The barber is also, Mr. Low writes, [300] the scandal-bearer and
gossip-monger of the village. His cunning is proverbial, and he is
known as _Chhattisa_ from the saying--
Nai hai chhattisa
Khai an ka pisa,
or 'A barber has thirty-six talents by which he eats at the expense
of others.' His loquacity is shown in the proverb, 'As the crow among
birds so the barber among men.' The barber and the professional Brahman
are considered to be jealous of their perquisites and unwilling to
share with their caste-fellows, and this is exemplified in the proverb,
"The barber, the dog and the Brahman, these three snarl at meeting one
of their own kind." The joint association of the Brahman priest and
the barber with marriages and other ceremonies has led to the saying,
"As there are always reeds in a river so there is always a barber
with a Brahman." The barber's astuteness is alluded to in the saying,
'Nine barbers are equal to seventy-two tailors.' The fact that it
is the barber's duty to carry the lights in marriage processions has
led to the proverb, "At the barber's wedding all are gentlemen and it
is awkward to have to ask somebody to carry the torch." The point of
this is clear, though no English equivalent occurs to the mind. And
a similar idea is expressed by 'The barber washes the feet of others
but is ashamed to wash his own.' It would appear from these proverbs
that the Nai is considered to enjoy a social position somewhat above
his deserts. Owing to the nature of his duties, which make him a
familiar inmate of the household and bring him into contact with the
persons of his high-caste clients, the caste of the Nai is necessarily
considered to be a pure one and Brahmans will take water from his
hands. But, on the other hand, his calling is that of a village menial
and has also some elements of impurity, as in cupping which involves
contact with blood, and in cutting the nails and hair of the corpse
before cremation. He is thus looked down upon as a menial and also
considered as to some extent impure. No member of a cultivating caste
would salute a barber first or look upon him as an equal, though
Brahmans put them on the same level of ceremonial purity by taking
water from both. The barber's loquacity and assurance have been made
famous by the _Arabian Nights_, but they have perhaps been affected by
the more strenuous character of life, and his conversation does not
flow so freely as it did. Often he now confines himself to approving
and adding emphasis to any remarks of the patron and greeting any of
his little witticisms with bursts of obsequious laughter. In Madras,
Mr. Pandian states, the village barber, like the washerman, is known
as the son of the village. If a customer does not pay him his dues,
he lies low, and when he has begun to shave the defaulter, engages
him in a dispute and says something to excite his anger. The latter
will then become abusive to the barber, whom he regards as a menial,
and perhaps strike him, and this gives the barber an opportunity
to stop shaving him and rush off to lay a complaint at the village
court-house, leaving his enemy to proceed home with half his head
shaved and thus exposed to general ridicule. [301]