Travels in India (Tavernier) 35.2.7

35.2.7

for not only did they not know the language of the country, but what was more vexatious, they had always to stay in the open, as the idolaters who inhabit all this part of India would not allow them even to touch the walls of their houses, through fear of being in consequence obliged to throw them down. The superstition of these idolaters goes so far that they dare not touch one another, except in time of war. When by accident they touch any one they are obliged to go at once and wash the body and dip three times in the water, otherwise they dare not eat, drink, nor enter their houses.