fessions to which they are born. That such artificial barriers were at times overthrown is a matter of course. Cela ra sans dire. The very statutes upon this subject, recorded in the Code of Manu and the Institutes of Vishnu, presuppose the crimes against which they guard. Hindus were but mortal, and, notwithstanding the law and its penalties, there were intermarriages. But, like the mulatto, who cannot be ranked with his Caucasian or his African parent, the offspring of these mésalliances could not be included in the social genus of either their father or their mother. The increasing complications of civilized life gave rise to new forms of work; yet the man who deserted for them the trade of his forefathers was isolated from his family and former associates. The problems thus raised were solved by the creation of a multiplicity of lower castes. But just as the ethnologist occasionally finds individuals of abnormal physical formation, beyond the limits of classification, so there were some beings who, because of their vile trade, or still viler birth, seemed to the Hindus moral monstrosities, for whom there was no place in their social scheme. Strong as was the hatred of Greek for barbarian, or of Jew for Gentile, it was exceeded by that of the Hindu for Mlekkas or non-Aryans. He could not ignore the aboriginal inhabitants of the country which he had conquered, and whom he had not been able to wholly exterminate, but he looked upon them as creatures too low to be used as slaves or servants, or even as beasts of burden. They were, in his estimation, no better than unclean animals, from whose contaminating contact and presence it was necessary to shield legitimate members of society. For all social purposes it was the same as if they did not exist. They were not permitted to belong to any caste, and the law and the religion of the land knew them not. There was thus, in the midst of a people whose

obligations of every kind were defined with unparalleled exactness, a large population of men and women to whom all rights and duties were denied. To their numbers were added those political and religious offenders among men of caste for whom death of the body was deemed too merciful a punishment, and the sons and daughters born of what was considered the infamous union of a Brāhman with a Sudra. The large proportion of this degraded class were therefore literally out-castes.

Driven forth from human habitations, it was truly the wilderness that yielded food for them and their children. Outcasts -or pariahs, as they are usually called · were not merely banished from towns and villages, but were forbidden to join together to form any of their own. Because their use of fire and water would have sullied the purity of those elements, they were forced to eat uncooked meat and vegetables, and they could drink no water save that to be found in marshes, or in holes made in the ground by the hoofs of animals. Since they communicated their impurity to everything they touched, the work of their hands was as much shunned by their social superiors as they were themselves. And furthermore, as legally they were not recognized to be in existence, there was for them no redress if whatever little property they possessed was confiscated; while the murder of one of them by a man of pure caste was considered by him no greater crime than the stepping on an insect is by a European. The refined cruelty with which they were treated is almost beyond the comprehension of races who, whatever may be their practice, believe that all human beings are equal in the sight of God; and it seems still more monstrous when contrasted with the kindness of the "mild Hindu " to his domestic animals. On the one hand, the Sacred Books of India teach that "scratching the back of a cow destroys all guilt, and

giving her to eat procures exaltation in heaven;" but again we are told that "he who associates with an outcast is outcasted himself a year. And so is he who rides in the same carriage with him, or who eats in his company, or who sits on the same bench, or who lies on the same couch with him."

So much of the world's work in the past could not have been accomplished, had it not been for the extreme forms of servitude and slavery, that these seem like necessary evils. But there is no vindication for a social system which has encouraged a degradation lower and more bitter than Babylonian captivity, Spartan helotism, or European serfdom; which has reduced men and women to poverty and wretchedness beyond belief; and which, by preventing their working with or for others, has actually forced them into crime and knavery.

At first pariahs must have rebelled against this pitiless injustice. Perhaps, as has been suggested, it was caste tyranny which, in still earlier times, led Aryans to seek a new home in Europe, and which gave the impetus to that other large immigration supposed to have been made from the southern part of India into Africa. It is certain that once an inspired poet sought, like the prophets of Israel, to rouse his fellow-sufferers to action. This was Tiruvalluva, the "divine pariah," probably a disgraced Brāhman, who bitterly resented his wrongs. "Thy time is come. Therefore, awake, O thou man of the jungle!" he called to the pariahs, in poetry as impassioned as that of Jeremiah or Isaiah. His was but a voice in the wilderness. What was needed was a Moses, to show the way out of it. Other outcasts, seeking to reinstate themselves by quiet and stealth, crept back gradually to cities and villages. But their movements were observed, and the condition upon which they were allowed to remain was that they should become brick-makers, -earth, by its inherent virtue, purify

