216 INDIAN CUSTOMS. 



imagine it was first used to check the inordinate 

 perspiration in the hands and feet, which prevails 

 to a great degree with the natives of India, giving 

 their hands a very disagreeable cold clammy feel, 

 like the sensation produced by handling a frog, 

 and which the application alluded to entirely 

 removes. 



The next I shall remark is their blacking their 

 eyelids with powdered antimony:* this custom 

 must be of great antiquity, as it is mentioned in 

 the Bible.f It produces a strange contrast to the 

 whites of their eyes, which are exceedingly clear. 

 This, also, I conceive not to have been first used 

 for ornament, but to cure or prevent the ophthal- 

 mia tarsi, and it is one of the best remedies I 

 know for it. 



Again : females, after they attain a certain age 

 or get married, use an application to stain their 

 teeth black. This, I also believe, w r as, and is 

 used to destroy the tartar, and preserve the teeth 



* The Hindoostanee nam.e for antimony is Surmeh ; but 

 they often sell a sulphuret of lead in the bazars, under the 

 same name, and 1 believe many gentlemen* s horses have been 

 destroyed by taking it, instead of antimony. 



j- Ezekiel, Chap, xxiii. v. 40. 



