The lot of these poor creatures is the most wretched that can be imagined.
They are so despised by the other four castes, that no one will hold the slightest intercourse with them.

If a Hindoo happens to touch a Paria as he is passing, he thinks himself defiled, and is obliged to bathe immediately.
The Parias are not allowed to enter any temple, and have particular places set apart for their dwellings.

They are miserably poor, and live in the most wretched huts; their food consists of all kinds of offal and even diseased cattle; they go about nearly naked, or with only a few rags at most on them, and perform the hardest and commonest work.
The four castes are subdivided into an immense number of sects, seventy of which are allowed to eat meat, while others are compelled to abstain from it altogether.

Strictly speaking, the Hindoo religion forbids the spilling of blood, and consequently the eating of meat; but the seventy sects just mentioned are an exception.
There are, too, certain religious festivals, at which animals are sacrificed.

A cow, however, is never killed.