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Tribal magic, in which the community combines, usually at some festival, in rites or dances intended to secure fertility of prosperity, is a normal feature of tribal religion. Such festivals or rites are usually associated with the agricultural year and many involve sexual license which is probably intended to have a magical effect on the fertility of the crop and of the community itself, and no better instance of such a festival can be quoted than the Holi, which has survived as a Hindu festival throughout India. p 260 Caste In India

Most Indians smoke cigarettes with the cigarette held between the 2nd and 3rd fingers on a clenched fist. The closed fist folded to form a funnel is then put to the mouth for inhaling. The cigarette never touches the mouth. I have wondered about the origin of this habit. It occurs to me to be a result of the food taboos in the caste system. In which it is considered unclean to accept any food from a caste lower than yours. Indians are very pollution conscious.

May 17, Sun

Nothing keeps for long in the Indian climate. Food is brought fresh every day. A vegetable bought at 6:30 in the morning by 12 noon is wilting and starting to decay. If the heat does not get it the insects or rodents will. As a result Indians are used to purchasing only as much as they need for the moment. People buy one cigarette at a time. The man where I drink tea every day buys a tiny bag of sugar, a few ounces in weight. He

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will buy several times in the same day rather than buy one large supply for the whole day. There is no refrigeration or good food storage facilities in the average Indian home. Of course this means a large amount of the time must be spent in shopping. There are venders and shops on every street, each specializing in certain things. The women's duties are the children and the cooking. It takes hours to prepare a meal. The coal fire must be started with cow dung in the portable stove made from a basket covered with clay. This alone takes half an hour to start. The stoves, three times a day, on the door steps of the house fouling the air with eye-stinging smoke. All preparation of food and cooking is done on the floor, the woman usually squatting on a small wooden board raised about 2 inches from the floor. The average meal consists of chapatis, rice, one or two vegetables cooked into a mushy state, and [ILLEGIBLE], a heavy starch diet with little protein or vitamin content. The same meal is served 3 times a day with a slight change in the vegetable. Women rarely leave the house. The men will not touch or help in preparation of the meal or serving. There are tight restricted areas of duty. [These are generalizations of course, there are exceptions and in large cities it is more western-influenced.] One severely criticized for breaking one of these restrictions.

I have gotten off the track as usual. This act of purchasing only what you need for the next few hours is part of the whole transitoriness of most Indian lives. That nothing is preservable, you can hold on to things only for a brief time, then they