View source for Vagrant, Menial (so-called) and Artisan Castes, Punjab, 1883: II

== The higher and hill menials==

The higher meninl classes present, 
so far as I see, no such continuity of gradation as we find among the outcasts. 
The Kumhar or potter with his donkey is perhaps the lowest of them, and 
may not improbably belong by origin and affinity to the classes just discussed. 
The blacksmith, carpenter, and stonemason class form a very distinct group, 
as also do the washermen and dyers. The oilman and butcher is perhaps 
lower than any of them, and it appears that he should rank with the weavers, 
though I do not know that there is at present any connection between the 
two classes. the goldsmiths seem to stand alone, and to have descended 
from above into the artisan classes, probably being by origin akin to the 
mercantile castes. Among the menials of the hills, on the contrary', the 
continuity of the whole class now under consideration is almost unbroken. 
The outcast classes are indeed separate from the higher artisans in the lower 
hills ; but as we penetrate further into the Himalayas we find the scavenger 
class working as carpenters and blacksmiths, and the whole forming one body 
which it is almost impossible to separate into sections on any other basic  than 
the present calling of the individual.