The usual process of washing in India, is, first to boil all the cloaths in a large earthen _naud_, mixing plenty of soap, or ley, or sudjee, (fossile alkali,) or wood-ashes, with the water. This operation is called the _butteah_; the cloaths are then well rinsed, either in a large tank, or in a running stream, when they are again rubbed with soap, and laid in a heap to soak. After a few hours they are washed again, and, being folded up into whisps, or bundles, of a convenient size, are beaten forcibly on a board, cut into deep transverse grooves, and placed aslant in the water; in which the _doby_ stands immersed up to his knees. After dashing each bundle several times on the board, he opens and rinses it in the water; repeating the dashing, as though he were beating the board with a flail, until every part of the linen appears to be duly cleansed. If a board is not at hand, (though every _doby_ has at least one, of about four feet long, two broad, and four inches thick, with a stout stick wherewith a prop it,) any smooth stone is made to answer. It should seem, that this must be a most destructive method; but experience proves, that the fine calicoes of India will, even under such apparently rough usage, wear longer than our stout linens washed in tubs, &c. Every _doby_ has his drying lines, which are fixed at each end to pins driven into the ground, and then sustained by cross-sticks, on the forks of which the ropes rest. In the rainy season, the cloaths are hung somewhere under shelter, where they soon dry; though not so quick as in the summer months; during which the heaviest articles may be dried in a few minutes. The _doby’s_ wife, (called the _dobin_,) usually assists in every part of the process; as do also such of his children as are of an age to be useful. This sect is very peculiar in many instances, it, and that of the _comars_, or potters, being the only two privileged to ride, or even to carry burthens, upon asses, without suffering the most ignominious degradation: hence, those animals are jocularly termed, ’_dobies’s palfreys_.’ The dress of the _doby_ is generally very plain, consisting of a turban, a _dotee_, (or waist-cloth,) and a _chudder_, (or sheet,) worn loosely over the body in cold weather. When _dobies_ are at work, their lungs aspirate strongly, like those of paviors; which produces a very singular effect; especially if, as is very often the case, several of these board-thrashers are assembled at the same piece of water. _Dobies_ are very generally Hindus; and ought, agreeably to the ordinary tenets of that religion, to refrain from touching any animal substance, except leather, when used in the construction of shoes, and implements of war; but a particular exception is made in favor of this _cast_, (or sect,) who could not otherwise use soap, when made of suet; though, by far the greater portion of that made in Hindustan, is manufactured with oil expressed from the sesamum.