Here
is yet another rather curious custom. When an idolater loses a coin or
a sum of gold, be it by mistake or that he has been robbed, he is bound
to take as much as he has lost to the Chief Brahman, and if he does not
do so and it gets known he is driven with ignominy out of his caste,
through policy, to make people careful.1
Beyond the Ganges, northwards, towards the mountains of Nagarkot,2
there are two or three Rajas who, like their people, believe neither in
God nor devil. Their Brahmans have a certain book which contains their
creed, and which is only filled with rubbish for which the author, who
is called Baudou, gives no reason.3 These Princes are vassals of the Great Mogul and pay tribute to him.
Finally,
as a last remark and to finish this chapter, I may say that the
Malabaris in general carefully preserve the nails of their left hands,
and allow their hair to grow like that of a woman. Their nails, which
are sometimes half a finger long, serve them as. combs, indeed they
have no others, and it is with this left hand also that they perform
all impure duties, never touching their faces nor that which they eat
save only with the right hand.4 I now come to some remarks
1
Dr. L. D. Barnett and Mr. S. K. Chatterji have kindly inquired into
this custom, of which they have found no corroboration. It seems to be
based on a misunderstanding.
1
Naugrocot in the original. Nagarkot is to a certain extent synonymous
with Kangra, the capital of which is situated on the Ravi Banganga
Torrent. The name in many early travels indicates the mountainous
region of the N.W. Himalayas. See Ain-i-Akbari, ii. 312 f.
a
This is rather an unceremonious way of discussing the tenets of
Buddhism. The Buddhists form a comparatively small part of the
population of Kangra at present. For Buddhism in the Panjab hills see
Rose, Glossary, Tribes and Castes Panjab and N. W. Frontier Province, 166 ff.; Census Report, Panjab, 1911, i. 192.
4
The Nayars of Malabar let their nails grow, according to Linschoten,
(i. 282) to show that they are ' gentlemen ' and do not engage in
manual labour. As is well known, the Chinese do so likewise, for the
same reason. Alberuni (India, i. 180) erroneously notes it "as
a general custom. The Nambfltiri Brahmans of Malabar grow their nails
more than a foot long, ' which serve several useful purposes'
(Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, v. 169). Compare the Chinese customs (J. F. Davis, The Chinese, i. 267 f.; S. W. Williams, The Middle, Kingdom, 4th ed., ii. 38).
