woman nearly
one hundred years old, and stone blind. She was too infirm to walk, but
two young negroes brought her on their backs to the steps of my house,
in order, as she said, that she might at least touch massa, although she
could not see him. When she had kissed my hand, "that was enough," she
said: "now me hab once kiss a massa's hand, me willing to die tomorrow,
me no care." She had a woman appropriated to her service and was shown
the greatest care and attention; however, she did not live many months
after my departure. There was also a mulatto, about thirty years of age,
named Bob, who had been almost deprived of the use of his limbs by the
horrible cocoa-bay, and had never done the least work since he was
fifteen. He was so gentle and humble and so fearful, from the
consciousness of his total inability of soliciting my notice, that I
could not help pitying the poor fellow; and whenever he came in my way I
always sought to encourage him by little presents and other trifling
marks of favor. His thus unexpectedly meeting with distinguishing
kindness, where he expected to be treated as a worthless incumbrance,
made a strong impression on his mind.

4. The Origin of Caste in India[227]

If it were possible to compress into a single paragraph a theory so
complex as that which would explain the origin and nature of Indian
caste, I should attempt to sum it up in some such words as the
following: A caste is a marriage union, the constituents of which were
drawn from various different tribes (or from various other castes
similarly formed) in virtue of some industry, craft, or function, either
secular or religious, which they possessed in common. The internal
discipline, by which the conditions of membership in regard to connubial
and convivial rights are defined and enforced, has been borrowed from
the tribal period which preceded the period of castes by many centuries,
and which was brought to a close by the amalgamation of tribes into a
nation under a common scepter. The differentia of _caste_ as a marriage
union consists in some community of function; while the differentia of
_tribe_ as a marriage union consisted in a common ancestry, or a common
worship, or a common totem, or in fact in any kind of common property
except that of a common function.

Long before castes were formed on Indian soil, most of the industrial
classes, to which they now correspond, had existed for centuries, and as
a rule most of the in