o 6 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
their living, their creed by no means denies them the 
luxuries and state of the palace : their best excuse is 
the heat of the climate, which induces them to prefer 
the air, in the shade of a virandah or a tree, to anything 
like internal comfort or elegance in their house ; but 
there is a more common explanation, and, I believe, the 
true one, which serves the Hindoo as an answer to every 
question which he either does not know how, or does 
not care, to answer — “ dustoor hi,” “ it is the custom ” 
— with them a most insuperable reason why no change 
should be made, even for the better. Singularly con- 
trasted as are the Hindoo and the Mussulman, as 
though, from their mutual dislike, they had made it 
their mutual study to become as dissimilar as possible, 
there is no one distinction, perhaps, which divides 
these two races of men more remarkably than the fa- 
shion and arrangement of their respective habitations. 
The natives of Ghazipore affirm that close in the vi- 
cinity of this palace, there formerly stood a college for 
the instruction of the people in literature and science ; 
but that in consequence of the abuse of its pur- 
pose, and the practice of forbidden mysteries and 
Jaddoo, a peculiar system of witchcraft, it was de- 
stroyed by the Gods. There is no mention of this 
however in the Ayeen Akbari, the history of the 
times of Akbar, written by Abul Fazil ; nor do the 
inhabitants offer any evidence of its truth, beyond 
the vague words of tradition and the traces of foun- 
dations, which might certainly be those of a tern- 
