Groups Of Persians Are Seen Seated On The
Outside Smoking; The Beautiful Cats, Which They Have Brought Down
For Sale, Sporting At Their Feet.
A few yards farther on, the Arab
horse-dealers, in front of their stables, are equally conspicuous, and
it
Is easy to perceive, by the eager glances with which some of these
men survey the English carriages bearing fair freights of ladies
along, that they have never visited an European settlement before.
My former visit to India enabling me to observe the differences
between two of our presidencies, I was particularly struck, on my
arrival at Bombay, with the general use of chairs among the natives;
none but the very meanest description of houses seem to be entirely
destitute of an article of furniture scarcely known in the native
habitations of Bengal; and these seats seem to be preferred to
the more primitive method of squatting on the ground, which
still prevails, the number of chairs in each mansion being rather
circumscribed, excepting in the best houses, where they abound. Sofas
and divans, though seen, are not so common as in Egypt, and perhaps
the divan, properly speaking, is not very usual.
The cheapness of oil, and in all probability the example shown by the
Parsees, render lamps very abundant. The common kind of hall-lamp of
England, of different sizes and different colours, is the prevailing
article; these are supplied with a tumbler half-filled with water,
having a layer of oil upon the top, and two cotton-wicks.
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