ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 217 



CHAPTER XIX 



Changes in India — Government servants and gifts — The Zenanas — Slave- 

 girls — Visit to a Zenana at Hyderabad — Fidelity of servants — 

 Entertainments — The Nizam's palace — Native banquets — Sir Salar 

 Jung — Tombs of Golconda — Old priest in the mosque — Human 

 monstrosities — ' God's animals.' 



Many changes have come about of late years in India, and 

 if that have been said before, and is now repeated, it is 

 because the fact strikes one so often in regard to her varied 

 aspects. Not as to her creeds and religious practices — 

 there are no changes there, nor probably ever will be, 

 speaking of India as a whole — but in manifold other ways 

 things are different. Fortunes are not made by magic, as 

 in ' John Company's ' days ; ' shaking the pagoda tree,' as 

 it was called, does not now bring down a shower of gold 

 mohurs. Native princes have in times past made many a 

 doctor wealthy in gratitude for some lucky cure, but they 

 do so no longer, because the doctors may not take more 

 than their dues. Government servants get their salaries, 

 which are not to be supplemented by back-door ways. I 

 am not saying that they were so formerly, only that they 

 cannot be now. So rigid and distinct are the rules that if 

 the word ' perishable ' can be applied to a proffered gift 

 that gift may be accepted, but not otherwise. Fresh fruit, 

 for instance, or sweetmeats, may be so described, but not 

 tinned fruit ; that is not perishable in the sense intended. 

 We had such gifts offered us — a dozen large tins of preserved 

 peaches — once, and ornamental boxes of ivory or sandal- 

 wood, which, not being perishable, had to be refused. 

 Neither would there be any offence taken, for the giver 



