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NARRATIVE. 
are not allowed to wear turbans, to ride on horseback, 
or to intermarry with the Mahomedans. They 
go about in skull-caps, and long black robes tied 
with a rope round the waist ; a particular locality in 
the city is appropriated to their use, and they pay 
much higher taxes than the Mahomedans do. 
Slavery is said to have been abolished ; but two 
slave boys belonging to the Governor, and apparentl}'* 
of Chinese descent, were in constant attendance at our 
quarters to keep the place tidy. In the city I never 
saw any females, with the exception of a few hopeless 
cases of sickness sent to me by the Dad Khwah for 
treatment ; but in the villages we saw numbers of 
women. They were all dressed in white cotton robes, 
and a head-dress either of white cotton and of a 
globular shape, or a neat fur cap. As we approached 
they always disappeared; but we could often see 
numbers of pretty faces trying to get a sight of us 
through the chinks of the doors, or peeping over the 
enclosure walls. 
The dress of the poorer classes consists of a turban, 
or simply a cap lined with sheepskin, one or more 
loose robes of cotton cloth of country manufacture, a 
pair of trousers of cotton or leather, made so wide that 
they go over the loose robe to protect the latter when 
the wearer is riding or working. The better classes 
wear the same style of dress, which only differs in the 
quality of the cloth, being generally made of silk, or of 
English or Eussian cloth. Stockings are only worn 
by the wealthier classes. All wear boots, which 
usually come up to the knee. Those worn by the 
better classes are made of leather imported from India 
or Eussia, and those of the poorer classes are of un- 
