Fish, however, is more used, when procurable. Fowls and eggs are eaten oftener than 'butcher's meat'; but even this is chiefly at the entertainment of friends or visitors, and on such like occasions. It may also be mentioned that the Brahmins are noted for their good cooking; and this, as a rule, is done by the females of the household-not servants. On important festive occasions, as at marriage feasts, when the labour involved may be too heavy for the regular household, male cooks, friends or relatives, give their help; or even professional cooks are employed-care always being taken that the rules of caste are not infringed. Of course, in all cases, the number, variety, and quality of the dishes must depend very largely upon the means of the household; but this is a fact that goes without saying. It may also be mentioned that fruit is sometimes taken, after meals, as a kind of dessert; but this is not so commonly done as might be supposed. Betel (tambūlam) is, however, commonly taken, after every meal, as a digester.

In the matter of beverage, it may broadly be stated that true Hindus are water drinkers. Milk and buttermilk are also freely drunk when procurable, especially buttermilk in the hot season. A simple drink is also made of water, sweetened with jaggery (sugar in its unrefined state) and flavoured with pepper; but this is more of a sacred drink and is not ordinarily used. The Panchamas or outcastes, and also some of the lower of the numerous classes of Sudras, do largely drink intoxicants, chiefly toddy and country arrack. Amongst respectable Hindus, however, the drinking of intoxicants of any kind is considered most degrading; and although there are a few-comparatively very few-and these chiefly the so called enlightened! dwellers in towns and other larger centres, who are becoming addicted to drinking habits, it may still be said, as a broad fact, that real Hindus are a nation of water drinkers. This fact is one that should be noted by the advocates of temperance and it would, perhaps, as an argument, have more effect than many of those used by orators who are endowed with more zeal than discretion. Here is

a nation composed of men who have proved themselves capable of enduring enormous physical fatigue, as clever, hard-working mechanics and laborious cultivators of the soil, and numbers of whom rank in the first class as learned pundits, brave warriors, and clever statesmen, and yet who for ages have been a nation of water drinkers; and this also in a climate that is certainly conducive to thirst, a fact often used as an excuse for indulging in stimulating alcoholic beverages.

The higher classes of Hindus generally have but two meals a day-the midday meal, which may be taken earlier if circumstances necessitate it, as in the case of business men and officials who have to go to office, and the evening meal, or supper. The supper is usually taken very late in the evening, shortly before retiring for the night. This practice, which might be productive of uncomfortable nights to Europeans, with their heavier and more indigestible diet, does not seem to interfere with the rest of the Hindus; probably on account of the lighter quality of the food, as distinct from the quantity taken. A good orthodox Hindu should take no food or drink of any kind before the midday meal; but, as a matter of fact, it is getting a custom, where circumstances may seem to call for it, for a light breakfast, perhaps coffee and certain kinds of cakes, to be taken, earlier in the day. This is not, perhaps, strictly speaking, in accordance with the Shastras, but it is nevertheless a custom that has arisen and which is tolerated. With the Sudras, however, and the Panchamas, it is an invariable rule to have a light breakfast in the early morning, when poverty does not prevent it. This meal usually consists of cold rice which has been purposely left over from the supper of the previous evening. It is eaten just as it is, simply flavoured, perhaps, by a little salt; but when it can be had, a morsel of broiled salt fish, or a broiled chilly, or an onion, or bit of cocoanut, may be taken by way of relish. This cold rice is mixed up with a little buttermilk, or the cold congee of the night before, that is, the water in which the rice has been boiled, and

which forms a kind of thin gruel. This custom is a very wise one, as can easily be seen, in the case of those who have to rise early and do a hard morning's work in the fields before the midday meal; whilst the fasting until midday is not so detrimental to those, who, like the Brahmins, perform little manual labour, or suffer little from exposure.

When on a journey, or otherwise away from home, the high caste Hindu has to undergo many inconveniences, and must often suffer much from the pangs of hunger; but even travellers have various ways and means of obtaining food. Hospitality is universal, and the traveller is always sure of ungrudging entertainment from those of his own caste, whose hospitality he may lawfully accept. This duty of entertaining guests is laid down by the ancient lawgiver Manu, as of prime importance. In treating of the duties and obligations of house-keepers he says:

"No guest must be dismissed in the evening by the housekeeper; he is sent by the retiring sun; and whether he come in fit season or unseasonably, he must not sojourn in the house without entertainment.

