62 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. {N.S., XIX, 
to the river banks for answering their calls of nature, take 
the water in it and use it for washing purposes; while the 
wretched southerners wash their buttocks almost without any 
exception in the river water itself and immediately thev will 
in other places. Thus the Telugus, along with their north 
Indian brethren, have this to their credit that they do not 
physically defile the river water sacred to the Hindus. 
3. The Telugu women who bathe in the Godaveri river 
very rarely strain their wet cloth in the river itself. They 
return home dripping; but their sisters in the south will strain 
their cloth well, dress again with the dry and moist cloth, and 
return home. It is said that the sacred (goddess) river ought 
not be defiled by pouring the strained water back into it and 
hence the custom. However it is to be doubted if it is sound 
from considerations of health. Another peculiarity is that 
the northern women wash their clothes by beating them 
between their fect kept at right angles. In the south they 
above and never have they to exert so much as their sisters 
have to do in the north. There are not to be found, near the 
water in the Godaveri, rows of lon steps of stones built for 
the convenience of the bathers as there are in the Cauveri or 
the Tamraparmi. Both men and women adopt the same 
method and even near the wells the washing stones are not 
generally kept at a higher level from the ground. The method 
of ramming the clothes on a stone between the feet is charac- 
teristic of the Telugus of the north. Furthermore, the 
wonien of the north are physically stronger perhaps than their 
sisters in the south, for they are able te carry big heavy brass 
kudams) are generally thin and small. One noteworthy 
feature is that the Telugu Brahmin women invariably keep the 
big heavy vessel filled with water on their left shoulder and 
never on the waist. Whereas the kudams are placed only on 
the waist when the caste women carry them or on the head by 
the low caste cooly women in the southern districts. (The 
_ 4. Now I come to the matter of dress. Much has been 
written on this and some of the conditions have changed in 

