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146 HALALKHORS book iii
khor,1
who engage only in cleaning houses, each house paying them something
monthly, according to its size. If a man of quality in India, whether a
Musalman or an idolater, has fifty servants, not one of them will use a
broom to clean the house, for he would consider himself contaminated by
it, and one of the greatest insults that one can do to a man in India
is to call him Halalkhor. It is proper to remark here that each of
these servants has his own special duty, the one to carry the vessel of
water for drinking by the way, another to have the pipe of tobacco
ready, and if the master asks one to perform the service for which the
other is employed, that service will not be performed, and the servant
remains as though he were immovable. As for slaves, they have to do
whatever their master orders. As the caste of Halalkhors is only
occupied in removing the refuse from houses, it gets the remains of
what the others eat, of whatever caste they may be, and it does not
make any scruple about eating indifferently of all things. It is the
people belonging to this caste, alone, who make use of asses, to carry
the sweepings from the houses to the fields ; while all other Indians
will not touch this animal. It is otherwise in Persia, where asses are
used both for baggage and for riding. It is also the Halalkhors in
India who alone feed pigs and use them for food.2
1
Alaeors in the original. The name Halalkhor signifies an eater of
lawful food, or rather, one to whom all kinds of food are lawful,
euphemistically applied to the Sweepers, to whom all things are
lawful. (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 409 ; Ovington, 382.)
2
Dhobis, or washermen, use asses to convey clothes backwards or forwards
from a river or tank, and Kumhars, or potters, employ the asses for
carrying clay, but both these castes are held in low esteem. Many
menial castes, besides Halalkhors, or sweepers, keep swine, such as the
Chamars, or leather-dressers; Kumhars and Dhimars, or fishermen and
palanquin-bearers of the Central Provinces, breed pigs, which they sell
to people of low caste to be used in sacrifice (Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, iv. 8).
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