eman would consider himself disgraced or insulted by the simple
inquiry, 'Can you dance, sing, or play?'

The female slaves are sometimes taught to sing for their ladies' amusement,
and amongst the many Hindoostanie airs there are some that would please
even the most scientific ear; although, perhaps, they are as old as the
country in which they were invented, since here there are neither
composers of modern music, nor competitors for fame to bring the amusement
to a science. Prejudice will be a continual barrier to improvement in
music with the natives of India; the most homely of their national airs
are preferred at the present day to the finest composition of modern
Europe.

My promised postscript is a translation from the Persian, extracted from
'The Hyaatool Kaaloob'. The author is detailing the manner of living
habitual to Mahumud and his family, and gives the following anecdotes
'hudeeth' [19] (to be relied on), which occurred at the season of Rumzaun;
the writer says:--

'It is well known that they (Mahumud's family) were poor in worldly wealth;
that they set no other value on temporal riches (which occasionally passed
through their hands) but as loans from the great Giver of all good, to be
by them distributed amongst the poor, and this was done faithfully; they
kept not in their hands the gifts due to the necessitous. The members of
Mahumud's family invariably lived on the most simple diet, even when they
could have commanded luxuries.

'At one season of Rumzaun,--it was in the lifetime of Mahumud,--Fatima,
her husband Ali, and their two sons, Hasan and Hosein, had fasted two days
and nights, not having, at that period, the means of procuring the
smallest quantity of food to break their fast with. Habitually and from,
principle, they disguised from the world or their friends all such
temporal trials as it seemed good in the wisdom of Divine Providence to
place in their chequered path; preferring under any circumstances of need,
to fix their sole trust in the mercy and goodness of God for relief,
rather than by seeking aid from their fellow-creatures lessening their
dependence on Him.

'On the evening above mentioned, Mahumud went to the cottage of Fatima,
and said, "Daughter, I am come to open my fast with thee."--"In the name
of the most merciful God, be it so," was the reply of Fatima; yet secretly
she sorrowed, that the poverty of her house must now be exposed to her
beloved father.

'Fatima spread t