s other than the
difference of races, except in the case of the Brahmans, who still form
the less mixed portion of the population.

Among the causes which have perpetuated the system of castes, the law of
heredity has furthermore continued to play a fundamental part. Aptness
is inevitably hereditary among the Hindus, and, also inevitably, the son
follows the profession of the father. The principle of heredity of the
professions being universally admitted, there has resulted the formation
of castes as numerous as the professions themselves, and to-day in India
castes are numbered by the thousand. Each new profession has for an
immediate consequence the formation of a new caste.

The European who comes to India to live soon perceives to what an
extent the castes have multiplied in observing the number of different
persons whom he is obliged to hire to wait on him. To the two preceding
causes of the formations of castes, the ethnological cause, now very
weak, and the professional, which is still very strong, are added
political office, and the heterogeneity of religious beliefs.

The castes springing from political office might, strictly speaking, be
placed in the category of professional castes, but those produced by
diversity of religious beliefs should be attached to none of the
preceding causes. In theory, that is, only judged by the reading of
books, all India would be divided into two or three great religions
only. But practically these religions are very numerous. New gods,
considered as simple incarnations of ancient ones, are born and die
every day, and their votaries soon form a new caste as rigid in its
exclusions as the others.

Two fundamental signs mark the conformity of castes, and separate from
all the others the persons belonging to them. The first is that the
individuals of the same caste cannot eat except among themselves. The
second is that they can only marry among themselves.

These two proscriptions are quite fundamental, and the first not less
than the second. You may meet by the hundreds in India Brahmans who are
employed by the government in the post-office and railway service, or
even Brahmans who are beggars. But the humble functionary or wretched
mendicant would rather die than sit at table with the viceroy of India.

The quality of Brahmans is hereditary, like a title of nobility in
Europe. It is not a synonym of priest, as is generally believed, because
it is from this caste that priest