or PARIAS, a tribe of Hindus, so peculiarly distinguished from all others, that they live by themselves in the outskirts of towns; and, in the country, build their houses apart from the villages, or rather have villages of their own, furnished with wells. They dare not so much as fetch water from those which other families make use of; and, lest the latter should inadvertently go to one of theirs, they are obliged to scatter the bones of dead cattle about their wells, that they may be known. See HINDUSTAN.