It is also currently believed that the Dhobi wears the clothes of his
customers himself. Thus, 'The Dhobi looks smart in other people's
clothes'; and '_Rajache shiri, Paritache tiri_,' or 'The king's
headscarf is the washerman's loin-cloth.' On this point Mr. Thurston
writes of the Madras washerman: "It is an unpleasant reflection
that the Vannans or washermen add to their income by hiring out
the clothes of their customers for funeral parties, who lay them
on the path before the pall-bearers, so that they may not step upon
the ground. On one occasion a party of Europeans, when out shooting
near the village of a hill tribe, met a funeral procession on its
way to the burial-ground. The bier was draped in many folds of clean
cloth, which one of the party recognised by the initials as one of
his bed-sheets. Another identified as his sheet the cloth on which
the corpse was lying. He cut off the corner with the initial, and a
few days later the sheet was returned by the Dhobi, who pretended
ignorance of the mutilation, and gave as an explanation that it
must have been done in his absence by one of his assistants." [558]
And Eha describes the same custom in the following amusing manner:
"Did you ever open your handkerchief with the suspicion that you had
got a duster into your pocket by mistake, till the name of De Souza
blazoned on the corner showed you that you were wearing some one
else's property? An accident of this kind reveals a beneficent branch
of the Dhobi's business, one in which he comes to the relief of needy
respectability. Suppose yourself (if you can) to be Mr. Lobo, enjoying
the position of first violinist in a string band which performs at
Parsi weddings and on other festive occasions. _Noblesse oblige_; you
cannot evade the necessity for clean shirt-fronts, ill able as your
precarious income may be to meet it. In these circumstances a Dhobi
with good connections is what you require. He finds you in shirts of
the best quality at so much an evening, and you are saved all risk and
outlay of capital; you need keep no clothes except a greenish-black
surtout and pants and an effective necktie. In this way the wealth
of the rich helps the want of the poor without their feeling it
or knowing it--an excellent arrangement. Sometimes, unfortunately,
Mr. Lobo has a few clothes of his own, and then, as I have hinted,
the Dhobi may exchange them by mistake, for he is uneducated and
has much to remember; but if you occasionally suffer in this way you
gain in another, for Mr. Lobo's family are skilful with the needle,
and I have sent a torn garment to the wash which returned carefully
repaired." [559]