LOSS OF CASTE. IF a Hindoo forsakes his religion, or in other words if he loses caste, he is deserted by father, mother, wife, child, and kindred, and becomes instantly a solitary wanderer upon the earth: to touch him, to receive him, to eat with him, is a pollution producing a similar loss of caste; and the state of such a degraded man is worse than death itself. This punishment even extends, in some instances, to offences of an apparently venial character, of which the following story, given on the best authority, affords us a melancholy illustration. It is the custom of the Hindoos, as is well known, to expose dying people on the banks of the Ganges. There is something peculiarly holy in that river; and it soothes the agonies of death to look upon its waters in the last moments. A party of English coming down the river in a boat, perceived upon the banks a pious Hindoo, in a state of the last imbecility, about to be drowned by the rising of the tide, after the most approved manner of their religion. They had the curiosity to land; and as they perceived some more signs of life than were at first apparent, a young Englishman poured down his throat the greatest part of a bottle of lavender water, which he happened to have in his pocket. The effect of such a stimulus, applied to a stomach accustomed to nothing. stronger than water, was instantaneous and powerful. The Hindoo revived sufficiently to admit of his being conveyed to the boat, was carried to Calcutta, and perfectly recovered. He had drunk, however, in the company of Europeans; no matter whether voluntary or involuntary- the offence was committed he lost caste, was turned away from his home, and avoided by every relation and friend. The poor man came before the police, making the bitterest complaints for being restored to life; and, for three years, the burden of supporting him fell upon the mistaken Samaritan who had rescued him from death. During that period scarcely a day elapsed in which the degraded resurgent did not appear before the European, and revile him most vehemently as the cause of all his misery and desolation. At the end of that period he fell ill, and he was not again, of course, thwarted in his passion for dying. Arthur. REGAINING CASTE. A MAN frequently loses his caste by circumstances over which he can have no control: such as the casual contact of a pariah* whom he might not have known to have been within his vicinity, or eating out of a polluted vessel, though not at the time aware of its pollution. I once happened to be present when a sepoy † of high caste, falling down in a fit, the military surgeons ordered one of the pariah attendants of the regimental hospital to throw some water over him, in consequence of which none of his class would associate with him, and he was considered to have forfeited the privileges of clanship. The result was, that as soon as the afternoon's parade was over, he put the muzzle of his musket to his head, and blew out his brains. Although, however, the distinction upon which the Hindoo so highly prides himself is often thus easily forfeited, it is not to be regained but by undergoing either severe mortification, or some terrible infliction, which happened to be the case in the instance I am about to record. On landing at Benares, we found a large concourse of people assembled, forming a circle of twenty yards in diameter, in the centre of which was a strong pole fixed up *Pariah, outcast. † Sepoy, a native soldier in the British service. right in the ground. On the top of this pole a transverse bamboo, sufficiently strong to sustain the weight of a man, was attached to a movable pivot, so that it could be swung either vertically or circularly, as occasion might require. The insertion of the transverse bamboo was about onethird part from the end, leaving two-thirds on the other side, to which was attached a cord that reached the ground. At the extremity of the shorter division was a pulley, from which a longer cord depended about the size of a man's middle finger, having two ends, to which were affixed a pair of bright steel hooks. Both the vertical and cross poles were of bamboo, which is extremely tough and difficult to break. When the apparatus was prepared, a Brahman, who is usually the functionary on these occasions, advanced to the centre of the area, and having anointed the points of the hooks with a small portion of ghee, from a sacred vessel especially set apart for this holy purpose, he beckoned to the person about to undergo this trying ordeal. The penitentiary was a handsome man, in the full vigor of manhood, and had lost his caste by eating interdicted food during a voyage from Calcutta to China, whither he had gone as servant to the captain of the ship. On perceiving the Brahman's signal, he advanced without the slightest indication of alarm, but rather with an expression of joy on his countenance, at the idea of being restored to that position among the members of his own peculiar caste, which he had unhappily forfeited. He was stripped to the loins, and had nothing on but the loinband and a pair of white linen trowsers, which reached about half-way down his thighs. He was a muscular man, and rather tall; - he came forward with a firm step. Upon reaching the place of expiation, he knelt down under the cord to which the two bright hooks were attached. Gently raising his hands, and clasping them together in a posture of devotion, he continued for a few moments silent; then suddenly elevating his head, declared himself ready to undergo the penance that should release him from the pains of his recent pollution. The moment his assent was pronounced, a burst of acclamation was heard from the surrounding multitude. The officiating Brahman then took the hooks, and with a dexterity that showed he was no novice in his sacred vocation, slipped them under the dorsal muscles just beneath the shoulders. The operation was so instantaneously and so adroitly managed, that scarcely a drop of blood followed. Not a muscle of the man's countenance stirred; all his features seemed stiffened into an expression of resolved endurance, which imparted a sort of sublime sternness to every lineament. Not even the slightest quiver of his lip was perceptible, and his eye glistened with thrilling lustre as he raised his head after the hooks had been fixed. His resolution was as painful as it was astonishing. At a certain signal from the presiding functionary, he started from his recumbent posture and stood with his head erect, calmly awaiting the consummation of his dreadful penalty. After a short interval he was suddenly raised into the air and swung round with the most frightful velocity by a number of half frantic Hindoos, who had stationed themselves for this purpose at the other extremity of the transverse pole. They ran round the area at their utmost speed, yelling and screaming, while their cries were rendered still more discordant by a deafening accompaniment of tomtoms*, tobrics, kurtauls, and other instruments so familiar to Indian devotees, which are indispensable on these and similar occasions, and which produce anything rather than "a concord of sweet sounds." The velocity with which the poor man was swung round, prevented any one from accurately observing his countenance, though, during one or two pauses made by his tor * Tom-toms (or tam-tams) a Hindoo drum made of a hollow cylinder of fibrous wood (as that of the palm) or of earthenware, covered at both ends with skin. It is beaten with the hand. mentors, who became shortly fatigued with the violence of their exertions, there was no visible expression of suffering. Had he uttered a cry, it would have at once neutralised the effect of the penance, though I do not think it could have been heard through the din by which this terrible ceremonial was accompanied. The ministering Brahmans, however, are said to have a perception of sound so acute on these occasions, that the slightest cry of the victim never escapes their ear. After this barbarous ceremony had continued for about twenty minutes, the man was let down, the hooks extracted from his back, and he really seemed little or nothing the worse for the torture he must have undergone. He walked steadily forward amid the acclamations of the surrounding multitude, and followed by his friends, who earnestly offered him their congratulations on the recovery of his Oriental Annual. caste. |