Note 75 — G

Social Customs. 20. They do not eat beef or the flesh of the monkey, alligator, lizard, rat, jackal, or snake. They eat fowls, goats, and pork, which last is not allowed to women. They use liquor, smoking and chewing tobacco freely. They will not touch a Kâyasth or Dhobi, or the younger brother’s wife; nor will a male connection by marriage (samdhi) touch the mother of his son’s wife or daughter’s husband. Juniors salute seniors in the form known as pâêlagi, and an old woman replies, jiyo putra lâkh baras! “Live child ten thousand years!” They treat aged relations and women well, and respect the latter for their powers of work. They dread strangers and are very clannish among themselves. They work generally as grooms and keepers of elephants. Their social status is decidedly low, though as compared with the Bengal tribe, they are somewhat higher, as they do not eat beef.75 They will not do degrading occupations, among which they consider shoe-making disrespectable, and one who practises this trade is debarred from marriage in the caste. Dr. Ball notes that one of them refused to carry his dog in a basket.76 No Hindu except a Dom will eat food touched by them.