Some writers have mentioned a tribe in the Carnatic, whose women are not allowed to be seen by any man, not even their husbands, who visit them only in the dark. Shut up in secluded apartments with their female companions, they employ themselves in weaving mats and baskets, and similar occupations. Even their sons are taken from them at three or four years old, and never suffered to look on them again. Women of their own tribe nurse them when they are ill, and when dead, their husbands sew them up in a sack, before they are carried to the funeral pile. This singular tribe was never large, and is now said to be nearly extinct. The clothing of the Hindoos is seldom washed; for neatness is not their characteristic. The fashion of their garments is modest; the arms and upper part of the neck only being uncovered. Women of all castes, throughout India, load themselves with jewels. Common bracelets are made of vitrified earth, green, yellow, and black. Another kind are made of glass, and esteemed beautiful in proportion to the closeness with which they fit to the arm. Blood is often drawn, and the skin rubbed off, in getting them over the hand; and as they are continually breaking, the poor girls suffer not a little for their vanity. Gems, gold, and rare shells, exquisitely manufactured, are worn in the utmost profusion by those who can afford them. The loss of the precious metals in India, by friction alone, is said to be immense. The fashion is of ancient date, for the oldest statues of their gods and goddesses are almost buried in jewels. Females of the higher castes, married or unmarried, never go abroad alone, and without being completely veiled. If by any accident their faces happen to be uncovered, and they meet a European, they run, as fast as they can, into the first Hindoo house that has an appearance of respectability. In the interior of the country, a whole village of women are put in consternation by the sight of a European; this is probably in some measure owing to the insults of intoxicated soldiers.