Many Portugueze _ayahs_ affect to be in possession of genealogies, whereby it should appear they are lineally descended from most illustrious characters; most of whom would, no doubt, be indeed abashed, could they now take a peep at their ill-fated and degenerate posterity! It is scarcely to be conceived how much pride is retained by women of this class: they are fond of adulation, and love the dear word ‘_Signora,_’ even to adoration. To see one of them full dressed on Christmas Day, is truly diverting; their costume being, as nearly as circumstances will admit, that of the days of royalty in France, with a dash of the antique VERA-CRUZ: to remind them, I suppose, of that eclipse which a gradual intermixture with the natives, has cast upon their once tawny, but now sable, countenances. One would think, that the humiliating reflections attendant upon such a comparison, should prompt them to burn their pedigrees, and to avoid whatever could induce to retrospection! But, no; the _ayah_ prides herself on that remote affinity, to which her records give the claim; she retains all the offensive hauteur of her progenitors; which, being grafted upon the most obnoxious qualities of the Hindu, or Mussulman, characters, makes a _tout ensemble_ as ridiculous as it is despicable! The Hindostanee _ayah_, (by which I mean a woman born either of Mussulman, or of Hindu, parents,) is rather rare, unless in cases where young women have lost their _casts_, and, in a manner, become aliens to their own sects. These are said to be far the most valuable servants; much superior to such as come under the designation of _baundy_, (_i.e._ slave,) and which have, for the most part, been purchased in their infancy, from those miserable beings who, during times of scarcity, have been compelled to sell their offspring; thereby preserving the lives of both. The obligation, however, does not hold good, according to the existing regulations, under the British government; slavery being totally repugnant thereto; though the Mahomedan law authorizes the purchaser of a child, thus obtained, to retain it, and to command its services, upon the condition of proper food and raiment, until a certain age; when liberation takes place. There is, nevertheless, in this a wide latitude; it being extremely difficult for the slave to substantiate his age, which can only be computed according to what the purchaser may choose to assert it to have been when the sale took place: it is obvious, that he may sink many years in that particular.