24 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
the followers, and we repaired to a tent pitched 
at a convenient spot upon the banks of the river. 
A chine of the hog which had fallen under the sword 
of the Mahomedan was soon dressed, and at the 
top of the table the tusked head appeared with 
a large orange in the mouth, and garlanded with a 
wreath — not of laurel, but of some shrub that answered 
the purpose just as well. Our host, though a votary 
of the Arabian prophet, had no objection to eating the 
prohibited food and drinking claret, of which he was 
excessively fond, in the presence of his domestics ; 
who, he observed, although they might presume to 
think he did wrong, did not dare to tell him so. 
Not having a very earnest faith in the religion of his 
forefathers, he looked upon himself as a free agent : 
being moreover possessed of the means of exercising his 
free agency, he took care to employ them to the full 
extent of his will. He indulged so freely in potations 
of his favourite beverage, that he was obliged to relin- 
quish his horse for his palenkeen, into which he rolled, 
and was borne upon the shoulders of four sturdy re- 
tainers to his home. The rich Mahomedans in India 
are fond of European society, and by no means scru- 
pulous in violating the sumptuary laws of the Koran. 
Those prohibitory canons contained in their scriptures, 
which restrict them to certain meats and deny them 
the use of wines, they consider severe restrictions; 
and though they extol the prophet’s wisdom in enact- 
ing them, and admit the providential agency that dic- 
tated them, they nevertheless sufficiently show how 
little they deem them worthy of respect, by the 
open and indifferent manner in which they infringe 
