reby have enough carrion to eat.
For the carcases of the dead cattle of the village are the perquisite
of the Pariah; and it is upon finding such that he enjoys his only
feasts of plenty. But to the ordinary Hindu all bovine kind are
divine, and the flesh of the same is strictly and vehemently tabooed.

Punishment is also dealt out, as we have seen, to those who eat any
food cooked by an outcast, whether he be Christian, Mohammedan, or
Pariah. And the same is true of eating with an outcast, or with one
who is of a lower caste than himself. Indeed, so far is this spirit
carried by certain high castes that to be seen eating by a member of a
lower caste, or to allow the shadow of a stranger to fall upon one's
prepared food, is pollution. Hence the care with which all Hindus seek
privacy and avoid the gaze of men during mealtime.

Officiating as a priest in the house of a low-class Sudra is strictly
prohibited to a Brahman, and he loses caste thereby. He and other
"twice born" are also driven out of caste if they throw away the
sacred thread which is the outer badge of their second birth and
dignity.

A woman, when found in open sin with a man of another caste, and a
widow, when she can no longer hide the consequence of her immorality,
are no longer in caste.

It is hardly necessary to mention that marrying outside of one's own
caste is a sin which finds no countenance, but severest punishment, in
nearly all castes.

Generally speaking, we may say that caste authority is exercised only
in cases where ceremonial observance and social usages are violated.
In matters that are purely ethical, and which bear upon the character
and moral elevation of the individual and the clan, caste rarely acts;
for it does not consider that its honour is compromised or its organic
life impaired by such conduct.

It should also be mentioned that caste is not even in the distribution
of its dispensations and punishments. A man of wealth and social
influence succeeds in staving off many acts of caste displeasure which
would fall heavily upon the poor and friendless man. Such a man may,
and often does, trample under foot every command of the decalogue,
and at the same time defy and violate a good moiety of the injunctions
of his caste. And yet, because of his wealth and general importance in
caste councils, he stands unimpeached and unrebuked.

In matters of caste observance and discipline, villages are much more
conservative and strict t