ing itself from their touch; while for wages they were to receive nothing but their food; and they were required to make their home in the outskirts of the town, in worse than Ghetto retirement. Uninterrupted hard work under a burning sun, supported by a diet of raw vegetables, principally onions, had at least one advantage,- it hastened their death; and this was the only way in which their misery could be alleviated. But they clung to life with a tenacity which increased in proportion to its evils, and few consented to better themselves socially by the sacrifice of physical health. Many who had scarcely advanced beyond the savage state relapsed into it; hiding themselves in the jungle, and avoiding all communication with other men. The majority, to whom this was too distasteful, embraced a nomadic existence, and procured their actual necessities sometimes by fair means, sometimes by foul; in all such matters being ruled by circumstances. These latter were the ancestors of the present vagabonds and criminals, and the roaming they then began has proved as ceaseless as that of the Wandering Jew. The hope of escape became less and less with every generation, and they finally resigned themselves to their fate. Custom can reconcile man to what is disagreeable, and, like the aged prisoner who was broken-hearted at leaving the prison which in his youth he had entered with loathing, pariahs finished by prizing the social isolation which at first had been so bitter to them. So soon as they showed themselves as unwilling to lead a settled life and to follow legitimate trades as the Brahmans were that they should do so, the strictness of the laws against them was very much relaxed. Men of caste were not so particular in keeping them at a fixed distance, and even condescended to be amused, and in minor ways assisted by them.

A system which stifled hopes, ambitions, and aspirations made the repent

ance and self-improvement of sinners and ne'er-do-weels utterly impossible. Outcasts, instead of being cut down like grass and withering as the green herb, grew both in strength and numbers. To-day they constitute one third of the native population of India. They have exhausted all the resources of life in tents and by the wayside, and have perfected themselves in lawlessness. Every nomadic calling and custom which has ever been known in any part of the world has its counterpart in India. Indeed, that country is so preeminently the headquarters of gypsydom that one wonders how there ever could have arisen any doubt as to the origin of the European Romanys. There is not a family or tribe of Hindu outcasts which has not one or two traits in common with the gypsy, while, as Mr. Leland has pointed out, in the Rōm or Trablu we have the pure, thoroughbred Romany, in name and in language as well as in character. There are really endless shades of difference in the habits and pursuits of pariahs. Among them, as among the "travelers" of Europe and America, there are musicians and actors, horse-dealers and bear-leaders, tinkers and smiths, fortune-tellers and basketmakers, jugglers and acrobats, beggars and tramps. With them all, even when they are apparently honest, there lingers a subtle if inexplicable hint of villainy and duplicity, or, "as among the Greeks of old with Mercury amid the singing of leafy brooks, there is a tinkling of at least petty larceny." And as suggestion may become certainty, or as tinkling often grows louder than song, so vagabondage is unfortunately too frequently cast into the background by crime, and pariahs devote themselves wholly to murder and theft. Their choice of occupation has been at times regulated by their innate tastes and tendencies for there is a natural diversity in the instincts of such men as Dōms and Nats, who are usually actors

and musicians, and of Mângs, who are the most good-for-nothing of all beggarly loafers; or of such as Bhils and Jāts, whose fierceness makes them good warriors, and of Korvarus, whose name has become proverbial for stupidity. But as a rule, just as chance has led birds by the water-side to feed on fish and those in field and forest to subsist on grain and worms, so circumstances have compelled some outcasts to murder and rob in order to secure the necessities of life, but have allowed others to gain the same end by tight-rope dancing and the turning of somersaults. For very much the same reasons, while many are as restless as if cursed with the curse of Cain, there are others who wander only at certain seasons, and still others who confine their depredations and vagrancy to one particular locality. The English police draw a very distinct line between the non-wandering criminal and non-criminal wandering tribes, but they themselves do not invariably observe this distinction. For, if the former found a good opportunity to commit crime in some far distant province, they would not hesitate to journey thither; and if a chicken strayed into the tents or a purse fell at the feet of the latter, they would have no objections to appropriate it.

The variety of races included in this large class has been further increased by the fact that during comparatively recent years members of high castes have allied themselves with the wanderers, attracted to them by the freedom of their lives. Brahmans have shared the fortunes of highwaymen. Rajputs and Sudras have abandoned kingdoms and villages for huts and tents. But as men of every nationality, when they accept the laws and customs of the United States, become identified with native-born citizens, these voluntary outcasts have so adapted themselves to vagabondage that, for all intents and purposes, they are not to be distinguished from gen

uine pariahs. While it would require volumes to enumerate their divisions and subdivisions and to record their experiences in the past, it is possible even in a short article to treat of them as a class, since all, however much they may differ in minor particulars, agree in their conception of life's chief object and duties. All, from highest to lowest, make the physical maintenance and survival of the individual the mainspring of activity. However different may be the means employed by them, their aim is always the same. If the definition of "conduct" is the adjustment of acts to ends, then their actions may be dignified by that name. For in order to accomplish their object, that is, in order to fully satisfy their bodily appetites, they have established for themselves religious commandments which they scrupulously obey, and a social code to which they strictly adhere.

