EURASIA. 3 



blood that makes it possible for them to live and die in India. 

 Nothing will ever exterminate Eurasia ; it clings to the sun and 

 the soil, and is marvelously propagative within its own borders. 

 There is no remote chance of its ever being reabsorbed by either 

 of its original elements ; the prejudices of both Europeans and 

 natives are far too vigorous to permit of much intermarriage 

 with ajat of people who are neither one nor the other. Occasion- 

 ally an up-country planter, predestined to a remote and " jungly " 

 existence, comes down to Calcutta and draws his bride from the 

 upper circles of Eurasia — this not so often now as formerly. Oc- 

 casionally, too, a young shopman with the red of Scotland fresh 

 in his cheeks is carried off by his landlady's daughter; while 

 Tommy Atkins falls a comparatively easy prey. The sight of a 

 native with a half-caste wife is much rarer, for there Eurasian as 

 well as native antipathy comes into operation. The whole con- 

 scious inclination of Eurasian life, in habits, tastes, religion, and 

 most of all in ambition, is toward the European and away from 

 the native standards. On the whole, Eurasian prejudices against 

 the natives are probably stronger than European ones, and more 

 unreasoning. The claims of that cousinship must be more than 

 ignored, they must be trampled upon. But, in the matter of mar- 

 rying and giving in marriage, Eurasia is more than sufficient 

 unto itself, and has been for so many generations that both the 

 native and European characteristics of the type have become 

 largely merged in its own. 



There are twenty thousand Eurasians in Calcutta to one third 

 that number of Europeans. Even that does not represent the 

 proportion fairly, for the census-taker probably finds it easier 

 to obtain the true age of unmarried ladies than the confession 

 " East Indian " if " European " can be written with the least 

 shadow of acceptance. They are not hermetically sealed up in 

 offices and closed gharries and darkened drawing-rooms during 

 the heat of the day, like the Europeans ; they take their walks 

 abroad careless of the sun, in straw hats and such other ephem- 

 eral millinery as pleases them. Always they wear belati-cut 

 clothes ; it is the dear privilege of the poorest and blackest. They 

 share the tram-car with the natives and they walk to their busi- 

 ness, distinguished in this way from the sahib, who does neither. 

 Thus one meets them in crowds, but not always thus. Quite often 

 it is in a luxurious landau behind a fair pair of horses, with a 

 coachman on the box and two syces behind, that one has the 

 opportunity of observing Eurasia, lying back among its cush- 

 ions. For Eurasia has its nabobs, and the Red Road knows them 

 as well as it knows the judges of the High Court of Calcutta, or the 

 members of his Excellency's Council. Once a year, only once, at 

 the state ball at Government House, it is possible, if one looks 



