TARIAS, OR PERREAS. 43 
endowed ; when, without the least inconvenience, they can expose 
their naked breasts to the severest frosts and snow. The infants are 
allowed to suck their mother’s milk till she is with child again; 
though that should not happen for four, five, or six years. The length 
of the breasts of the Morlacchi women is extraordinary; for it is 
certain, that they can give the teat to their children over their 
shoulders, or under their arms. They let the boys run about, with- 
out breeches, in a shirt which reaches only to the knee, till the age 
of thirteen or fourteen ; following the custom of Bossina, subject to 
the Porte, where no capitation tax is paid for boys till they wear 
breeches, they being considered till then as children, not capable of 
earning their bread. 
On the occasion of birth, and especially of the first, all the rela- 
tions and friends send presents' of meat to the woman in child- bed, 
or rather to the woman delivered ; and the family makes a supper 
of all those presents together. The women do not enter the church 
till forty days after the child-birth. The Morlacchi pass their youth 
in the woods, attending their flocks and herds; and in that life of 
quiet and leisure, they often become dexterous in carving with a 
simple knife : they make wooden cups, and whistles adorned w ith 
fanciful has reliefs, which are not void of merit, and shew' the genius 
of the people. 
Parias, or Perreas. 
This is a tribe of Hindoos, so peculiarly degraded beyond all 
others, that they live by themselves in the outskirts of towns ; and, 
in the country, build their houses apart from the villages, or rather 
have villages of their own, furnished with wells ; for they dare not 
fetch water from those which other families make use of ; and, lest 
these latter should inadvertently go to one of theirs, they are obliged 
to scatter the bones of dead cattle about their wells, that they may 
be known. They dare not in cities pass through the streets where 
the Bramins live ; nor set foot in their villages where they dwell ; 
nor enter a temple, either of their god Wissnow or Eswara ; because 
they are held impure. They get their bread by sowing, digging, and 
building the walls of mud houses ; most of those inhabited by the 
common people being raised by these Parias ; who do all such kinds 
of dirty work, as other people will not meddle with. Nor is their 
diet much more cleanly ; for they eat cows, horses, fowls, or other 
carrion, which die of themselves. 
One would scarce imagine that contention for precedency should 
ever occur among a people who have renounced all cleanliness, and, 
like swine, wallow' in filth, and who are held in such an utter con^ 
tempt by the rest of the Hindoos; yet pride has divided the Parias into 
two classes ; the first are simply called Parias, the other Seriperes. 
The employment of these last, is to go abroad selling leather, which 
they dress ; also to make bridles ; and some of them serve for soldiers. 
The Parias, who reckon themselves the better family, will not eat 
in the houses of the Seriperes ; who must pay them respect, by lifting 
their hands aloft, and standing upright before them. The Seriperes, 
