The Hindus are but one of the many peoples living in India. They are considered a Caucasic, white people, though their skin is a dark brown and they have black hair and eyes. Their language belongs to the Aryan family, to which most European languages belong.

The dress of the Hindus is too well known to need description. Hindu women are fond of jewelry, and wear rings, arm-rings, ankle rings, earrings, and nose rings of many kinds and made of gold, silver, or brass. The Hindus bear marks stamped upon themselves. Thus a round spot in the middle of the forehead, horizontal lines across the forehead, or perpendicular lines from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead, show to which of the great religious sects the man belongs. These marks are made fresh every morning.

The Hindus are divided into four castes, or classes. These are named Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. There is a yet lower population called Pariahs. The Brahmans are the highest; they are priests or religious men; everybody must yield to them. The Kshatriyas come second, and are soldiers or warriors. The Vaisyas are the traders, or merchant class. The Sudras are the lowest, and are the people who have trades, or are laborers. The Hindus say that these different classes of men came from the body of Brahma, their great god; that the Brahmans came from his mouth; the Kshatriyas from his arm; the Vaisyas from his thigh; and the Sudras from his feet. As for the poor Pariahs, they do not seem to have come from Brahma, and no one has anything to do with them. Each of these castes was so much higher than the next one that they might not even be touched by them without being defiled and needing to be purified. People of different castes might not drink from the same vessel or eat from the same dish. One writer says: “I saw a high-caste Hindu dash an earthen jar of milk upon the ground and break it to atoms, merely because the shadow of a Pariah had fallen upon it as he passed.” Under English government many of these notions in India are passing away. The Pariah’s lot, however, is perhaps as hard as ever.

Many trades are practised in India, some of them most skilfully. Whatever trade a man follows will be that of his son after him, as it was that of his father before him. Hindus are fine weavers, and some of their muslins are delicate and costly. They are glass-makers, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, brass founders, shell workers, shoemakers, barbers. These trades are carried on in the open streets; the men carry tools with them, and when they secure an order they set up their outfit and fall to work. Among pretty things sold in India are figures in clay representing all sorts of tradesmen at work.

Hindus tame and train elephants as beasts of burden. The native princes, in particular, use them. A palanquin in which the prince sits is mounted on the elephant’s back. These royal elephants are gorgeously decked out, and the palanquin is brilliant with metals and precious stones. Elephants are also employed in caravans and in the exciting tiger hunts.

The Hindus love amusements. They are fond of music and have many curious instruments. Dancing girls dance for the amusement of guests at feasts given in the homes of the wealthy. They usually take their own musicians with them; one of these plays upon a little drum, the other on a kind of guitar. Street exhibitions are frequent. Parties of acrobats go about performing feats. Everyone has heard of the Hindu jugglers. Mr. Ward describes some tricks he saw done. Thus, the juggler spreads a cloth on the ground: in a moment a movement is seen under it: the cloth is raised and under it are pineapples growing. The juggler picks the fruit and presents it to the spectators to show that it is real. Again, he takes a large, clay jar, fills it with water, and turns it upside down to let the water run out; when he turns it up again, it is full of water. Again, he puts a lean dog into a common basket; opening it, he shows the dog with a litter of pups; covering these and opening again, there is a goat; again the basket is put down and raised and shows a live pig; again—and the pig is dead with its throat cut; then he ends the trick by again covering and uncovering, when the pig is seen alive and well. How does he do it? Almost as wonderful as these juggler’s tricks are the performances of the snake charmers. They carry the dreaded, poisonous cobras around in baskets and handle them, playing at the same time on their little flutes, quite as if the creatures were entirely harmless.

Nowhere in the world are there more dreadful religious customs than in India. People there are so crowded that life is hard. The result of this was that parents often destroyed their little babies, particularly girls. Often the mothers themselves threw the little beings into the sacred river, where they were drowned in its waters or were eaten by crocodiles. At the great religious festivals, men tortured themselves fearfully, or threw themselves under the chariot of the god that they might be crushed to death. The dead among the Hindus were usually cremated—burned upon a great open fire of wood. Formerly the widow of the dead man mounted the funeral pyre and was burned with his body. The English government has put an end to many of these practices, and among them this suttee, or burning of the widow. It has really done little good, as a widow’s life is so sad that she might almost better die. A widow must shave her head, wear miserable clothing, and serve every one like a slave: she is despised and harshly treated.

Few peoples have caused as much wonder as the Gypsies. With their swarthy complexions, black hair and eyes, and handsome faces, they are a striking type. They love out-door life, and hate to be within walls. They wander from place to place, pitching their tents where fancy leads them. They are tinkers, mending pots and kettles; they are horseshoers, jockeys, horse traders, horse doctors; they tell fortunes, in which almost all of us believe a little, and every one fears them a little. There are many thousands of them in the United States: there are many in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Poland, and other European countries; they are in North Africa, in Mexico, in Brazil, in India. Everywhere they are the same, and everywhere they talk their own language, the Romany. It is believed that they first came from India, and that they are related to the Hindus.