o often
do the work carelessly, and who are perhaps dirty themselves."

Using fingers habitually, instead of spoons and forks, is popularly
looked upon as indicative of rudimentary civilisation. But it should
be added that those who have always been accustomed to eat with their
fingers do so with dexterity and neatness. And no one who has seen
Indians at their meals would be disposed to say that this method of
eating suggests the idea of lack of refinement. But to eat rice
elegantly with the fingers needs that your Indian social education
should have begun in early childhood.

The Hindu's objection to having his food or water touched by
Christians or people of low-caste arose, not so much from any notion
of inferiority of station, but chiefly from the nature of the food of
these classes. It was the touch of the meat-eater, in the days when
the Hindu was more strict in his observances than he is now, which
brought pollution. Contact with Christians was obnoxious because they
eat all kinds of meat, including the sacred cow. Low-caste Hindus were
much to be avoided, because they even eat animals which have died from
natural causes. The Hindu servants of most Europeans are chiefly drawn
from the ranks of this class, because they are the only Hindus who are
willing to handle dishes containing the uncanny food of the
Englishman.

Nowadays meat is eaten more or less frequently, either openly or in
secret, by nearly all classes. But to the orthodox Hindu it is a
matter of wonder that we allow people of what he considers a degraded
class to minister to our wants. The native women who act as ladies'
maids and nurses, and who are said to be handy and adept, are mostly
drawn from the same class, and many Indians are puzzled that an
Englishman should be willing that his wife and children should be
ministered to by these women.

Governors and other important Government officials make formal calls
on leading Hindus in native cities, and stay for ten minutes or so
talking polite platitudes, and the Hindu in return puts in an
appearance at the Governor's levee. But this, though good as far as it
goes, does not do much towards bringing about real mutual
understanding. The caste restrictions, which make it impossible for an
orthodox Hindu to take food with a Christian, add greatly to the
difficulty. A dinner-party in which English and Indians were
judiciously intermixed, if it were possible, would do much towards
bridging over the g