The ladies of Hindostan smoke their _goorgoories_ in very high stile; as do those of inferior rank their _nereauls_, or cocoa-nuts, with no less glee. It would, perhaps, be difficult to decide which of the sexes were most addicted to this habit: they both begin at a very early age, and are never so happy as when engaged in its practice. After a while, we become reconciled to seeing females smoking; though I must confess, that, however delicate the preparation of the tobacco may be, and however elegant the apparatus, still a certain idea, not very conformable to feminine propriety, creeps into our minds, when we see an European lady thus employed. We revolt at a habit not authorized by what we have been accustomed to in our early youth, and consider it an intrusion upon masculine characteristics. Several ladies have gone yet further, by adopting the entire costume of the natives; a circumstance which, however gratifying it may have been to themselves, by no means raised them in the estimation of those whom they imitated; while, at the same time, it gave birth to opinions, and occasionally to _experiments_, by no means favorable to their reputation. The same kind of ridicule attaches equally to gentlemen, who at times allow their whiskers to grow, and who wear turbans, &c., in imitation of the Mussulmans of distinction. Their countrymen, though perhaps tacitly, censure such imitations, when arising from caprice; and the Mussulmans regard these renegadoes in costume much the same as we do such of the natives, as, being smitten with our general character, and partaking of our pastimes, lay aside their appropriate garments in favor of jackets, jockey-caps, boots, and leather inexpressibles! Some, indeed, do more; they sit at table, and devour, with no small degree of eagerness, the viands prepared according to English fashion; washing them down with copious libations of Claret and Madeira, to the utter degradation of their persons, and reputation, in the eyes both of their new, and of their old, companions.