[Tradition of origin—Eastern Doms.] 3. The origin of the Dom to the east of the Province is thus told by themselves. In the good old times all people were equally well-to-do and happy. The Brâhmans had no property and built no houses for themselves. When Parameswar desired to appear in the world he took the form of a Brâhman. Then intending to divide men into castes, he went about begging as a Brâhman, wishing to ascertain what occupation each family followed. As he begged for alms no man gave him aught but silver and gold. At last he reached the house of a man who had killed a cow and was preparing to feed on the beef. He begged for alms, and the cow-killer brought from his house a handful of gold coins. Parameswar refused the money and asked for a little barley. The Domin, or woman of the house, went inside and found a place in the courtyard which had been trampled into mud by the feet of the cow in her death struggle, and there a few ears of barley had suddenly sprouted up. The woman plucked the grain and offered it to Parameswar, who asked her where she had found it. She told him how the grain had sprouted in her courtyard. Parameswar asked where was the cow which had prepared the ground in which the grain had grown. She replied that it had been killed by her husband. Then Parameswar was wroth and cursed her husband: “Thou and thy posterity shall kill animals and remain beggars for ever.” Then the Domin cursed Parameswar in the form of a Brâhman— Jahân Brâhman jâwê, Châr dhakka khâwê, Ek pichhâri, chhattîs gantha. “Wherever the Brâhman goes he shall receive four pushes. Thirty-six knots in a single sheet.” So ever since Doms are beggars and slayers of animals, and Brâhmans are poor and live on alms. This legend, of course, cannot be of any great antiquity, as the feeling of respect for the cow is of comparatively modern origin. 4. According to the Panjâb legend the ancestor of the Doms was a Brâhman named Malludant. He was the youngest of the family, and his elder brothers expelled him. One day the calf of their cow died, and they asked Malludant to take away the carcass and bury it. When he did so he was treated as an outcast, and was obliged ever after to make his living by skinning and burying dead animals. This legend, under a slightly different form, is told also in connection with the Bhangis.