ABSTRACT
HAVING given a sketch of the moral character of the Brahmins, I will now say a few words about their vhysical appearance. Many of the characteristics of this kind that I am to mention do not, however, specially pertain to them, but are common to Hindus of other castes. Faces and figures vary, as thei do in every other caste; but there are certain physica deformities common enough in Europe 'which are much more rarely seen in India. Thus, for instance, one seldom meets persons who are humpbacked or lame, unless they have become so by accident. If a child is bom with any bodily. defect, it is attributed to the evil influence of two unlucky constellations which must have been in conjunction at the time of birth, or to some eclipse of the sun or moon that took place at that moment. On the other hand, blindness is very common. No doubt the chief cause of this is to be found in the habit that poor people have of going about in nature's garb, with their heads exposed to the burning rays of the sun ; and it is doubtless in the hope of preventing, as far as possible, the terrible scourge of ophthalmia that they so frequently anoint their heads with castor oil or oil of sesamum.