Irreconcilable as crime and religion seem, they have often gone hand in hand. The Virgin Mary has had few more faithful followers than medieval outlaws and Italian brigands; but the prayers of robbers and highwaymen to the Refuge of the Afflicted are quite as incongruous as are those of a Louis XI. to the Mother of Mercy. The piety of Hindu ruffians and rogues is at least more consistent. One of the principal deities of the Hindu Pantheon is Dēva, or Kali, or Bhawāni, the Sakti, or female part of Siva, who is the goddess of destruction. Human sacrifices are to her what prayer and meditation are to Brahma, and streams of human blood what libations of clarified butter are to her fellow deities. More terrible than Baal or Moloch, she revels in death'sheads and skeletons, and exults in carnage. Virtuous men and women have no gift wherewith to propitiate her, but assassins cater to her divine appetite, and theft is to her as a sweet-smelling incense. Were her worshipers philosophers, they could plead an altruistic mo

tive for their murders; for the blood of one man will quench her horrible thirst for a thousand years, and the blood of three men for a hundred thousand. As it is, they believe in sincerity that their vilest atrocities are ordained by heaven, and that they are rewarded for the perpetration of them by the immediate protection of deity; a belief which would be simply impossible to criminals in Christian countries. The doctrines and laws based upon such a worship convert crime into a religious duty. It was in vain that towards the beginning of their struggles Tiruvalluva endeavored to elevate the moral nature of pariahs by assuring them that virtue is the only true wealth, and that pleasure consists in the mastery of the passions. He might as well have recommended flying as the most perfect way of getting from one place to another, or mewing as the most intelligible manner of communicating their thoughts; for they would have found it quite as easy to mew or to fly away into space as to be virtuous or self-controlled. But when orders were given them as to the how and the whence necessities were to be procured, they recognized a practical element therein, and obeyed them to the very letter. The thieves of India to-day have religious precepts which define the priv ileges and limits of their trade, and are as sacred to them as the commandments of Moses are to Jews and Christians. These they believe to have been revealed, together with their slang, by the god Kartikeya, who, according to Captain Burton, is a mixture of Mars and Mercury. Murderers too have heavensanctioned mandates, which set forth the orthodox manners in which murder can be committed, and which men are and which are not its legitimate victims. Never has there been such a straining at gnats and swallowing of camels! Men who morally are so blind that wrong seems to them right scruple at the slightest deviation from laws which

are valueless. The Soonaria, who is an inveterate pickpocket and petty pilferer, vows to his goddess never to become a highwayman or burglar. He may steal ad libitum during the daytime, but should he do so between the hours of sunset and sunrise he would be guilty of mortal sin. It was because of their religious principles that the Thugs, before their extermination by the English, never robbed without first committing murder, never allowed one of a captured party to escape, and always spared pariahs and women. The neglect of his ablutions is no greater crime for a Brāhman than the violation of these decrees is for pious criminals. The downfall of the Thugs is attributed to their relaxation in religious discipline. A certain gang of Phansigars is said never to have prospered because on one occasion they murdered a woman.

Bhawani worshipers are sincerely earnest in their piety. They never undertake an expedition, no matter how insignificant, without first appealing to her for help; and they have a number of minor rites and ceremonies by which they endeavor at all times to please and honor her. The Lungotee Pardhis, who are desperate burglars, are so devout that the women of the tribe never wear silver anklets, because the statue of the goddess, placed in every tent as its presiding genius, is made of that metal; they cannot wear red apparel, because she is always represented resting on a ground of that color; they cannot sleep in cots, since she reclines on one; and, for fear of offending her, shoes are never, under any circumstances, carried within their tents. The Bowries, who infest the central provinces, make pilgrimages from enormous distances, at great personal inconvenience, to Kerolee, where there is a shrine of Deva, supposed to possess special merit and sanctity. As in Catholic countries children are dressed in blue and white in honor of the Virgin, so the Thugs used white and yellow

nooses because these were colors consecrated to Deva. The Thugs had good reason to reverence the goddess, for, according to a favorite legend, there was a time when she herself was their immediate accomplice. In her insatiable hunger for human food, she devoured all the men they murdered on their expeditions, thus lessening the circumstantial evidence against them. But she made one condition, as all supernatural beings, from the spirit that denies down to the wicked witch of fairy lore, have a way of doing in their contracts with mankind; she forbade them ever to look at her while she was at her repast. Once, a novice in Thuggee for there must always be a Peeping Tom of Coventry-disobeyed her injunction, and turned and gazed at her just as the feet of the last victim were disappearing down the divine throat. In her fierce wrath, she declared that thenceforward she would withhold her active aid, but, that she might not altogether lose such valuable servants, she taught them how they could cut up and bury the bodies of the slain without leaving a trace. Then she gave them a rib for a knife, the hem of her garment for a noose, and one of her teeth for a pickaxe. It was because of its heavenly origin that this pickaxe, thrown into a well at night for purposes of concealment, would rise in the morning at the first word of command from the Thug who had it in charge.

Superstitious to a degree known only in India, unprincipled men, who live by deeds of daring, quail before unreal dangers. Let but a hare or a snake cross his path, or an owl screech in the distance; let but one of his party kill a tiger, or a dog run off with the head of a sacrificed sheep, and there is not a robber or highwayman hardy enough to pursue his enterprise, even if petitions and sacrifices have already been offered in due form to Bhawani. But the chirp ing of a lizard, the cawing of a crow from a tree to the left side, the appear