In the Travancore Census Report, 1901, the Dasis of the Coromandel coast are compared, in the words of a Sanskrit poet, to walking flesh-trees bearing golden fruits. The observant Abbé Dubois noticed that, of all the women in India, it is especially the courtesans who are the most decently clothed, as experience has taught them that for a woman to display her charms damps sensual ardour instead of exciting it, and that the imagination is more easily captivated than the eye. It was noticed by Lord Dufferin, on the occasion of a Viceregal visit to Madura, that the front part of the dress of the dancing-girls hangs in petticoats, but the back is only trousers. The Rev. A. Margöschis writes in connection with the practice of dilating the lobes of the ears in Tinnevelly, that, as it was once the fashion and a mark of respectability to have long ears, so now the converse is true. Until a few years ago, if a woman had short ears, she was asked if she was a Deva-dasi, because that class kept their ears natural. Now, with the change of customs all round, even dancing-girls are found with long ears. "The dancing-girls are," the Rev. M. Phillips writes, [59] "the most accomplished women among the Hindus. They read, write, sing and play as well as dance. Hence one of the great objections urged at first against the education of girls was 'We don't want our daughters to become dancing-girls'." It is on record [60] that, in 1791, the Nabob of the Carnatic dined with the Governor of Madras, and that, after dinner, they were diverted with the dancing wenches, and the Nabob was presented with cordial waters, French brandy and embroidered China quilts. The story is told of a Governor of Madras in more recent times, who, ignorant of the inverse method of beckoning to a person to advance or retreat in the East, was scandalised when a nautch girl advanced rapidly, till he thought she was going to sit in his lap. At a nautch in the fort of the Mandasa Zemindar in honour of Sir M. E. Grant Duff, [61] the dancing-girls danced to the air of Malbrook se va t'en guerre. Bussy taught it to the dancing-girls, and they to their neighbours. In the Vizagapatam and Godavari jungles, natives apostrophise tigers as Bussy. Whether the name is connected with Bussy I know not.