PARIAHS. 
173 
one occasion, with a feeling of painful compassion to- 
wards these poor outcasts, the indignation with which a 
high-cast Hindoo dashed an earthen jar of milk upon 
the ground, and broke it to atoms, merely because the 
shadow of the pariah had fallen upon it as he passed. 
This numerous tribe are in a condition of the 
most abject degradation ; the worst state of bondage 
would be comparative blessedness if substituted for 
the position in which they stand among the commu- 
nities that surround them. They are considered by 
the higher order of Hindoos, and in fact by every 
caste above their own, not only utterly despicable in 
this world, but aliens from the beatitudes of another. 
The indignities heaped upon them in consequence are 
repugnant to humanity : nothing can exceed the heart- 
less scorn with which they are everywhere met. They 
are denied the common social privileges of man, and 
degraded below the vilest of the brute creation. The 
pariah is forbidden communion with all but his own 
immediate tribe, and whatever even his shadow over- 
casts, belonging to a person of superior rank, is 
deemed polluted. If it be food of any kind, it is 
thrown away; if anything of a frangible nature, it 
is destroyed; and if a thing of value, it is only to 
be recovered from its contamination by the most ri- 
gorous purifications. 
These unhappy beings are held in such utter abhor- 
rence by the whole Hindoo population, that the laws 
of the latter award no punishment for the murder 
of a pariah, save that of a small fine, and which is 
seldom enforced, except in very aggravated cases. 
The occupation of this despised race consists in the 
Q 3 
