56 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. hi. 



over a perfumer's or confectioner's. Malabar barbers, whose 

 stock of implements seldom exceeded scissors, razor, and a 

 small looking-glass, might be seen in all parts of the town, 

 and at all hours of the day, in the open air, by the shady side 

 of a wall, or, if the sun was vertical, under a piece of matting 

 spread on two or three sticks fixed against a wall, shaving 

 away at the dry or perspiring heads or faces of their cus- 

 tomers, who watched with interest, by means of a small cir- 

 cular looking-glass, the progress and execution of the razor. 



Almost equally amusing was the strange misappropriation of 

 names by which the servants were sometimes designated. In 

 the families in which I was occasionally domiciled, I was at 

 first startled by hearing the attendants, chiefly Creoles or 

 coloured natives of Mauritius, called by names equally sug- 

 gestive of ancient grandeur or poetical interest. In one 

 family, Aristides waited at table, Cecile was sewing woman, 

 Virginia nurse, and Amadeo was cook's assistant. In another, 

 Urania was house servant ; while Adonis and Polydore were 

 amongst those employed about the premises. These names, 

 and others of a similar kind, had probably been given at 

 the time when slavery existed ; but they seemed, among the 

 younger Creoles, to be giving place to such as Harry, Charles, 

 Louis, and other more familiar appellations. 



So long as I was the guest of Mr. Kelsey I passed through 

 the Malabar or Coolie town every time I went in and out of 

 Port Louis, and my attention was attracted by their habit of 

 squatting or sitting to every kind of work. Tailors held the 

 cloth they were stitching between their toes ; shoemakers held 

 the last or leather in the same manner ; silversmiths sat on 

 the floor to their work ; and smiths had their forge and anvil 

 on the ground. All their work seemed to be done in this 

 posture. I once saw two men sitting down while cutting a 

 piece of timber with a cross-cut saw. Perhaps this habit might 

 in part account for the long thin fleshless legs and arms and 



