332 COFFEE. 



Here, for the first time during my trip, the Oriental custom of 

 the seclusion of women becomes prominent — women, excepting 

 those of the lower classes, rarely being seen in the streets, and, 

 ■when they venture from their houses being conveyed in carriages 

 with closed blinds or in closed " palkahs." (The " palkah " is a 

 sort of seda,n-chair or box, resting upon poles, which is carried 

 about on men's shoulders.) 



Polygamy is practised here by the natives to a greater or less 

 extent, and the women's apartments, which in Turtey are known 

 as the seraglio or harem, are here known as the " zenara," and the 

 same term also is in some instances applied to the occupants. A 

 curious illustration of the extent to which this seclusion of women 

 is earned is the advertisement of a lady photographer in Calcutta 

 who announces herself as a "zenara photographer." Another 

 curious feature in Indian life with which we first came promir 

 nently in contact at Calcutta is that of caste. One servant brings 

 you food, but his hands would be utterly profaned if he were to 

 take away the empty plate. One furnishes your room with water 

 and towels, but another one has to be provided to carry away the 

 slops. A Brahmin, eating at the same table with a European^ or 

 leaving his own country and crossing the sea, breaks his caste, and 

 is ever after utterly ostracised for so doing. In Northern India 

 we hired a carriage, and were surprised to see, besides the driver, 

 an additional man accompanying us. "We protested that we did 

 not want more than one man, but the second fellow persisted in 

 accompanying us, perching up behind and shouting at all who got 

 in our way. "When we alighted, he performed the services of a 

 footman in opening the door, and, when we stopped to feed the 

 horses, this man unharnessed and cared for them. On inquiry, 

 we found that it would be beneath the caste of our driver to per- 

 form these services, and thus, two stalwart men had to be provided 

 to perform the work of one. In many other ways these absurd 

 customs of caste have the same effect ; and, as before indicated, 

 they serve to destroy aU enterprise, for a person born in one caste 

 can never rise to another. 



The population is so dense, however, that labor is exceedingly 

 plenty and cheap, and it has been surmised that many of the 

 absurd rules of caste were designed and prescribed by the ancient 



