Besides the forms of caste we have mentioned, these are many isolated communities which resemble one another in the fact that their members constantly intermarry, and which generally devote themselves to some one particular trade or industry. This “endogamy” seems to be characteristic of early social arrangements, and therefore the existing specimens of endogamous societies in Europe and Asia do not exhibit any high form of civilization. Among others may be mentioned the descendants of the “Bounty” mutineers, who still occupy Pitcairn Island ∙ a community of Javans, near Surabaya, on the Tengger Hills, numbering about 1200 persons, distributed in about forty villages, and still following the ancient Hindu religion; the inhabitants of various fishing villages in Great Britain, such as Itchinferry near Southampton, Portland Island, Bentham in Yorkshire, Mousehole and Newlyn in Mountsbay, Cornwall, Boulmer near Alnwick (where almost all the inhabitants are called Stephenson, Stanton, or Stewart), Burnmouth, Ross, and (to some extent) Eyemouth in Berwickshire, Boyndie in Banffshire, Rathen in Aberdeenshire, Buckhaven in Fifeshire, Port-mahomack and Balnabruach in Easter Ross. In France may be mentioned the commune of Batz, near Le Broisic in Loire-Inférieure; many of the central cantons of Brétagne; the singular society called Foréatines supposed to be of Irish descent, and living between St Armand and Bourges; the sailor population of Pauillac (Gironde), Granville, Arromanches, Portel (near Boulogne), and other fishing villages; the Republic of Andorre in the Pyrenees; the papermakers of Angoumois, Limousin, and Auvergne, whose trade seems to have doomed them to an hereditary weakness of constitution; the Marans of Auvergne, a race of Spanish converted Jews, accused of introducing syphilis into France; the Hautponnais and Lyzelards of St Omer, who have also a separate Flemish dialect; the Burins and Sermoyers, chiefly cattle-breeders, scattered over the department of Ain and the arrondissement of Bourg en Bresse. The Vaquéros, shepherds in the Asturias Mountains; the Jewish Chuetas of Majorca; the Petits-Créoles or Petits-Blancs, descendants of the original French settlers in Réunion, are also good examples of what biologists call “in-and-in breeding,” as opposed to lf crossing.” On a larger scale the Icelanders, the ancient Samaritans (now almost extinguished, see Times, 4th April 1874), and the great and prosperous Jewish nañon, may be called castes, so far as intermarriage is concerned. It must not be imagined, however, that this is a general characteristic of a certain stage of social development. “Exogamy,” or the rule requiring either absolutely or in certain circumstances marriage with a stranger, is recognized very widely even by modern tribes, especially in Asia; and both these conditions of things seem to have been preceded by a primitive state, in which the relations of the sexes were promiscuous. This is illustrated in the case of the Thlinkeets, or Kolosches, who inhabit the coasts and islands from Mt. St Elias to the River Nass. This singular tribe, which has an elective chief and systematic slavery (chiefly supplied from the Flatheads of Oregon), is divided into two castes, the Wolf and the Raven, the symbols of which appear on their houses, boats, robes, and shields. The Wolf caste is subdivided into the bear, eagle, dolphin, shark, and alca; the Raven, into frog, goose, sea lion, owl, and salmon. “The young Wolf warrior must seek his mate among the Ravens; and while celebrating his nuptials one day, he may on the next be called to fight his father-in-law over some hereditary feud.” Similarly, the Kutchin tribe of the Tinneh family, inhabiting the Yukon, Tananah, and Peel river-valleys, have a singular system of totems. There are three castes; and persons of the same caste are not allowed to marry each other. The mother gives caste to the children, so that as the fathers die off the caste constantly changes. It also happens that when a child is named, the father adopts that name and drops his own. The system prevents civil war.

