A Woman's Journey Round The World, From Vienna To Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, And Asia Minor By Ida Pfeiffer
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The Purse-Proud European, The Stuck-Up Baboo Or
Nabob, The Deposed Rajah, Are To Be Beheld Driving In Splendid
European Carriages, Followed By A Multitude Of Servants, In Oriental
Costume, Some Standing Behind Their Carriages, And Some Running
Before It.
The Rajahs and Nabobs are generally dressed in silk
robes embroidered with gold, over which are thrown the most costly
Indian shawls.
Ladies and gentlemen mounted upon English blood
horses gallop along the meadows, while crowds of natives are to be
seen laughing and joking on their way home, after the conclusion of
their day's work. Nor is the scene on the Hoogly less animated;
first-class East Indiamen are lying at anchor, unloading or being
cleaned out, while numberless small craft pass continually to and
fro.
I had been told that the population here suffered very much from
elephantiasis, and that numbers of poor wretches with horribly
swollen feet were to be seen at almost every turn. But this is not
true. I did not meet with as many cases of the kind during five
weeks here, as I did in one day in Rio Janeiro.
On one occasion I paid a visit to a rich Baboo. The property of the
family, consisting of three brothers, was reckoned at 150,000
pounds. The master of the house received me at the door, and
accompanied me to the reception-room. He was clad in a large dress
of white muslin, over which was wound a magnificent Indian shawl,
which extended from the hips to the feet, and made up for the
transparency of the muslin.
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