ealth of several families upon
festive occasions. Add to this again the fact that there are thousands
of women and children murdered in India every year for the sake of
these personal ornaments which they flaunt before the public, and with
which they tempt criminals.

It is claimed that higher-class Hindus are cleaner in their personal
habits than almost any other people on earth. This is probably true,
so far as a multiplicity of ablutions can make them. The religious
washings of the Brahman are so frequent as to make him largely immune
to epidemics of cholera and other filth diseases. And yet the lower
classes of the people, in their homes and elsewhere, have little to
boast of in the line of cleanliness. They all aspire to the weekly
oil-bath, which is doubtless a wholesome thing in the heat of these
tropics, where, through paucity of clothing, the skin is much exposed
to the sun's rays. But oil has well-known attractive powers for dust,
filth, and vermin too!

It must also be remembered that the Hindu is given much more to
seeking ceremonial than sanitary cleanliness. It matters not how
filthy the water may be, chemically; if it be ceremonially clean, he
uses it freely. If it be ceremonially polluting, it is eschewed. As
one sees a village community make all possible uses of the village
pond, he wonders why the whole village has not been swept away by
disease. They are saved from their folly, doubtless, by the piercing,
cleansing rays of the tropical sun.

Hindu clothing is both beautiful and admirably suited to the tropical
climate. The one cloth of the Hindu woman, which she so deftly winds
around her body, and which is usually of bright colours, is perhaps
the most exquisitely beautiful garment worn by any people. And this is
altogether adequate to her needs. Unfortunately, western habits are
now coming into vogue, and, in the case of men and women alike, the
clothing of the West is partially supplanting that of the East.
Nothing could be more unfortunate, from the standpoint of health,
beauty, and economy.

The culinary arrangements and the cuisine of the Hindu home are
somewhat elaborate. Well-to-do Hindus, notwithstanding many caste
restrictions, are somewhat epicurean in their tastes, and live well.
As we have seen in the chapter on Caste, there are many limitations
placed upon the selection of food, the method of its preparation, and
of eating. Meat is entirely banned by the highest castes. None will
t