Caste in India is a question of more than historical interest. It is the great difficulty in the way of Government in framing laws and in governing the army, of native religious reformers in attacking the Brahmanic superstitions, and of the Protestant missionaries, who are unable to offer in the British society of India a sympathizing aud protecting caste in place of that which it costs the convert so much to leave. Probably owing to the extent of our Indian Empire, and the great varieties of caste custom which prevail, one hears very conflicting accounts and opinions of the institution. Writers such as Robertson and Dubois have regarded it as the great safeguard of social tranquillity, and therefore as the indispensable condition of the progress in certain arts and industries which the Hindus have undoubtedly made. Others, such as James Mill, denounce it as now at least a great political blunder, fatal to free competition, and opposed to individual happiness. The latter view assumes a state of facts which is denied by Mr Colebrooke, one of the highest authorities on Indian matters. Writing in 1798 he says, after pointing out that any person unable to earn a subsistence by the exercise of his profession may follow the trade of a lower caste or even of a higher; “Daily observation shows even Brahmans exercising the menial profession of a Sudra. We are aware that every caste forms itself into clubs or lodges, consisting of the several individuals of that caste residing within a small distance, and that these clubs or lodges govern themselves by particular rules or customs or by-laws. But though some restrictions and limitations, not founded on religious prejudices, are found among their by-laws, it may be received as a general maxim that the occupation appointed for each tribe is entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, with few exceptions, is open to every description of persons; and the discouragement arising from religious prejudices is not greater than what exists in Great Britain from the effects of municipal and corporation laws. In Bengal the numbers of people actually willing to apply to any particular occupation are sufficient for the unlimited extension of any manufacture.” This is corroborated by Elphinstone, who states that, during a long experience of India, he never heard of a single case of degradation from caste; and it is illustrated by the experience of the British army, in which men of all castes unite.

The popular notion of modern caste is that it involves certain restrictions on marriage, on profession, and on social intercourse, especially that implied in eating and drinking together. But how far intermarriage is permitted, what are the effects of a marriage permitted but looked on as irregular, what are the penalties of a marriage forbidden, whether the rules protecting trades and occupations are in effect more than a kind of unionism grown inveterate through custom, by what means caste is lost, and in what circumstances it may be regained,—these are questions on which very little real or definite knowledge exists. It is very remarkable that the Vedas, on which the whole structure of Brahmanic faith and morals professes to rest, give no countenance to the later regulations of caste. The only passage bearing on the subject is in the Purusha Sukta, the 90th Hymn of the 1 Oth Book of the Rigveda Sanhita. “When they divided man, how many did they make him? What was his mouth I what his arms? what are called his thighs and feet 1 The Brahmana was his mouth, the Raganya was made his arms, the Vaisya became his thighs, the Sudra was born from his feet.” Haug finds in this a subtle allegory that the Brahmans were teachers, the Kshatriyas the warriors of mankind. But this is opposed to the simple and direct language of the Vedic hymns, and to the fact that in the accounts of creation there the origin of many things besides classes of men is attributed in the same fanciful manner to parts of ths divine person. It is in the Puranas and the Laws of Manu, neither of which claims direct inspiration, where they differ from the letter of the Veda, that the texts are to be found on which all that is objectionable in caste has been based. Even in the Vishnu Purana, however, the legend of caste speaks of the four classes as being at first “perfectly inclined to conduct springing from religious faith.” It is not till after the whole human race has fallen into sin that separate social duties are assigned to the classes. The same hymn speaks of the evolution of qualities of Brahma. Sattva, or goodness, sprang from the mouth of Brahma; Rajas, or passion, came from his breast; Tamas, or darkness, from his thighs; others he created from his feet. For each one of these gunas, or primitive differences of quality, a thousand couples, male and female, have been created, to which the distinct heavens, or places of perfection of Prajapati, Indra, Maruts, and Gandharvas are assigned. To the gunas are related the yugas, or ages: 1st, the Krita, or glorious age of truth and piety, in which apparently no distinctions, at least no grades of excellence were known; 2d, the Treta, or period of knowledge: 3d, the Dvapara, or period of sacrifice; 4th, the Kali, or period of darkness. Bunsen supposes there may be an historical element in the legend that Pururava, a great conqueror of the Treta age founded caste. The yugas are hardly periods of historical chronology, but there is no doubt that the Vayu Purina assigns the definite origin of caste to the Treta period. “The perfect beings of the first age, some