fat upon the excellent rice doled out to them in payment of their labour. Their appearance showed that they had availed themselves of the help offered by Government. Many of them would fain have kept it a secret from the more rigid members of their caste, who looked upon the work as beneath their dignity, but there was no hiding the fact. The pariahs and some of the lower castes were not troubled with any scruples ; but the higher castes shrank from doing manual labour which was shared with the lower castes, although there was nothing in the tasks that was contrary to their rules. The difficulty, hoary with age, is the same that has ever separated the people of India into factions. It exists in the present day and prevents them from uniting in any common cause. It has been said by the more thoughtful Hindus themselves that India is held not so much by the power of the British sword as by the strength of the divisions between the different castes and peoples of the continent. As for some of the higher castes, they refuse to labour on relief works, though they may be hard working agriculturists in their own stricken districts. They prefer to starve rather than turn labourer, and they do starve and die. It is not easy to sympathise with a people who deliberately choose starvation and death in preference to performing an easy task for a liberal remuneration, more especially as the reason for their refusal is founded on contempt for their fellow-workers. The iron rules of caste do not appeal to the freedom-loving Englishman; he has small patience with the credulity of the Hindu, who believes that dire misfortune will overtake him after death in the shape of inferior incarnations if he breaks his rules. Yet all is done that is possible to keep the most foolish person alive by the benevolent rulers who watch over the interests of the millions committed to their care. And some who comprehend the enormous hold which caste has upon the
