ABSTRACT
Although most anxious to represent themselves as `Súdras, by apeing the prejudices of the higher ranks, the Bhúínmálí are condemned, and obliged to live on the outskirts of villages apart from the Hindus, and to perform any menial work that is required of them. Like other low castes the Bhúínmálí nowadays shudders at the idea of eating pork, although it is within the recollection of men still living, that he was very partial to it. Until the last twenty years he was very friendly with the Cha]n]dál, interchanging visits, and often dining with him, but lately an estrangement has parted them, and the Bhúínmálí treats his former friend as an inferior being, declining to eat with or even work for him. It is difficult to understand the cause of this coldness which has sprung up, hut it was probably the result of a vague assertion of superiority on the part of one or other. The Bhúínmálí still works for many castes as low as the Cha]n]dál, and does not feel dishonoured by labouring for the Doí, or the Muhammadan peasant, although he does by toiling for the Jogí weaver.
