In a society ranked by occupation, marrying across the line can mean stepping down into the partner's stigmatized trade. A priest's son who fell for a corpse bearer's daughter in effect gave up his own standing and took up the lowly work himself, adding to his family's disappointment.
Work spent in constant closeness with corpses wears down the body and the mind, so workers turn to drink to keep going. They carry iron biers of nearly eighty pounds for miles, and the smell of decay never leaves them. The drinking is a response to the job, not just a weakness of character.
A community can depend on a group to handle its dead and carry out the rites, yet shun the very people who do it. The task is essential to how the society cares for its dead, while the stigma falls on the hands that perform it, an uncommon picture of social discrimination.
People treated as the lowest of the low can hold firmly to a code of care and duty. Worn-out bearers still refuse to leave a body unattended, and they tend the sacred fire and lamp through the night before they rest themselves.