A BENGAL CIVILIAN. 
51 
The contrast between the mansion of an aristocratic 
civilian in Calcutta and the rude cottages of these 
hardy mountaineers is sufficiently striking. The for- 
mer has everything around him which wealth can 
procure. Seated on an easy chair of the coolest con- 
struction, one leg carelessly thrown upon a handsome 
mahogany table, the other languidly resting on a 
costly morah,* * * § he smokes his hookah in all the indo- 
lent luxury of a temperature of ninety-four degrees. 
His sircar t advances with a profound salaam to re- 
ceive his orders for the day ; the hookahbadarj stands 
ready to replace the exhausted chillum, the peadah§ 
to bear his master’s commands wherever he may 
choose to have them conveyed, and the punka-bearer 
to fan him with the broad leaf of the palmyra. Every 
want is anticipated : all he has to do for himself 
is to think, and as soon as his wishes are expressed 
they are executed. His hair is dressed, his beard 
shaved, his feet are washed, and his nails pared, by 
his ready attendants. When he lolls on his couch, 
he is fanned by an obedient Mussulman or Hindoo ; 
when he sleeps, a yak’s tail is waved over his head 
in gentle and cooling undulations to keep off the 
obtrusive musquitoes, which would otherwise “ mark 
him for their own j” when he retires to his nightly 
repose, he is undressed by his obsequious valet, and 
when he rises from his luxurious slumbers he is 
* Footstool, 
t The sircar is a sort of house-steward. 
$ The hookahbadar always stands behind the hookah, so that 
he does not appear in the engraving. 
§ The peadah is a running-footman. 