Let not himself eat any delicate food, without asking his guest to partake of it; the satisfaction of a guest will assuredly bring the house-keeper wealth, reputation, long life, and a place in heaven." (iii. 105, 106.)

Connected with many of the choultries, or public lodging places, are, also, means for providing meals for travellers of different castes; and towns and most large villages have as well, houses of entertainment for different classes where food is given on payment, which is usually at so much per meal. There are also certain kinds of food that may be taken without undergoing the usual ceremonies. A broad division is made of things cooked in water, and those cooked dry, or with ghee or oil. "It is the water that makes the mischief," as a Brahmin friend said to me when taking on the subject. Sweetmeats, and certain kinds of cakes, and parched grain and rice broiled and cooked in ghee, these and fruit may be eaten at any

time and in company with other castes, without changing the dress, or bathing, or undergoing any other of the various ceremonies that have been already described in these pages. Thus is the wind tempered to the shorn lamb, and a loophole left for escape from a difficulty that must otherwise often prove intolerable. A somewhat detailed description has already been given, in the chapter on Nityakarma, as to the etiquette of the dinner table amongst the respectable classes; and reference can be made there by any one wishing to recall to mind the many and varied ceremonies that must be performed on these occasions, -ceremonies and customs which have been handed down by generations untold; and which are, to a large extent, as rigidly followed at this day as they were in the long past ages of antiquity. In this chapter, however, the intention has been rather to give some description of the food partaken of than the mode of partaking of it.

It remains now but to make a few remarks on the food of the lowest classes, the outcastes, who are not troubled by any of the dietary rules which are so rigid in the case of their betters. It has been shown that members of the Sudra caste partake of animal food. Indeed, some of the lowest classes of that infinitely divided and sub-divided caste eat almost anything and everything that comes in their way. The Yerukalas, for instance, a kind of gipsy tribe, who live by making wicker baskets and the like, will eat rats, and cats, and the village pig, and almost anything they can get; and yet, strange to say, these and the like, are not looked upon as unclean in the same way as the Panchamas. They are even allowed to draw water from the caste wells, a privilege that is denied the outcaste, who must not even go near or look into a well that is used by caste people. The broad line of division that marks off the despised and hated Panchamas (Pariahs and Chucklers) from others, is the fact that they eat carrion. Others may eat animal food, and yet not be prevented from using caste wells, because they do not eat it in a state of carrion; but the very touch of these is pollution. The carcases and skins of all the cattle

and other animals that die of disease or old age are the perquisite of the Panchamas, who consume the flesh and tan the skins into leather, or otherwise dispose of them. Anything more disgusting than this practice it is impossible to conceive; and it is small wonder that those who indulge in it are hated and despised as unclean. The hamlets of these people are surrounded with bones and other signs of this habit; and one may often see the carcase of some buffalo or bullock that has died, perhaps, of disease, or worn out with extreme old age, lying in some wet ditch, or otherwise awaiting the usual disgusting operation. Anything more revolting it is impossible to imagine than a group of these people squatting round some such object, watching the skinning and cutting up process and waiting for the dividing of the sickening flesh. The picture is generally rendered all the more horrible by the sight of crows and vultures and village dogs waiting for their turn at the remains, and by the suspicion of the neighbouring bushes sheltering a jackal or two, drawn thither by the hope of a congenial repast. True, the lot of these people is hard; they often suffer from hunger and are glad to get anything to satisfy their appetite; but such feeding seems to bring them down to the level of the birds and beasts of prey; and it must tend to brutalize and degrade. It may be said that these despised people have, as a rule, extreme poverty as some excuse for this custom; and perhaps, to their way of thinking, such food is a welcome addition to the miserable meals of pulses or rice, eked out with a few chillies or other cheap condiments, with, perhaps, now and then a morsel of half putrid dried fish, by way of relish. Amongst the very poor also even such meals as these are by no means always plentiful and regular; often but once a day can the pangs of hunger be appeased. Perhaps it would not wrong to say that a large number are in a chronic state of hunger. These things cause it to be a kind of festive time to many when a carcase falls to their share; and they cannot understand our abhorrence of such habits. Such also is the power of custom

be