1,957,291
Shopkeepers 1,839,958
Workers and dealers in gold and silver 1,768,597
Cart and pack animal owners 1,605,529
Iron and steel workers 1,475,883
Watchmen and other village servants 1,605,118
Grocery dealers 1,587,225
Sweepers and scavengers 1,518,482
Fishermen and fish curers 1,280,358
Fish dealers 1,269,435
Workers in cane and matting 1,290,961
Bankers, money lenders, etc. 1,200,998
Tailors, milliners and dressmakers 1,142,153
Officers of the civil service 1,043,872
Water carriers 1,089,574
Oil pressers 1,055,933
Dairy men, milk and butter dealers 1,013,000

The enormous number of 1,563,000, which is equal to the population of
half our states, are engaged in what the census terms "disreputable"
occupations. There are about eighty other classes, but none of
them embraces more than a million members.

Among the curiosities of the census we find that 603,741 people
are engaged in making and selling sweetmeats, and 550,241 in selling
cardamon seeds and betel leaves, and 548,829 in manufacturing
and selling bangles, necklaces, beads and sacred threads. There
are 497,509 teachers and professors, 562,055 actors, singers
and dancers, 520,044 doctors and 279,646 lawyers.

The chewing of betel leaves is one of the peculiar customs of
the country, even more common than tobacco chewing ever was with
us. At almost every street corner, in the porticos of the temples,
at the railway stations and in the parks, you will see women and
men, squatting on the ground behind little trays covered with
green leaves, powdered nuts and a white paste, made of the ashes
of cocoanut fiber, the skins of potatoes and a little lime. They
take a leaf, smear it with the lime paste, which is intended
to increase the saliva, and then wrap it around the powder of
the betel nut. Natives stop at these stands, drop a copper, pick
up one of these folded leaves, put it in their mouths, and go
off chewing, and spitting out saliva as red as blood. Strangers
are frequently attracted by dark red stains upon pavements and
floors which look a