It being my intention to treat separately of the religious tenets, and institutions, both of the Mussulmans and of the Hindus, little need be said in this place, further than, that, owing to the division of the latter into sects, called by us _casts_, which render the occupations of all perfectly distinct, a necessity exists for hiring such of each _cast_ as may attend to those duties they undertake, without becoming subjected to the animadversions of their priesthood, or to those penalties attendant upon even the most trifling deviation from the marked path. Add to this, that the climate arbitrarily imposes the necessity for retaining some classes of servants, unknown in England; or, at least, supposed to be exclusively attached to the convenience of ladies, and of sick persons. When all matters are considered, it will be found, that that host of domestics appertaining to the establishment of a gentleman in Bengal, proves, in the aggregate, little, if at all, more expensive than the ordinary number retained by families of respectability in most parts of England. What with wages, liveries, lodging, board, washing, waste, negligence, and, I am sorry to say, pilfering, we shall find the one man servant, and the two maids, fully a match, in point of expence, with the whole body of those in the pay of one of our countrymen abroad. A gentleman in this country never can guess at the ultimate of his disbursements, where his domestics are concerned either in the appropriation, or in the expenditure: in Bengal, &c. the uttermost farthing is known; each servant receiving a certain sum monthly, in consideration of which he is in attendance during the whole day, finds his own cloaths, provides his own victuals, and pays for whatever cabin he may build or occupy. As to purloining victuals, there is little danger; for, with the exception of some of the lower _casts_, which are held in a state of utter abomination, no native of India, by which I mean either Mussulman or Hindu, will so much as touch those viands which an European has partaken: or which have been served up to his table. In this I must be understood to speak generally, and without any reference to those few deviations that have at times been discovered; being sensible, that some instances could be adduced of servants, particularly Mahomedans, having so far trespassed against the doctrines of their religion, as absolutely to eat of _ham_, and other viands, in secret. Such anomalies must be abstracted from my main position; which is well known, by all who have resided in India, to be perfectly correct.