Brahman in it is like a
tank full of crabs; to have him as a neighbor is worse than leprosy; if
a snake has to be killed the Brahman should be set to do it, for no
one will miss him. If circumstances compel you to perjure yourself, why
swear on the head of your son, when there is a Brahman handy? Should
he die (as is the popular belief) the world will be none the poorer.
Like the devil in English proverbial philosophy, the Brahman can cite
scripture for his purpose; he demands worship himself but does not
scruple to kick his low-caste brethren; he washes his sacred thread but
does not cleanse his inner man; and so great is his avarice that a man
of another caste is supposed to pray "O God, let me not be reborn as a
Brahman priest, who is always begging and is never satisfied." He
defrauds even the gods; Vishnu gets the barren prayers while the
Brahman devours the offerings. So Pan complains in one of Lucian's
dialogues that he is done out of the good things which men offer at his
shrine.

The next most prominent figure in our gallery of popular portraits is
that of the Baniya, money-lender, grain-dealer, and monopolist, who
dominates the material world as the Brahman does the spiritual. His
heart, we are told, is no bigger than a coriander seed; he has the jaws
of an alligator and a stomach of wax; he is less to be trusted than a
tiger, a scorpion, or a snake; he goes in like a needle and comes out
like a sword; as a neighbor he is as bad as a boil in the armpit. If a
Baniya is on the other side of a river you should leave your bundle on
this side, for fear he should steal it. When four Baniyas meet they rob
the whole world. If a Baniya is drowning you should not give him a hand:
he is sure to have some base motive for drifting down stream. He uses
light weights and swears that the scales tip themselves; he keeps his
accounts in a character that no one but God can read; if you borrow from
him, your debt mounts up like a refuse heap or gallops like a horse; if
he talks to a customer he "draws a line" and debits the conversation;
when his own credit is shaky he writes up his transactions on the wall
so that they can easily be rubbed out. He is so stingy that the dogs
starve at his feast, and he scolds his wife if she spends a farthing on
betel-nut. A Jain Baniya drinks dirty water and shrinks from killing
ants and flies, but will not stick at murder in pursuit of gain. As a
druggist the Baniya is in league with the docto