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us to an elegant supper, served up in the true Persian style. He 

 received us at the outer gale, and conducted us through a small 

 garden to the flat root' of the house, where we were introduced to 

 several Persians and moguls of distinction. Here we enjoyed the 

 evening breeze and a moonlight view of the gardens, and were 

 amused by successive sets of dancing-girls and musicians, superior 

 to any I had then seen in India. 



It is well known that the Asiatics of either sex of any respecta- 

 bility never dance themselves. Throughout Hindostan, whether 

 among the Hindoos, Mahomedans, or Parsees, the master of a feast 

 sends for the public dancing-girls and musicians to entertain his 

 guests ; for himself, his family, or his company to do either would 

 be quite inconsistent with propriety, and the gravity of character 

 they generally preserve. Amidst the general joy on the annual 

 opening of the aqueduct at Dhuboy, I have mentioned a sort of 

 rural dance by other females, but this is very rare; in the lower 

 classes of society it may be more common, although it has escaped 

 my observation. An Indian of respectability could never consent 

 to his wife or daughter dancing in public, nor can they reconcile 

 the English country-dances to their ideas of female delicacy. I 

 remember an amiable Hindoo at Bombay being taken to a ve- 

 randa overlooking the assembly-room, where a number of ladies 

 and gentlemen were going down a country dance ; on his conductor 

 asking how he liked the amusement, the mild Indian replied, 

 " Master, I not quite understand this business, but in our caste we 

 say ' if we place butter too near the fire, butter will melt." I 

 have thought of this Hindoo when present at some particular 

 waltzing in France and Germany. 



VOL. III. M 



