was soon discovered, that about half the corps had lost their caste, either by eating with the impostor himself, or with those who had taken food with him; but the party was too strong for the others to make much opposition, and it was soon arranged, that by simply bathing in a sacred tank, all uncleanness would be washed away. A still stronger and more curious instance occurred in the Himalayah mountains. A leopard had killed a calf and a goat close together: the owner of the animals, on being apprized of it, thinking he might, at any rate, derive from his loss the benefit of a good supper, went in the dusk to get some of the goat’s flesh; but the carcases had been so torn limb from limb, (most probably by the foxes, for a tiger or a leopard merely eats what he requires, and leaves the rest uninjured—I have more than once, in wandering through the jungle, procured a dinner for myself and half my camp off the carcase of a fine deer which had been just killed by a tiger or a leopard,) and mixed together, that by mistake he cut the flesh from the calf, and took it home, when it was dressed and eaten by all his family: next morning, when he and some others visited the carcases to bring away the remainder of the goat’s flesh, they discovered his mistake; but, having friends to support him, he was allowed to regain his caste on making a pilgrimage. In another instance, a lad, who, in driving a calf away from some grain, unfortunately struck it on the head and killed it, was restored to his caste on as easy terms.
In certain instances, the individual is prevented from regaining his former station by the malice of some few of the tribe; sometimes this is the sole cause of his being declared to have forfeited his caste; and this is probably one of those occurrences, in attempting to interpose with which, we should find them an “ungovernable people,” as Dubois describes them. Yet, repeatedly have these cases been interfered with by the public authorities. In some of the magistrates’ courts, a complaint is occasionally preferred by an individual, that the members of his tribe have declared him to have forfeited his caste without sufficient reason: or, that having done so, all had agreed to restore him except one person, who persisted in his refusal only out of spite. In such com-
