234 THE DIRECTION OF INDUSTRY 



such as the Japanese provide with such unerring 

 taste. It is only in the larger towns, and particularly 

 those like Agra, Muthra, or Mirzapure, which are close 

 to good quarries, that the fine stone-carved decorated 

 arches, balconies, or porticoes are to be seen. In the 

 village house there is no such thing as art decoration 

 or painting, except perhaps a rude lithograph of one 

 of the gods hung in the room in which worship is 

 done, or a coarse caricature of the guardian deity, or 

 of a European soldier with musket and cocked hat, 

 which scares evil spirits from the household.'* 



* William Crooke, ' The North-Western Provinces of India,' 

 p. 265 et seq. 



