rally speaking, their style of living is more commendable
than that of the Hindus, who carry their thrift and parsimony to an
outrageous height.

Near their houses very graceful groups of Parsee women and children
are to be seen, who, upon the encouragement afforded by a smile,
_salaam_ and smile again, apparently well-pleased with the notice
taken of them by English ladies. These women are always well-dressed,
and most frequently in silk of bright and beautiful colours, worn as
a _saree_ over a tight-fitting bodice of some gay material. The manner
in which the saree is folded over the head and limbs renders it a
graceful and becoming costume, which might be imitated with great
propriety by the Hindu women, who certainly do not appear to study
either taste or delicacy in their mode of dress.

I may have made the remark before, for it is impossible to avoid the
recurrence of observations continually elicited by some new proofs of
the contrast between the women upon this side of India, and their more
elegant sisters on the banks of the Hooghly. Here all the women, the
Parsees excepted, who appear in public, have a bold masculine air;
any beauty which they may have ever possessed is effaced, in the very
lower orders, by hard work and exposure to the weather, while those
not subjected to the same disadvantages, and who occupy a better
situation, have little pretensions to good looks. Many are seen
employed in drawing water, or some trifling household work, wearing
garments of a texture which shews that they are not indebted to
laborious occupation for a subsistence; and while the same class in
Bengal would studiously conceal their faces, no trouble whatever
of the kind is taken here. They are possibly Mahrattas, which will
account for their carelessness; but I could wish that, with superior
freedom from absurd restraint, they had preserved greater modesty of
demeanour.

The number of shops in the bazaars for the sale of one peculiar
ornament, common glass rings for bracelets, and the immense quantities
of the article, are quite surprising; all the native women wear these
bangles, which are made of every colour. The liqueur-shops are also
very common and very conspicuous, being distinguished by the brilliant
colours of the beverage shown through bottles of clear white glass.
What pretensions this rose and amber tinted fluid may have to compete
with the liqueurs most esteemed in Europe, I have not been able to
learn. Todd