126 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
will relax on certain points — and where is the commu- 
nity so morally organized that some of its members 
will not? — they are equally tenacious of their ob- 
servances upon others, to which they will often adhere 
even unto death. 
At Bombay, I knew an instance of a Hindoo who 
had gone on board an Indiaman on commercial bu- 
siness, and having taken too strong a dose of opium, 
he was overcome with drowsiness and fell asleep in 
the steerage. When he awoke he found that the 
ship had weighed anchor, and was already several 
leagues from the fort. There were many Lascars * on 
board, but, as they were all of inferior caste to him- 
self, the provisions which they had procured for the 
voyage were looked upon by him as polluted. The 
captain of the ship, to whom the prejudices of a 
Hindoo were matters of indifference, refused to send 
a boat on shore, alleging that it would cause consi- 
derable delay. The poor fellow therefore had no 
alternative but to proceed to Madras with the ship, 
leaving his family in utter ignorance of what had 
become of him. On hearing the captain’s cruel de- 
termination, he lay down upon the deck sullen and 
dogged, neither moving nor speaking, and in this state 
he continued for two days without tasting a morsel 
of food, or once moistening his parched lips. The 
ship was now at least a hundred leagues from 
Bombay, though, as she was bound for Madras, she 
did not keep very far from the land, but coasted down 
towards Cape Comorin, under easy sail, and was on 
the morning of the third day about twenty leagues 
from the shore. 
* Native sailors. 
