were all situated in this neighbourhood. Various plants
are used by the Dhobis to clarify water such as the _nirmali_
(_Strychnos potatorum_), the _piu_ (_Basella_), the _nagphani_
(_Cactus indicus_) and several plants of the mallow family. Alum,
though not much valued, is sometimes used." In most Districts of
the Central Provinces the Dhobi is employed as a village servant and
is paid by annual contributions of grain from the cultivators. For
ordinary washing he gets half as much as the blacksmith or carpenter,
or 13 to 20 lbs. of grain annually from each householder, with
about another 10 lbs. at seedtime or harvest. When he brings the
clothes home he also receives a meal or a _chapati_, and well-to-do
persons give him their old clothes as a present. In return for this
he washes all the clothes of the family two or three times a month,
except the loin-cloths and women's bodices which they themselves wash
daily. The Dhobi is also employed on the occasion of a birth or a
death. These events cause impurity and hence all the clothes of all
the members of the family must be washed when the impurity ceases. In
Saugor when a man dies the Dhobi receives eight annas and for a woman
four annas, and similar rates in the case of the birth of a male or
female child. When the first son is born in a family the Dhobi and
barber place a brass vessel on the top of a pole and tie a flag to
it as a cloth and take it round to all the friends and relations of
the family, announcing the event. They receive presents of grain and
money which they expend on a drinking-bout.

6. Social position.

The Dhobi is considered to be impure, and he is not allowed
to come into the houses of the better castes nor to touch their
water-vessels. In Saugor he may come as far as the veranda but not into
the house. His status would in any case be low as a village menial, but
he is specially degraded, Mr. Crooke states, by his task of washing the
clothes of women after child-birth and his consequent association with
puerperal blood, which is particularly abhorred. Formerly a Brahman
did not let the Dhobi wash his clothes, or, if he did, they were
again steeped in water in the house as a means of purification. Now
he contents himself with sprinkling the clean clothes with water in
which a piece of gold has been dipped. The Dhobi is not so impure as
the Chamar and Basor, and if a member of the higher castes touches
him inadvertently it is considered suff