ouch the meat of the bovine kind, save the outcast Pariah. All are
very particular in seeking seclusion for their meals. This is perhaps
the reason why the Hindu home is, generally speaking, so much more
secluded than that of other people. Hindus believe that fingers were
made before knives, forks, and spoons. Consequently they eat their
food entirely with their fingers. It seems offensive enough to
Westerners. It has often taken away the writer's appetite as he has
feasted with them, to have the cook dole out his rice to him with his
bare hands! They eat entirely with their right hand, and never touch
the food with the left, reserving that hand for baser purposes.

In wealthy families, household duties are performed by many servants.
It is amusing to see how many servants are required in India to
perform the ordinary functions of one able-bodied servant in the West.
The services which a Hindu will demand from his menials are far
greater than those of a healthy Westerner. His languid nature and
general effeminacy make him entirely dependent upon his servant for
most of the activities and amenities of life. Recently the writer
heard a Hindu companion in a railway car call his servant at night
from an adjoining car to come and turn the shade over the compartment
lamp that he might have a nap! A well-known writer, in describing the
life of a Babu, says: "The _Khansama_ of a Babu is his most favourite
servant. From the nature of his office he comes into closest contact
with his master; he rubs his body with oil before bathing, and
sometimes shampoos him,--a practice which gradually induces idle,
effeminate habits and eventually greatly incapacitates a man for the
duties of an active life. Indeed, to study the nature of a 'big native
swell' is to study the character of a consummate Oriental epicure,
immersed in a ceaseless round of pleasures, and hedged in by a body of
unconscionable fellows, distinguished only for their flattery and
servility."

During times of sickness, the native doctor is in requisition. This
functionary is not without his merits; for it is a hereditary
profession, and not a little medical wisdom and experience have been
transmitted from father to son down the centuries. Nevertheless, as
compared with modern science, the ignorance of these men is woful, and
the unnecessary loss of life through that ignorance is lamentable.
Their pharmacy is as defective as many of their remedies are absurd
and disgusti