tainment. The formal
method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground
and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is
removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies inflict a
few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful
women were formerly tied naked to trees and flogged with birch brooms,
but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such
punishment, as in the case of the five kicks among Chamars (tanners)
and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among
Dhobis (washer men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon
these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission,
whether by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart
from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his
hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies,
is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are taken by
all the officers and Sipahis in turn. The messenger repeats to the
culprit the council's order, and informs him that should he again
offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands
him the water-pipe, and after smoking this the offender is admitted
to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense.

5. Admission of outsiders

The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their community, and the
caste forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
for sexual or moral offences. Various methods are employed for the
initiation of a neophyte; in some places he, or more frequently she,
is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier, and has to give
a feast to the caste; in others a slight wound is made in his body and
the blood of another sweeper is allowed to flow on to it so that they
mix; and a glass of sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar,
is prepared by the priest and all the members of the committee put
their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate to
drink; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung into which the
caste-people have dipped their little fingers, and a lock of his
hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the shrine of Lalbeg and
in the evening drinks sherbet after burning incense at the shrine;
and gives three feasts, the first on the bank of a tank, the second
in his courtyard and the third in his house, representing his gradual
purification for membership; at this last he