ether Moslem or Hindu. "How shall I express my astonishment
at this extraordinary ignorance? What! do they not know what _ghee_
is? Wonderful! This was a piece of news I never expected--that what
abounds in every little wretched village in India, could not be
purchased in this great city!" How this unforeseen deficiency was
supplied does not appear; but probably the khan's never-failing
philosophy enabled him to bear even this unparalleled privation with
equanimity, as we hear no further complaints on the subject. He did
not remain, however, many days in those quarters, finding that the
incessant noise of the vehicles passing day and night deprived him of
sleep; and, by the advice of his friends, he took a small house in St
John's Wood, where he was at once at a distance from the intolerable
clamour of the streets, and at liberty to live after the fashion of
his own country.

The first place of public resort to which he directed his steps,
appears to have been the Pantheon bazar in Oxford Street, whither the
familiar name perhaps attracted him--"for the term _bazar_ is in use
also among the people of this country;" but he does not appear to have
been particularly struck by any thing he saw there, except the
richness and variety of the wares. On the contrary, he complains of
the want of fragrance in the flowers in the conservatory, particularly
the roses, as compared with those of his native land--"there was _one_
plantain-tree which seemed to be regarded as a sort of wonder, though
thousands grow in our gardens without any sort of culture." The
presence of the female attendants at the stalls, a sight completely at
variance with Asiatic ideas, is also noticed with marked
disapprobation--"Most of them were young and handsome, and seemed
perfect adepts in the art of selling their various wares; but I could
not help reflecting, on seeing so many fine young women engaged in
this degrading occupation, on the ease and comfort enjoyed by our
females, compared to the drudgery and servile employment to which the
sex are subjected in this country. Notwithstanding all the English say
of the superior condition of their women, it is quite evident, from
all I have seen since my arrival, that their social state is far below
that of our females." This sentiment is often repeated in the course
of the narrative, and any one who has read, in the curious work of Mrs
Meer Hassan Ali, quoted above, an account of the strict domestic
seclusion