is now employed, it is often very
absurdly answered by a grey-bearded man, who has long lost all title
to the appellation.

Notwithstanding the strength and acknowledged efficiency of the Bombay
police, it is considered expedient in every house to engage a Ramoosee
or watchman, who, while himself a professional thief, is bound in
honour to protect his employer from the depredation of his brethren.
Though, in virtue of this implied compact, the house ought to be
considered sacred, and the Ramoosee entitled to receive his wages for
the protection that his name affords, some there are who insist upon
the display of their watchfulness in a very unwelcome manner.

Occasionally the Ramoosee, more peaceably inclined, settles himself
quietly down to sleep in the verandah, and leaves the family to the
enjoyment of repose; but there are others who disdain thus to eat the
bread of idleness, and who make it a point to raise an alarm every
hour in the night. Personal courage or strength of body is by no means
essential in a Ramoosee, all that is required of him being powerful
lungs; this qualification he cultivates to the utmost, and any thing
more dreadful than the sounds emitted in the dead of the night close
to the window nearest the head of my bed I never heard. I have started
up in the most horrible state of apprehension, fancying that the world
was at an end, while, after calming down all this perturbation,
just as I have been going to sleep again, the same fearful shout has
brought on new alarm. Vainly have I remonstrated, vainly endeavoured
to convince the Ramoosee that his duty to his employers would be
better performed by making these shocking outcries at the road-side;
he is either inflexibly silent, or waging war against my repose; for I
believe that he selects the side of the house devoted to the visit or
for the exercise of his extraordinary faculty; I cannot in any other
way account for the small disturbance he gives to the rest of the
family.

The absolute necessity of paying one of these men, in order to secure
the forbearance of his colleagues, is illustrated by an anecdote
commonly told. It appears that two friends were living together, one
of whom had engaged a Ramoosee, while the other, not imagining it
to be incumbent upon him to incur the same expense, neglected this
precaution. One night, every thing belonging to this unfortunate
chum was stolen. The Ramoosee was summoned, and accused of not
having perfor