THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

take food, and to whom one could give it and expect it to be accepted.
According to the rules, Yakha could not accept water from the Kami
('blacksmith'), Damai ('tailor') or other pEini nacalne castes. Nor were
Brahmins and Chetris to accept cooked food from a Yakha (although they
could accept water, we were often emphatically told), We saw evidence
of the food prohibition at the pradhan pa-c's house on one occasion.
The wife of a bank manager from a nearby panchayat came through the
village with a brother and servant. As a Brahmin, she felt unable to
take cooked food from the pradhdn pEi-c's establishment, although her
party were able to accept slices of cucumber from them. The pradhdn
dutifully organised for uncooked rice, dal, cooking vessels and
firewood to be provided for the three to do their own cooking in the
shed across the courtyard from the main house.
We ran foul of the rules operating between the Yakha and lower
castes when we decided one day, while living with the pradh6n DE~-c's
family, that we would go on a visit to a local Kami family we had
befriended. We were told politely but firmly that if we ate anything at
their house we would be polluted and not allowed to enter into the house
where we were staying. "I can't help it", said Kamala to us much later
on, "the Kamis are just dirty to me. I don't like them". We wondered
whether this was a particularly strongly felt foible of our family, but
the Kami family matriarch told us that there were no Yakha she knew of
who would ignore the caste rules in their everyday dealings with her
family.
The untouchable castes were perhaps an extreme case, but there had
also been caste divisions with groups which, according to the Muluki
&, had been closer to the Yakha in the hierarchy. Some of these