tranquil, some fiery, some active, and some distressed, were again born in the Treta, as Brahmans, <fcc., governed by the good and bad actions performed in former births.” The same hymn proceeds to explain that the first arrangement did not work well, and that a second was made, by which force, criminal justice, and war were declared to be the business of the Kshatriyas; officiating at sacrifices, sacred study, and the receipt of presents to belong to the Brahmans; traffic, cattle, and agriculture to the Vaisyas; the mechanical arts and service to the Sudras. The Ramayana hymn suggests that in the four great periods the castes successively arrive at the state of dharma or righteousness. Thus, a Sudra cannot, even by the most rigorous self-mortification, become righteous in the period proper to the salvation of the Vaisyas. As the hymn speaks in the Dvapara age, it speaks of the salvation of Sudras as future, and not yet possible. Wholly in opposition to the story of a fourfold birth from Brahma is the legend that the castes sprang from Manu himself, who is removed by several generations of gods and demi-gods from Brahma. Then, again, the Santiparvan alleges that the world, at first entirely Brahmanic, was separated into castes merely by the evil works of man. Castehood consists in the exercise of certain virtues or vices. Munis, or persons born indiscriminately, frequently rise to the caste of Brahmans, and the offspring of Brahmans sinks to a lower level. The serpent observes: “If a man is regarded by you as being a Brahman only in consequence of his conduct, then birth is vain, until action is shown.” But this change of caste takes place only through a second birth, and not during the life which is spent in virtue. Another poetical conception of caste birth is expressed in the Harivansa. The Brahmans were formed from an imperishable element (Akshara), the Kshatriyas from a perishable element (Kshara), the Vaisyas from alteration, and the Sudras from a modification of smoke. The general result of the foregoing texts is that there are several contradictory accounts of the origin of caste, and that these are for the most part unintelligible. Caste is described as a late episode in creation, and as born from different parts of different gods, from the mortal Manu, from abstract principles, and from non-entity. It is also described as coeval with creation, as existing in perfection during the Krita period, and subsequently falling into sin. It is also said that only Brahmans existed at first, the others only at later periods. Then the rationalistic theories of the Santiparvan upset the very foundation of caste; viz., hereditary transmission of the caste character. It seems clear that when the Vedas were composed, many persons who were not Brahmans acted as priests, and saints, the “preceptors of gods,” by their “austere fervour,” rose from a lower rank to the dignity of Brahmanhood. Originally, indeed, access to the gods by prayer and sacrifice was open to all classes of the community. Ás the Brahmans grow in political importance, they make religion an exclusive and sacred business. We find them deciding questions of succession to the throne, and enforcing their decisions. While in the earlier literature there are several instances of Brahmans receiving instruction from the hands of Kshatriyas, in the Puranas and Manu death is made to overtake Kshatriyas who are not submissive to the Brahmans; and in one case Visvamitra, the son of Gadhi, actually obtains Brahmanhood as a reward for his submission. It seems certain that many of the ancient myths were expressly manufactured by the Brahmans to show their superiority in birth and in the favour of Heaven to the Kshatriyas,—a poetical effect which is sometimes spoiled by their claiming descent from their rivals. This brings us to a consideration of the theories which have been started to account for the appearance of Brahmanic caste, as it is stereotyped in the Laws of Manu. James Mill, who invariably underestimated the influence on history of “previous states of society,” has suggested that the original division must have been the work of some inspired individual, a legislator or a social reformer, who perceived the advantages which would result from a systematic division of labour. The subordination of castes he accounts for by the superstitious terror and the designing lust of power which have so frequently been invoked to explain the natural supremacy of the religious class. Because the ravages of war were dreaded most after the calamities sent by heaven, he finds that the military class properly occupy the second place. This arrangement he apparently contemplates as at no time either necessary or wholesome, and as finally destroyed by the selfish jealousies of caste, and by the degradations which the multiplication of trades made inevitable. Heeren and Klaproth have contended that the division into castes is founded on an original diversity of race, and that the higher castes are possessed of superior beauty. The clear complexion and regular features of the Brahmans are said to distinguish them as completely from the Sudras as the Spanish Creoles were distinguished from the Peruvians. “The high forehead, the stout build,...

CASTEL-A-MARE, a seaport town of Sicily, on a bay to which it gives its name, in the province of Trapani, and about 30 miles west of Palermo. It occupies the site of the port of the ancient Segesta, which lay about six miles distant, and it still carries on a considerable export trade in wine, fruit, grain, and timber. Population 11,280.