BENARES CUSTOMS. 89 



or artisans and labourers. The latter or lowest caste 

 can only be employed in the meanest and most servile 

 duties, and is looked upon by all others as an out- 

 cast ; he dare not enter the hut of even a Vaisya, 

 much less eat vvdth him. It is this system of caste, 

 rather than the effect of an enervating climate, which 

 necessitates in India a numerous staff of servants. 

 Mr. Lewis Kice, in his excellent " Gazetteer of My- 

 sore," published in 1877, gives 413 as the known 

 number of castes. 



There is a remarkable difference in the bearing 

 of a Hindu and that of a Mussulman ; the former is 

 commonly fawning and obsequious, seldom looking 

 you in the face, but letting his eyes wander about, 

 whilst the latter is always quiet, calm, and self- 

 possessed ; the former is as licentious as the latter is on 

 the whole moral and sober. 



The happiest life at Benares lead the cow and the 

 monkey, both sacred to the Brahman ; they fill street 

 and temple, and are never interfered with ; they are 

 fed and tended, and no one would think of giving them 

 a kick, even on the sly, to get them to move out of his 

 path. 



The native houses at Benares are mostly painted 

 on the outside in glaring colours, often designing 

 mythological objects as gods, or brutes with several 



