occupations. Sir
G. Grierson has thrown out the picturesque suggestion that they are the
ancestors of the European gypsies and that Rom or Romany is nothing more
than a variant of Dom. In the ironical language of the proverbs the Dom
figures as "the lord of death" because he provides the wood for the
Hindu funeral pyre. He is ranked with Brahmans and goats as a
creature useless in time of need. A common and peculiarly offensive form
of abuse is to tell a man that he has eaten a Dom's leavings. A series
of proverbs represents him as making friends with members of various
castes and faring ill or well in the process. Thus the Kanjar steals his
dog, and the Gujar loots his house; on the other hand, the barber
shaves him for nothing, and the silly Jolahaa makes him a suit of
clothes. His traditions associate him with donkeys, and it is said that
if these animals could excrete sugar, Doms would no longer be beggars.
"A Dom in a palanquin and a Brahman on foot" is a type of society
turned upside down. Nevertheless, outcast as he is, the Dom occupies a
place of his own in the fabric of Indian society. At funerals he
provides the wood and gets the corpse clothes as his perquisite; he
makes the discordant music that accompanies a marriage procession; and
baskets, winnowing-fans, and wicker articles in general are the work of
his hands.

In the west of India, Mahars and Dheds hold much the same place as
the Dom. In the walled villages of the Maratha country the
Mahar is the scavenger, watchman, and gate-keeper. His presence
pollutes; he is not allowed to live in the village; and his miserable
shanty is huddled up against the wall outside. But he challenges the
stranger who comes to the gate, and for this and other services he is
allowed various perquisites, among them that of begging for broken
victuals from house to house. He offers old blankets to his god, and his
child's playthings are bones. The Dhed's status is equally low. If he
looks at a water jar he pollutes its contents; if you run up against him
by accident, you must go off and bathe. If you annoy a Dhed he sweeps up
the dust in your face. When he dies, the world is so much the cleaner.
If you go to the Dheds' quarter you find there nothing but a heap of
bones.

This relegation of the low castes to a sort of ghetto is carried to
great lengths in the south of India where the intolerance of the
Brahman is very conspicuous. In the typical Madras village the
Pariahs--"