration their daily food. Over and above 

 these many resources, the wife will probably act as 

 a midwife in the village, and receive the food while in 

 attendance on her patient ; and if the birth is that of a 

 firstborn child, she will receive a new sari and other- 

 wise a present, which is usually one of 4 annas in 

 cash. Besides this, the chamar (leather currier) re- 

 ceives the carcasses of the dead cattle of the zemindar 

 for whom he works. The flesh will probably be 

 eaten, the hide tanned, and a pair of shoes made for 

 the zemindar, for which he will give in return 2^ seers 

 of grain, while the remainder of the hide will be made 

 into shoes to be sold for the chamar s benefit.* In 

 cases of illness the zemindar will probably find it to 

 his interest to contribute to the support of his chamar ; 

 for the competition as a rule is amongst the zemindars 

 for ploughmen, not among the ploughmen for zemin- 

 dars. The chamar lives fairly well, taking his grain 

 in the morning, his sattu at noon, and his regular meal 

 at night. He receives old blankets from the zemindar, 

 and will sometimes get a present of something of the 

 kind at a marriage feast, and he and his family are 

 upon the whole well clothed and well fed. This 

 picture of the chamar and his surroundings is prob- 

 ably a favourable one, but it is not exaggerated. It 

 is taken almost word for word from my notes of actual 

 inquiries ; but there are, of course, many instances in 

 which the labouring classes are less favourably placed 



* Mr. Rose is writing from Ghazipur, one of the eastern districts 

 {^vide Mr. William Crooke's evidence in the same volume, p. 24). 



13—2 



