A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of IndiaAcland, Charles
History
A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India
Acland, Charles
India -- Description and travel; India -- Social life and customs
We have a great improvement in the use of our finger-glasses over
those in England. One man waits behind every person at each meal,
even at tea, and as soon as the meal is over he brings his master or
mistress a finger-glass filled with water, with two or three leaves
of verbenum, or bay, or sweet-smelling lime, for the persons to
squeeze between their fingers. In a hot climate like India this is
very pleasant and refreshing.
[Sidenote: INDIAN MARRIAGES.]
When a man in India, I mean a European gentleman, wants a wife, he
says to his friend, "I should like to get married." "Well," says he,
"why don't you?" and forthwith he applies for leave of absence for
a month. A month consists of thirty days, of which, say five are
occupied in his journey to Calcutta, and another five on his journey
back, leaving him just twenty days in which to make his selection,
get introduced, make himself agreeable, propose, court, and be
married. A nice prospect he has for future happiness. But there is
one curious result in this sort of marriage, and a result, too, which
spreads among other people also. After a few years the wife loses
her health and is ordered to England. The husband cannot afford to
go with her, but he allows her about half his salary. At the end of
two or three years, or whatever time may have been fixed, he writes
to his wife to make arrangements for her return to India; and I have
known two instances in which the husband was obliged to stop the
allowance in order to compel the wife to return.
I have often wished to have some peacocks in my compound, but every
one told me that they would fly away; however, I found that those who
had tried to keep them had obtained the young birds from the jungle.
I thought I would try another plan, and therefore I got some eggs
and set them under a hen. I have three young ones coming on nicely,
perfectly tame, and which, I think, will look very well among the
trees in front of my house. Two are peacocks, the other a peahen.
Cuttack, September 14, 1844.
[Sidenote: A NIGHT'S REST.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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