equally disinterested; they frequently play for large sums of money.  I do not, however, find the habit so general with the Natives as it is with Europeans.  The religious community deem all games of chance unholy, and therefore incompatible with their mode of living.  I am not aware that gaming is prohibited by their law in a direct way,[8] but all practices tending to covetousness are strictly forbidden; and, surely, those who can touch the money called ‘winnings’ at any game, must be more or less exposed to the accusation of desiring other men’s goods.

Shampooing has been so often described as to leave little by way of novelty for me to remark on the subject; it is a general indulgence with all classes in India, whatever may be their age or circumstances.  The comfort derived from the pressure of the hands on the limbs, by a clever shampooer, is alone to be estimated by those who have experienced the benefits derived from this luxurious habit, in a climate where such indulgences are needed to assist in creating a free circulation of the blood, which is very seldom induced by exercise as in more Northern latitudes.  Persons of rank are shampooed by their slaves during the hours of sleep, whether it be by day or by night; if through any accidental circumstance the pressure is discontinued, even for a few seconds only, the sleep is immediately broken:  such is the power of habit.

The punkah (fan) is in constant use by day and night, during eight months of the year.  In the houses of the Natives, the slaves have ample employment in administering to the several indulgences which their ladies require at their hands; for with them fixed punkahs have not been introduced into the zeenahnah:[9] the only punkah in their apartments is moved by the hand, immediately over or in front of the person for whose use it is designed.  In the gentlemen’s apartments, however, and in the houses of all Europeans, punkahs are suspended from the ceiling, to which a rope is fastened and passed through an aperture in the wall into the verandah, where a man is seated who keeps it constantly waving, by pulling the rope, so that the largest rooms, and even churches, are filled with wind, to the great comfort of all present.

The female slaves, although constantly required about the lady’s person, are nevertheless tenderly treated, and have every proper indulgence afforded them.  They discharge in rotation the required duties of their stations, and appear as much the objects of the lady’s care as any other people in her establishment.  Slavery with them is without severity; and in the existing state of Mussulmaun society, they declare the women slaves to be necessary appendages to their rank and respectability.  The liberal proprietors of slaves give them suitable matches in marriage when they have arrived at a proper age, and even foster their children with the greatest care; often granting them a salary, and sometimes their freedom, if required to make them happy.  Indeed, generally speaking the slaves in a Mussulmaun’s house must be vicious and unworthy, who are not considered members of the family.