Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/291

THE SUDRA CASTE 243 do mind me that in the year 1640, in the month of Jan- uary, the whole city of Paliacatta (Pulicat) on the coast of Coromandel was in tumult, for that the Palijs, which is the caste of poulterers, spread a cloth upon the earth while burying one of their dead, to the end that the corpse might be carried thereover. This the caste of Cauwreaes (Kafirs, i. e. " infidels, outcasts ") would not suffer, declaring that this was proper for them but not for the Palijs, and that, though they had put up with it for a long time, they would bear it no longer; so that the corpse remained unburied for some days, until it was interred by the authority of the governor of our nation. Thereat the Palijs were so wroth that they went forth from the city with their wives and children, and called the Cauwreaes to open battle; and inasmuch as these Palijs have some among the castes of Soudraes who must hold with them in time of par- lousness, therefore they called forth these folk from the city for the space of three months; and so, on January 23, all the carpenters, smiths, and workers in gold, and all who were of these trades, were called forth of the city, and they who remained therein would not work. But before the battle might be joined, time of great unrest ensued, nor was the matter ended without effusion of blood, for in the month of March fifteen Palijs and Cauwreaes were slain in fight, so that ye may see how nicely each caste of Soudraes standeth on its own. It hath already been said that the caste of Soudraes compriseth many divisions. These have each a special