A GOSSEIN. 
73 
CHAPTER VI. 
A GOSSEIN. GHOLAUM KAUDIR. THE SERAGLIO. 
One morning, as I was about to quit my tent; 
which was pitched a short distance without the walls 
of Delhi in a fine tope of tamarind-trees, I perceived 
a gossein standing with his back against a broken 
pillar at a short distance from me. He had assumed 
that attitude which betokened an expectation of re- 
ceiving something more tangible than mere courtesy 
from the benevolence of myself or any other person 
whom he might thus silently condescend to supplicate ; 
for with these devotees the social order of things is 
frequently inverted : they consider the recipient the 
benefactor when of their own community, or the 
giver the beneficiary when of any other. As I came 
near him I perceived that he had a thick iron rod 
passed through his cheeks, riveted at each end, from 
which a circular piece of iron depended inclosing the 
chin. Though the rod passed quite through the 
tongue, as I afterwards found, it did not mate- 
rially affect his articulation : he spoke with some 
difficulty but was nevertheless perfectly intelligible. 
He was an elderly man of gentle manners and mild 
aspect, without being offensively filthy, as the mem- 
bers of this strange tribe so frequently are. I invited 
H 
