33 
you are surrounded by a set of men called Sircars, who show 
you a profusion of certificates testifying to their honesty, 
diligence, and so forth. They are a sort of small brokers, 
who seek to be employed in providing you with clothing, 
furniture, every thing, in short, that a stranger requires, and 
knows not where to look for. Among other necessaries, 
they will provide you with servants, for whose honesty they 
promise to be responsible; and such as arrive here without 
friends to receive them, must have recourse to this mode of 
equipment, though it frequently exposes them to the grossest 
impositions. 
** To consider the number of these fellows that contrive to 
insinuate themselves into your service, would be laughable, if 
it were not such a grievous burden on your finances. "They 
pretend to justify it on the score of their religion. It is 
against one man's caste to clean your shoes, against another's 
to brush your coat; the barber who shaves your chin would 
lose his caste were he to touch the basin in which you wash; 
and the man who makes your bed confines his services to 
that office. When I arrived in Fort- William, my Sircar fur- 
nished me with three servants, and I thought him abundantly 
liberal, but when I came to settle accounts at the end of the ~ 
month, I found my domestic establishment was swelled to no 
less than nine. Every one of the principals had his deputy, 
and of the deputies several had their assistants. H 
“It is hardly possible to guard against the roguery of énoh 
a crowd of idle people, constantly on the alert to take advan- 
tage of your carelessness or inexperience: every stray article 
is sure to disappear; no matter how small its value, they can 
turn it to account. But the most serious danger is, that your 
Sircar, or the servant who has charge of your keys and your 
purse, should prove dishonest. ‘Toaman whose daily expen- 
diture is less than a penny, a few hundred rupees would be a 
fortune for life. Such a temptation, therefore, is hardly to be 
resisted, where the means of escape are so easy; and should 
he yield to it, and run away, it is ten to one that the Sircar 
who recommended him will abscond also, and leave you with- 
out the smallest chance of recovering your property. d 
VOL, III. -D 
