The caste have some strict taboos on names and on conversation
between the sexes. A man will only address his wife, sister, daughter,
paternal aunt or niece directly. If he has occasion to speak to some
other woman he will take his daughter or other female relative with
him and do his business through her. He will not speak even to his own
women before a crowd. A woman will similarly only speak to her father,
son or nephew, and father-, son- or younger brother-in-law. She will
not speak to her elder brother-in-law, and she will not address her
husband in the presence of his father, elder brother or any other
relative whom he reveres. A wife will never call her husband by his
name, but always address him as father of her son, and, if she has no
son, will sometimes speak to him through his younger brother. Neither
the father nor mother will call their eldest son by his name, but will
use some other name. Similarly a daughter-in-law is given a fresh
name on coming into the house, and on her arrival her mother-in-law
looks at her for the first time through a _guna_ or ring of baked
gram-flour. A man meeting his father or elder brother will touch his
feet in silence. One meeting his sister's husband, sister's son or
son-in-law, will touch his feet and say, '_Sahib, salaam_.'