Before washing his clothes the Dhobi steams them, [551] hanging
them in a bundle for a time over a cauldron of boiling water. After
this he takes them to a stream or pond and washes them roughly with
fuller's earth. The washerman steps nearly knee-deep into the water,
and taking a quantity of clothes by one end in his two hands he raises
them aloft in the air and brings them down heavily upon a huge stone
slab, grooved, at his feet. This threshing operation he repeats until
his clothes are perfectly clean. In Saugor the clothes are rubbed
with wood-ashes at night and beaten out in water with a stick in the
morning. Silk clothes are washed with the nut of the _ritha_ tree
(_Sapindus emarginatus_) which gives a lather like soap. Sir H. Risley
writes of the Dacca washermen: [552] "For washing muslins and other
coloured garments well or spring water is alone used; but if the
articles are the property of a poor man or are commonplace, the water
of the nearest tank or river is accounted sufficiently good. Indigo is
in as general use as in England for removing the yellowish tinge and
whitening the material. The water of the wells and springs bordering
on the red laterite formation on the north of the city has been for
centuries celebrated, and the old bleaching fields of the European
factories were all situated in this neighbourhood. Various plants
are used by the Dhobis to clarify water such as the _nirmali_
(_Strychnos potatorum_), the _piu_ (_Basella_), the _nagphani_
(_Cactus indicus_) and several plants of the mallow family. Alum,
though not much valued, is sometimes used." In most Districts of
the Central Provinces the Dhobi is employed as a village servant and
is paid by annual contributions of grain from the cultivators. For
ordinary washing he gets half as much as the blacksmith or carpenter,
or 13 to 20 lbs. of grain annually from each householder, with
about another 10 lbs. at seedtime or harvest. When he brings the
clothes home he also receives a meal or a _chapati_, and well-to-do
persons give him their old clothes as a present. In return for this
he washes all the clothes of the family two or three times a month,
except the loin-cloths and women's bodices which they themselves wash
daily. The Dhobi is also employed on the occasion of a birth or a
death. These events cause impurity and hence all the clothes of all
the members of the family must be washed when the impurity ceases. In
Saugor when a man dies the Dhobi receives eight annas and for a woman
four annas, and similar rates in the case of the birth of a male or
female child. When the first son is born in a family the Dhobi and
barber place a brass vessel on the top of a pole and tie a flag to
it as a cloth and take it round to all the friends and relations of
the family, announcing the event. They receive presents of grain and
money which they expend on a drinking-bout.