HINDOOSTAN. 55 



led. The Indian of an inferior would think himself highly honoured 

 by adopting the customs of a superior cast : but this latter would give 

 battle sooner than not vindicate its prerogatives. The inferior re- 

 ceives the victuals prepared by a superior cast with respect, but the 

 superior will not partake of a meal which has been prepared by the 

 hands of an inferior cast. Their marriages are circumscribed by tUe 

 same barriers as the rest of their intercourses ; and hence, besides the 

 national physiognomy, the members of each cast preserve an air of 

 still greater resemblance to one another. There are some casts re- 

 markable for their beauty, and others as remarkable for their ugli- 

 ness. 



The members of each cast, says Dr. Robertson, adhere invariably 

 to the profession of their forefathers. From generation to generation, 

 ihe same families have followed, and will always continue to follow, 

 one uniform line of life. To this may be ascribed that high degree 

 of perfection conspicuous in many of the Indian manufactures ; and 

 though veneration for the practices of their ancestors may check the 

 spirit of invention, yet, by adhering to these, they acquire such an ex- 

 pertness and delicacy of hand, that Europeans, with all the advantages 

 of superior science, and the aid of more complete instruments, have 

 never been able to equal the exquisite execution of their workman- 

 s ip. While this high improvement of their more curious manufac- 

 tures excited the admiration, and attacked the commerce of other na- 

 tions, the separation of professions in India, and the early distribution 

 of the people into classes attached to particular kinds of labour, secu- 

 red such abundance of the more common and useful commodities, as 

 not only supplied their own wants, but ministered to those of the 

 countries around them. 



To this early division of the people into casts, we must likewise 

 ascribe a striking peculiarity in the state of India ; the permanence of 

 its institutions, and the immutability in the manners of its inhabitants. 

 What now is in India, always was there, and it is still likely to con- 

 tinue ; neither the ferocious violence and illiberal fanaticism of its 

 Mahommedan conquerors, nor the power of its European masters s 

 have effected any considerable alterations. The same distinctions of 

 condition take place, the same arrangements in civil and domestic so- 

 ciety remain, the same maxims of religion are held in veneration, 

 and the sime sciences and arts are cultivated. Hence, in all ages, the 

 trade with India has been the same ; gold and silver have uniformly 

 been carried thither in order to purchase the same commodities with 

 which it now supplies all nations ; and, from the age of Pliny to the 

 present times, it has always been considered and execrated as a gulf 

 which swallows up the wealth of every other country, that flows in- 

 cessantly towards it, and from which it never returns.* 



All these casts acknowledge the Brahmins for their priests, and 

 from them derive their belief of the transmigration ; which leads 

 many of them to afflict themselves even at the death of a flv, although 

 occasioned by inadvertence. But the greater number of casts are less 

 scrupulous, and eat, though very sparingly, both of fish and flesh ; 

 but, like the Jews, not of all kinds indifferently. Their diet is chiefly 

 rice and vegetables, dressed with ginger, turmeric, and other hotter 

 spices, which grow almost spontaneously in their gardens. They es- 



* Dr. Robertson's Historical Disquisition concerning India, Appendix, p. 261, 

 263. 



