ains a small mirror (_arsi_), a pair of
iron pincers (_chimta_), a leather strap, a comb (_kanghi_), a piece
of cloth about a yard square and some oil in a phial. He shaves the
faces, heads and armpits of his customers, and cuts the nails of both
their hands and feet. He uses cold water in summer and hot in winter,
but no soap, though this has now been introduced in towns. For the
poorer cultivators he does a rapid scrape, and this process is called
'_asudhal_' or a 'tearful shave,' because the person undergoing it is
often constrained to weep. The barber acquires the knowledge of his art
by practice on the more obliging of his customers, hence the proverb,
'The barber's son learns his trade on the heads of fools.' The village
barber is usually paid by a contribution of grain from the cultivators,
calculated in some cases according to the number of ploughs of land
possessed by each, in others according to the number of adult males in
the family. In Saugor he receives 20 lbs. of grain annually for each
adult male or 22 1/2 lbs. per plough of land, besides presents of a
basket of grain at seed-time and a sheaf at harvest. Cultivators are
usually shaved about once a fortnight. In towns the barber's fee may
vary from a pice to two annas for a shave, which is, as has been seen,
a much more protracted operation with a Hindu than with a European. It
is said that Berar is now so rich that even ordinary cultivators can
afford to pay the barber two annas (2d.) for a single shave, or the
same price as in the suburbs of London.

4. Other services

After he has shaved a client the barber pinches and rubs his arms,
presses his fingers together and cracks the joints of each finger,
this last action being perhaps meant to avert evil spirits. He also
does massage, a very favourite method of treatment in India, and also
inexpensive as compared with Europe. For one rupee a month in towns
the barber will come and rub a man's legs five or ten minutes every
day. Cultivators have their legs rubbed in the sowing season, when the
labour is intensely hard owing to the necessity of sowing all the land
in a short period. If a man is well-to-do he may have his whole head
and body rubbed with scented oil. Landowners have often a barber as a
family servant, the office descending from father to son. Such a man
will light his master's _chilam_ (pipe-bowl) or huqqa (water-pipe),
clean and light lamps, prepare his bed, tell his master stories to s