nd it is not
often redeemed by the ample robe and handsome shawl which distinguish
the better classes.

The Mohammedans do not wear the beautifully plaited turbans and
well-fitting vests so common in Bengal, while the sailors' jackets
and trowsers, almost universally worn by the Portuguese, a few only
assuming the swallow-tailed coat, are any thing rather than
handsome or becoming. The inferiority of dress exhibited is the more
inexcusable, since the wages of servants in Bombay are much higher
than those of the same class in Bengal, while the difference in
point of number does not make up for the difference in the rate. The
youngest table-servant demands twelve rupees a month, no one will
engage as a butler under twenty, and the remainder are in proportion.
The ayahs' wages are also very high, amounting to from fifteen to
twenty rupees a month; they are certainly, however, more efficient
than the same class of persons in Bengal, undertaking to wash silk
stockings, lace, and fine muslin; they are, generally speaking,
well-conducted and respectable. The dirzees or tailors are very
inferior to their brethren of Bengal, though paid at a much higher
rate, fifteen rupees a month being the common demand. Whenever a
Bengal tailor happens to come round, he is eagerly seized upon, the
reputation of workmen from the rival presidency being deservedly high.
Tailors are indiscriminately Parsees, Mohammedans, or Hindus, the
latter-named being the least desirable, as they will neither eat,
drink, nor cook in a European manner, and are always eager to get away
by half-past four in the afternoon.

The cooks of Bombay are, for the most part, well acquainted with the
culinary art, an advantage for which, according to common report, they
are indebted to Lord Clare. Upon the arrival of that nobleman at the
seat of his government, it is said that he started with horror at the
repast which the hospitality of the island had provided for him. At
this substantial dinner, the ponderous round jostled the sirloin of
beef, saddles and haunches of mutton _vis-a-vis'd_ with each other,
while turkey and ham, tongue and fowls, geese and ducks, filled up the
interstices.

Lord Clare had either brought a French cook in his train, or sent for
one with the least possible delay, and this accomplished person not
only reformed the _cuisine_ at Government House, but took pupils, and
instructed all who chose to pay for the acquirement in the mysteries
of his