, eating, et tout ce qui s'en
suit, from a man's first hour to his last sigh, everything must be
performed according to a certain Brahmanical ritual, on penalty of
expulsion from his caste. The Brahmans may be compared to the musicians
of an orchestra in which the different musical instruments are the
numerous sects of their country. They are all of a different shape and
of a different timbre; but still every one of them obeys the same leader
of the band. However widely the sects may differ in the interpretation
of their sacred books, however hostile they may be to each other,
striving to put forward their particular deity, every one of them,
obeying blindly the ancient custom, must follow like musicians the same
directing wand, the laws of Manu. This is the point where they all meet
and form a unanimous, single-minded community, a strongly united mass.
And woe to the one who breaks the symphony by a single discordant note!
The elders and the caste or sub-caste councils (of these there are any
number), whose members hold office for life, are stern rulers. There is
no appeal against their decisions, and this is why expulsion from
the caste is a calamity, entailing truly formidable consequences. The
excommunicated member is worse off than a leper, the solidarity of the
castes in this respect being something phenomenal. The only thing that
can bear any comparison with it is the solidarity of the disciples of
Loyola. If members of two different castes, united by the sincerest
feelings of respect and friendship, may not intermarry, may not dine
together, are forbidden to accept a glass of water from each other, or
to offer each other a hookah, it becomes clear how much more severe all
these restrictions must be in the case of an excommunicated person. The
poor wretch must literally die to everybody, to the members of his own
family as to strangers. His own household, his father, wife, children,
are all bound to turn their faces from him, under the penalty of
being excommunicated in their turn. There is no hope for his sons and
daughters of getting married, however innocent they may be of the sin of
their father.

From the moment of "excommunication" the Hindu must totally disappear.
His mother and wife must not feed him, must not let him drink from the
family well. No member of any existing caste dares to sell him his food
or cook for him. He must either starve or buy eatables from outcasts
and Europeans, and so incur the da