have not yet discovered.

The tureen contained delicious Mulligatawney soup, of which, as Karlee
well knew, I was inordinately fond; and as he opened the ale he modestly
congratulated himself on my vigorous enjoyment of it.

After the soup came curried prawns, a very piquant dish, in eminent
repute among the Sahibs, and a famous appetizer. Tonic, hot, and pungent
as it is, with spices, betel, and chillies, it is hard to imagine what
the torpid livers of the Civil Service would do without their rousing
curry.

The curry was followed by a tender _bouilli_ of kid, sauced with a
delicate sort of onions stewed in ghee (boiled butter), and flanked with
boiled rice, sweet pumpkin, and fried bananas, all served on green
leaves. Next came pine-apple, covered with sherry-wine and sugar, in
company with English walnuts and cheese; and, last of all, sweetmeats
and coffee,--the former a not unpleasant compound of ground rice and
sugar with curds and the crushed kernel of the cocoa-nut; the coffee was
served in a diminutive gourd, and was not sweetened. Last of the last,
the hookah.

And all these wonders had been wrought since the grateful ayah retired
with the corals! But then the bazaar was close at hand, and in the
sircar's house help was handy.

Whilst I kanahed[22] and smoked, Karlee, humbly "squatting" at my back,
allowed me to draw from him all that I have here related of his house
and family, and much more that I have not space to relate. Of course, he
could not have shared the repast with me,--all the holy water of Ganges
could never have washed out so deep a defilement,--but he accompanied my
hookah with his hubble-bubble. The reader has observed that, although
the viands were choice enough, they were laid on the cheapest pottery,
and even on leaves, that the plate from which I ate was of unglazed
earthenware, and that the coffee was served in a gourd. This was in
order that they might be at once destroyed. By no special dispensation
could those vessels ever again be purified for the use of a respectable
Hindoo; even a pariah would have felt insulted if he had been asked to
eat from them; and if the knives and forks and spoons had not been my
own, they must have shared the fate of the platters. But this prejudice
must be taken in a Pickwickian sense,--it covered no objection simply
personal to the Sahib. In some castes it is forbidden to eat from any
plate twice, even in the strictest privacy of the family; and many