of a man. Had they committed theft, adultery, fraud, or perjury, it would have been a small matter, but the stain of beef-eating could neither be forgiven nor washed away.
A case mentioned by the Abbé Dubois will illustrate the injustice of many of the decisions of a caste among people so low in morality as the Hindus. Eleven Brahmins, passing through a country desolated by war, arrived exhausted by hunger and fatigue at a village. To their surprise and disappointment, they found it deserted. Rice, they had with them, but no vessel in which to boil it. Looking around, they could find nothing but the pots in the house of the village washerman; for Brahmins even to touch these would be a defilement almost ineffaceable. But being pressed by hunger, they bound one another to secresy by an oath, and having washed one of the pots a hundred times, they boiled their rice in it. One of them alone refused to partake of the repast, and on reaching home he accused the other ten before the chief Brahmin of the town. The rumour quickly spread; the delinquents were summoned and compelled to appear. Having learned the difficulty in which they were likely to be involved, they were prepared for the
