the other,[15] each of them having pendant ornaments; indeed, her
ears are literally fringed with silver.

After the hair has undergone all the ceremonies of washing, drying, and
anointing with the sweet jessamine oil of India, it is drawn with great
precision from the forehead to the back, where it is twisted into a queue
which generally reaches below the waist; the ends are finished with strips
of red silk and silver ribands entwined with the hair, and terminating
with a good-sized rosette. The hair is jet black, without a single
variation of tinge, and luxuriantly long and thick, and thus dressed
remains for the week,--about the usual interval between their laborious
process of bathing;--nor can they conceive the comfort other people find
in frequent brushing and combing the hair. Brushes for the head and the
teeth have not yet been introduced into Native families, nor is it ever
likely they will, unless some other material than pigs' bristles can be
rendered available by the manufacturers for the present purposes of
brushes. The swine is altogether considered abominable to Mussulmauns; and
such is their detestation of the unclean animal that the most angry
epithet from a master to a slave would be to call him 'seur'[15] (swine).

It must not, however, be supposed that the Natives neglect their teeth;
they are the most particular people living in this respect, as they never
eat or drink without washing their mouths before and after meals; and as a
substitute for our tooth-brush, they make a new one every day from the
tender branch of a tree or shrub,--as the pomegranate, the neem,[16]
babool,[17] &c. The fresh-broken twig is bruised and made pliant at the
extremity, after the bark or rind is stripped from it, and with this the
men preserve the enamelled-looking white teeth which excite the admiration
of strangers; and which, though often envied, I fancy, are never surpassed
by European ingenuity.

As I have rather prematurely introduced the Native ladies' style of dress
into this Letter, I may as well conclude the whole business of their
toilet under the present head, instead of reserving the detail of the
subject for a future Letter when the zeenahnah is to be described, and
accordingly proceed to tell you that the ladies' pyjaamahs are formed of
rich satin, or gold cloth, goolbudden,[18] or mussheroo[19] (striped
washing silks manufactured at Benares), fine chintz,--English manufacture
having the preference,--sil