1917.] Folklore in Caste Proverbs. 5 



must be a fool. The Audich Brahmans claim to be cleverer 

 than the Modh Sect. A Brahman will beg even if he be so 

 rich as to possess silver begging bowls. A poor farmer works 

 in the field, gets a crop with the sweat of his brow, and the 

 Brahman drone claims alms, and at the end of each religious 

 ceremony his wife gets sweets. Life is said to be very dear to 

 the Brahman, he merely wants dinners and dakshina or alms 

 in cash in addition. A Brahman will come to the door any 

 day and claim at least a handful of rice. A Brahman cannot 

 be relied on as a protector. Brahman calls the cow his mother, 

 and covetously looks at her because he wishes the owner to 

 give him the animal in charity. The gods get merely the 

 words or mantras recited when food is offered to them but the 

 food so consecrated finds its place in the belly of the Brahman. 

 A Brahman will always beg and make others beg. Brahmans 

 have no sense, they will lose everything for dinners. In 

 strength, the combined effort of twelve of them is equal to the 

 strength of a goat. If a dinner is offered to a Brahman he 

 will ask you to send it to his house with .something more: he 

 is so covetous. Brahmans are made to eat and to move their 

 hands over their distended bellies, but to eat at a Brahman's 

 is just like taking a poison. He will never give others any 

 good food. If uncooked food is offered to a Brahman, he will 

 insist on having a cooked dinner for himself, and take the raw 

 stuff home. He will not go until he gets something out of you. 

 He feels no shame. He is quarrelsome to boot. A Brahman 

 wants you to do what he tells you to do and not what he him- 

 self does. He acts like a monkey when he sees cooking materi- 

 als and food. It is said that a polluted Brahman is better 

 than a Mahomedan ! When a man swears by some one, it is 

 believed that that person dies at false swearing; on such 

 sions you are advised to swear by a Brahman — as he can be 

 easily spared. Southwards in the Maratha country which was 

 recently directly under the sway of the Brahman ministers, the 

 I'eshvas, the position of the Brahman has slightly improved, 

 and yet his gormandism is notable. If a Brahman gets rice 

 to eat to satiation, he wants cakes as a present. He gets plump 

 during Bhadrapad, the month of the shradhas. The gods, it is 

 said, have become false and the Brahmans have become pollu- 

 ted. If one man wants to curse another he says, " May God 

 thrust a Brahman manager in your affairs ' ■ — so ungrateful and 

 treacherous he is ; but the prestige of the Brahman is retained 

 by the proverb— " A Brahman, ever so depraved, is still at the 

 top in the three worlds." The Brahman has liking for butter, 

 curry, and butter-milk or whey as well — that is, he leaves noth- 

 ing. A priestly Brahman will always be ready for a dinner 

 partly by carrying his sacred dinner-garment always under his 

 arms. Servants of Brahmans get only stale bread. Priests or 

 laymen — they are hereditary — one is not more sacred than the 



