66 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
to be excited by different modes of acoustic combina- 
tions. Let us not, therefore,, affect to despise the 
music of Hindostan, because we happen to think it 
inferior to our own ; remembering too, that even 
Europeans living in India, seldom hear it in its per- 
fection. 
Captain Luard exhibits among his groups of Indian 
figures a band of itinerant musicians, such as are 
commonly engaged by wealthy natives at their en- 
tertainments, for the niggard remuneration of a few 
pice — a small copper coin, in value about the third of 
our penny. In these bands there is occasionally a 
mixture of Hindoo and Mohammedan performers, 
which is a symptom that the inveterate prejudices 
of caste are fast subsiding throughout India. This 
union of interest, indeed, among the votaries of Mo- 
hammed and of Brahma, can only take place where 
those prejudices are despised, which is now by no 
means unfrequently the case among the lowest of the 
four civil divisions of the Hindoo population. 
These bands of native performers are commonly 
seated upon a coarse rug in the veranda of the house 
where they exercise their skill for the amusement of 
the lord of the mansion and his guests. Usually 
there is a vocal performer, who beats time with the 
fingers of his right hand on the palm of his left, while 
he is accompanied by his companions on their re- 
spective instruments. 
In Captain Luard’s group one is represented playing 
upon a sort of trilateral guitar, an instrument certainly 
not common among Hindoo musicians, as it is neither 
enumerated by Ward nor by the author to whose 
