"By the census of 1891, India has seventy-five towns with over 50,000 inhabitants, and twenty-eight with over 100,000; but unlike three cities of the States, it has not one with over a million, though Calcutta and Bombay are likely to reach that distinction in another decade. You have not a monopoly of the fast-growing cities in the States." "We have found out that Berlin has increased faster than Chicago," said Uncle Moses with a chuckle; "and Glasgow has got ahead of Liverpool." "Quite true, Mr. Scarburn; but the States have not all the fast-growing cities of the world, wonderful as the increase has been in some of them. Europe, Asia, and Australia are alive. The nearest approaches to a million in India are Calcutta, 861,764, and Bombay, 821,764; but I dare say you are all quite tired of statistics by this time." "Not at all, Lord Tremlyn; as you present them they are quite interesting." said Mrs. Belgrave. "Thank you, madam," replied the speaker, bowing low, with his hand on his heart. "Now I am going to speak of the people as other than mere numbers; and if I wished to entangle you inextricably, I should go back about 4,000 years, and tell you about the people down to the present time. I spare you the infliction in full. Four groups of languages are spoken among the natives, and from these the original races that spoke them are traced out. "I mention one as a specimen, the Kolarian language, spoken by those who first settled in the hilly regions of the central part. The others are the Aryan, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burman, all of which you will find in 'Chambers's' in your library. "The word Hindu is generally used in a very broad sense to cover all the native population of Hindustan or India; but it is really applicable to a religion, and belongs only to those of the Hindu, or the faith of the Brahmins; but, like most others, it consists of a great number of sects. Of this belief there are about 200,000,000 people. They are divided into four grand classes, called castes. The Portuguese called them _casta_ in their own language, from which the present name comes. I call them grand classes, or castes, because they are divided into many sub-classes. "When the Aryans, who came from Europe, and Asia farther north than India, obtained a foothold here, and established themselves, they looked down upon other people in the land, and called themselves the twice-born, or born again, as some modern sects have it. They claimed to have experienced a second, or religious, birth, indicated by a certain cord with which they were invested at a particular age. The natives of the soil and all other outsiders were the once-born.